Rock guitarist Leslie West's lower leg amputated.

Reuters ^ | 06/20/2011 | Reporting by Dean Goodman

[SuziQ]

Does he live in MS?

[BluesDuke]

Nice guitar there. Looks like a derivative of the Fender Jaguar, which kind of saddens me, since I despise Fender guitars but I love their amplifiers. (Especially the Twin Reverb I’m using now . . .)

[BluesDuke]

Nice Les Paul there, too!

(Name me one non-sinister Explorer . . . ;) )

[xsmommy]

Why Dontcha? Wasn’t that one ? I think I had this album.

[Revolting cat!]

Well, Jethro Tull played standing on one leg, Leslie can too!

(And he plays real rock on a gittah, not an imitation on a flute! Rock on FLUTE?!

[xsmommy]

Fancy running into you here, you old coot ; )

[dainbramaged]

Hey Babe - long time, huh? :>)

[moehoward]

This is collecting dust in my office.

[xsmommy]

Years! Where you been hiding?

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

Look for an old live Mountain album - “The Road Goes Ever On” - some really good guitar work.

[BraveMan]

Nantucket Sleighride got some airplay.

[Liberty Valance]

Sorry to hear this. West definitely rocked and i hope he keeps on rockin’.

[Yardstick]

Thanks — that’s a mid ‘90s Ibanez Talman, a model that hit the market in the early grunge period as kind of a reaction to the pointy headstock style that had dominated for the previous decade. It originally had a humbucker and two lipsticks but I redid it with P90s (Lindy Fralins) and a tele 3-way switch. Crazy as it sounds, it’s probably my best playing guitar, and that’s with stiff competition from the LP and a nice 60s reissue strat. Main amp nowadays is a silverface Bassman through a 2x12 cab with Celestion greenbacks. It’s nice to have decent gear after a couple decades scraping by with whatever I could scrounge together.

Your LP appears to be a Historic reissue of some kind and the finish is just beautiful. That’s an Iced Tea burst, isn’t it?

[Yardstick]

Hello Kitty -- no irony there....lol

I'll bet that guitar will be collectible some day.

[Whitebread]

Here is a nice video of Leslie playing solo at a local NJ club, about one year ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlWEcI6TwMU

[dainbramaged]

Many years in Alaska, returned to my stomping grounds in ‘06.
(Southern reaches of Puget Sound) How about you?

[Poser]

I'll see you Les Paul and raise it with my '68 Custom

[BattleFlag]

Wow, just did the math and it was 38 years ago I saw Mountain at the Greensboro Coliseum. What I remember most is that when they started playing it was like they were in high gear, no lead in, no slow opening building to a metal crescendo, wide open from the first note.

I don't even remember the song...

And while I'm sure Mr. West has a collection of guitars like most well known players do, that night, and most other times I've seen photos of him it was the Flying V he held.

Get Well Soon Mr. West.

[Yardstick]

Whoa — very cool. Was it originally a sunburst or was it refinished at some point? For some reason I’m thinking those were only available in black or white in ‘68. And is that a stock pickup with the cover removed or is it a Dimarzio or something?

[BattleFlag]

Since we're showin off...



My grandfather the preacher bought it new in the early 30s, it's either an L-0 or L-1. Haven't been able to find an expert who can say with certainty. If it were all original it would be worth $3,000-3,500 but the original hardware didn't age well so I put the gold Grovers on it around 1977.
This one isn't a hot rod by any means..but the Strats and the Melody Maker were most definitely.