For Sale: Les Paul #1

[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

[toomanycats]

So glad they rethought the placement of that output jack.

[BatUtilityBelt]

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.

[mickey]

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?

[Chocol8]

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?

[mickey]

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.

[Mossman]

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.

[mickey]

Ok. My bad. Sorry.

[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.

[Chocol8]

Ok. My bad. Sorry.

Don’t worry, we will hold it against you forever!

[Chocol8]

The Les Paul guitar sold today for $930,000.00.

Jim Irsay?

[BatUtilityBelt]

The Les Paul guitar sold today for $930,000.00.

And it doesn't even have the robot tuners.

[mickey]

The Les Paul guitar sold today for $930,000.00.

Jim Irsay?

Could have been Jeff Bezos for all I know?

[mickey]

I disremembered to mention that "Lucille" only brought a measly $625,000.00.

[LightWingStudios]

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.

[mickey]

Did you buy it?