Posted on 01/31/2015 7:56:45 AM PST by WhiskeyX
NEW YORK (Reuters) - One deep-pocketed bidder will get a chance to own a piece of rock and roll history when the iconic Les Paul guitar known as "Black Beauty" goes up for auction in New York next month.
The electric instrument, which is the original prototype for the Les Paul Custom guitars made the Gibson Guitar Company, will be sold by Guernsey's Auctions at the Arader Galleries on Feb. 19th.
No pre-auction estimate, or reserve price, has been put on the instrument. But some music experts believe it could exceed the record auction price of $965,000 paid in 2013 for the guitar owned and played by Bob Dylan at his first electric performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I owned a 1976 LPC, black, gold hardware, MAPLE fretboard. Bought it from Southworth for $900 in 1989, sold it for $900 in 1997. Often wondered whether I should have kept it... I suppose the answer is always “yes.”
Cool!
Thanks for the bullet points. Makes sense. thx
Bob Dylan sucks.
Thx for explination. All makes sense. The comment before yours seemed to echo much the same.
And The $$$ point explains alot too
I’D hate to total how many thousands I have invested in just keyboards and modules
thx
For a Les Paul, I agree with you on their weight.
I do have a Les Paul Studio thgough (much lighter).
I also like the feel of a Telecaster.
The shape of the back of a Strat sure makes it nice for sitting on the sofa to piddle around.
They are all great and all fun and millions of great records have been made with either. Why else would 60-year old designs be still around?
I still find the different approaches fascinating. Take a Telecaster...I mean, the design is so primitive, yet so brilliantly effective. LPs (of the original type) are hybrids of the “plank” construction with the set-neck tradition of Gibson. And yet, they are both pieces of wood, which vary from unit to unit and while it matters perhaps less on solid body guitars than acoustics, it’s very possible to have dead spots on a neck due to resonance-absorption that make two apparently identical guitars quite different. I used to obsess over guitars much more than I do now. I’m in a “get rid” of mode now. I have one cool bass I am trying to get $10K for and I think I will, after that, my vintage collection is gone.
Didn't even come close.
Sold for $335,500 to Jim Irsay, the owner of the Indianapolis Colts.
Owner of N.F.L.’s Colts Pays Six Figures for a Les Paul Six-String
Thanks for the update.
That is a great song and a cool period video. The recent Paul Rogers live version is pretty awesome:
https://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=9Tvp-aDRpag
I’ve heard that something similar has happened with classic cars from the 1950s.
“Much, much lighter than LP’s. I have owned many dozens of Les Pauls. After a night of playing, your shoulder usually hurts. I myself never really liked them.”
I had a mahogany body Warmouth strat. After a night of playing my shoulder felt like I’d been playing a Les Paul.
Last night, Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay paid $335,500 for a controversial guitar, Les Paul’s very own 1954 Les Paul Custom “Black Beauty.”
According to The New York Times, Irsay’s guitar curator, Christopher McKinney, placed the bid at the February 19 auction, which took place at Guernsey’s in New York City.
“I know there was a lot of negative talk from a few guys who were well respected but look, it’s an important guitar and I’m happy to have it as part of my collection,”
I just stopped into a small shop in Rockford IL where to my astonishment sat a pristine pair of Altec Lansing studio speakers. The owner bought them from the estate of Les Paul. He had the papers to prove it.
Asking price is $12,000. Plus freight.
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