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For Sale: Les Paul #1

Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2021 5:45 am
by mickey
Going up for sale this week, wonder what it will bring?
The first prototype where Les told Gibson: Yeah, that's what I want.




Christies Auction Listing

Or if you don't like that, how about B.B. King's original "Lucille" ?

Lucille

Re: For Sale: Les Paul #1

Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2021 6:11 am
by toomanycats
So glad they rethought the placement of that output jack.

Re: For Sale: Les Paul #1

Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2021 1:02 pm
by BatUtilityBelt
toomanycats wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 6:11 am So glad they rethought the placement of that output jack.
I agree side-mount is the place for it. The one in the video had 2 jacks, I think it had one per pickup.

Re: For Sale: Les Paul #1

Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2021 2:23 pm
by mickey
BatUtilityBelt wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 1:02 pm
toomanycats wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 6:11 am So glad they rethought the placement of that output jack.
I agree side-mount is the place for it. The one in the video had 2 jacks, I think it had one per pickup.
Or they could be wired in parallel so Les could use either one & see which he preferred?

Re: For Sale: Les Paul #1

Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2021 7:54 pm
by Chocol8
mickey wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 5:45 am Or if you don't like that, how about B.B. King's original "Lucille" ?

Lucille #1
I am pretty sure the original Lucille was a pre-war acoustic guitar and it got the name after a bar fight/fire in the late 1940’s. That would have been well before there were any 355’s. Are they really selling that as the first Lucille?

Re: For Sale: Les Paul #1

Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2021 8:03 pm
by mickey
Chocol8 wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 7:54 pm
mickey wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 5:45 am Or if you don't like that, how about B.B. King's original "Lucille" ?

Lucille #1
I am pretty sure the original Lucille was a pre-war acoustic guitar and it got the name after a bar fight/fire in the late 1940’s. That would have been well before there were any 355’s. Are they really selling that as the first Lucille?
Your guess is as good as mine.

Re: For Sale: Les Paul #1

Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2021 11:35 pm
by Mossman
Chocol8 wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 7:54 pm
mickey wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 5:45 am Or if you don't like that, how about B.B. King's original "Lucille" ?

Lucille #1
I am pretty sure the original Lucille was a pre-war acoustic guitar and it got the name after a bar fight/fire in the late 1940’s. That would have been well before there were any 355’s. Are they really selling that as the first Lucille?
I was an L-3, and the auction house is not claiming it's the first "Lucille":

THE LEGEND OF “LUCILLE”
One of the first to kick off the trend among musicians for naming their favorite guitars, B.B. King was famously inseparable from “Lucille” for over 50 years, often joking that she was the only woman in his life. "The minute I stop singing orally," King once said, "I start to sing by playing Lucille." What sets “Lucille” apart from Eric Clapton’s ‘Blackie,’ for example, is that there isn’t just one “Lucille”, but a procession of guitars throughout his career, all of which were given the moniker. The legend of Lucille dates to the winter of 1949, when a young B.B. famously rushed into a burning dancehall in Twist, Arkansas, to rescue his guitar, at that time an inexpensive Gibson L-3 archtop, after two men knocked over a barrel of burning kerosene while brawling over a girl by the same name. Having similarly risked his own life, King determined to give his guitar the name “Lucille” as a reminder "never to do anything that foolish again."


They're not even claiming it's the first 355 he owned:

Photographs suggest that King acquired two top-of-the-line cherry red stereo ES-355s around the same period circa 1967, one with a standard Gibson Maestro vibrato and the other with a Bigsby vibrato. Along with its distinctive Bigsby tailpiece, the present guitar is easily distinguished from its counterpart by the Grover tuning machines rather than the standard Klusons, a black plastic surround under the toggle switch gromet, and the inversion of the neck pickup so that the poles are toward the bridge rather than the neck. When US journalist Michael Lydon accompanied King on tour in late 1968, he noted that "the present Lucille - a red Gibson with gold frets and mother-of-pearl inlay" - was Lucille number seven. One could therefore surmise that this guitar is probably Lucille number 6, 7 or 8, as it is certainly one of the first two cherry red ES-355s that B.B. was spotted with.

Re: For Sale: Les Paul #1

Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2021 4:25 am
by mickey
Ok. My bad. Sorry.

Re: For Sale: Les Paul #1

Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2021 12:18 pm
by mickey
The Les Paul guitar sold today for $930,000.00.

By the time you add in Christies fees the bottom line comes to almost $1,150,000.00.

Re: For Sale: Les Paul #1

Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2021 2:56 pm
by Chocol8
mickey wrote: Wed Oct 13, 2021 4:25 am Ok. My bad. Sorry.
Don’t worry, we will hold it against you forever! :D

Re: For Sale: Les Paul #1

Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2021 2:56 pm
by Chocol8
mickey wrote: Wed Oct 13, 2021 12:18 pm The Les Paul guitar sold today for $930,000.00.
Jim Irsay?

Re: For Sale: Les Paul #1

Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2021 6:41 pm
by BatUtilityBelt
mickey wrote: Wed Oct 13, 2021 12:18 pm The Les Paul guitar sold today for $930,000.00.
And it doesn't even have the robot tuners.

Re: For Sale: Les Paul #1

Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2021 7:46 pm
by mickey
Chocol8 wrote: Wed Oct 13, 2021 2:56 pm
mickey wrote: Wed Oct 13, 2021 12:18 pm The Les Paul guitar sold today for $930,000.00.
Jim Irsay?
Could have been Jeff Bezos for all I know?

Re: For Sale: Les Paul #1

Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2021 2:42 pm
by mickey
I disremembered to mention that "Lucille" only brought a measly $625,000.00.

Re: For Sale: Les Paul #1

Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2021 1:39 pm
by LightWingStudios
mickey wrote: Wed Oct 13, 2021 12:18 pm The Les Paul guitar sold today for $930,000.00.

By the time you add in Christies fees the bottom line comes to almost $1,150,000.00.
INCORRECT! It sold for $750K PLUS $180 in Fees.

Re: For Sale: Les Paul #1

Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2021 2:16 pm
by mickey
Did you buy it? :D