Peter Frampton Reunites With Missing Guitar 31 Years Later

Hollywood Reporter ^ | 4 Jan 2012 | Erin Carlson

[smokingfrog]

Peter Frampton and his favorite guitar are together again following a 31-year estrangement, the New York Times reports.

The singer, who played the Gibson Electric Guitar on his 1976 album Frampton Comes Alive!, assumed the instrument had been wrecked in 1980 when a cargo plane crashed in Caracas, Venezuela, en route to Frampton's concert in Panama. As it happened, the guitar was recovered -- and sold to a musician on the Caribbean island of Curacao.

“For 30 years, it didn’t exist – it went up in a puff of smoke as far as I was concerned,” Frampton told The Times in an interview.

Lo and behold, eons later, the 1954 Gibson Les Paul -- made of Honduran mahogany -- was back in Frampton's hands last month, following two years of talks with the Curacao musician who owned it, the Times said. Also involved in negotiations: the head of the island’s tourist board, a Dutch Frampton fanatic and a customs agent who moonlights as a guitar repairman.

[dayglored]

>> Am I the only one that listened to him before this LP when he fronted Frampton’s Camel?

Nope, I was a fan of Frampton's Camel and Humble Pie before that.

> I thought his best years were with Humble Pie. Their final concert at Long Beach Area in the 70's (help, I'm getting old) was fantastic. How did our ears survive those days.

Mine didn't. I've got deafening tinnitus. Drives me insane.

I've got a guitar of the same model, a 2000 Les Paul Custom Black Beauty Triple. Looks just like this, only in focus:

Sweetest working guitar in my collection. Also have early-60's SG and MelodyMaker, and some others... But the Black Beauty is the top of the heap.

[Hoosier-Daddy]

Hendrix was a guitarist, Zappa was a machine gunner. I liked his production and arrangements, but guitar wise he lacked Lot of style.

[Liberty Valance]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCc2jLQ-vDc
Frampton Comes Alive - Show Me The Way

[paythefiddler]

looks liked he ruined a fine vintage guitar by putting
on diMarzio replacement pick-ups. No class

I’ll take Lester or Chet anyday

Your black beauty looks wonderful, btw
I’ve had mine for about 10 years, and have never adjusted the neck once! Fine example of American craftsmanship
ATF will get mine over my dead body

[bk1000]

‘I think I recall the guitar that did the “singing” was one of the first-ever midi guitars, with on-board effects,made by Electra.’

Actually he used a Heil Talk Box and a normal Les Paul.

[paythefiddler]

ps- that Ovation in the picture is sooooo gay

[Yardstick]

What’s cool in that pic is he’s plugged into a little bitty Fender Champ amp.

[bmwcyle]

I watch him play that guitar at the Williamsport Capital Theater in 1974. I was three feet away.

[Scoutmaster]

that Ovation in the picture is sooooo gay

But in 1973 I just had to have one. They were quite popular for a while. Even Jim Croce dropped his Martin to play one from time to time. Melissa Etheridge still plays one.

Glen Campbell may spend time in one of Dante's Circles for popularizing them solely because the headstock shape made you say WTH even back in with the '68 Goodtime Hour.

@Liberty Valance: Thanks for the video. We're not as anonymous on FR as we think. I need to email you about the people who tracked me down and contacted me about the first Gibson raids and the proposed Cooper bill Lacey Act amendment.

[Scoutmaster]

Now if they find Donovan Leitch's Gibson J-45. The one he had with him in Rikishesh, India in 1968, when he taught John Lennon the fingerstyle and clawhammer techniques Lennon used in "Julia" and "Dear Prudence."

[paythefiddler]

I’ll forgive you on that one

[Scoutmaster]

I’ll forgive you on that one

I appreciate your compassion. I believe it went in trade toward an '88 natural J-200 from the Bozeman, Montana plant Gibson had recently purchased from Flatiron Mandolin.

[Buckeye Battle Cry]

“Frampton was just a pile of hair that could hold a pick.”

You should see him now. Bald as a cucumber. he lives near my Eastside Cincinnati neighborhood in Indian Hill. He does a lot of charitable work here in town. A genuinely good guy. Little known fact, his nighbor across the street from him his Neal Armstrong.

[dfwgator]

Considering how big Frampton became, it’s a wonder he emerged from it with his sanity intact.

Funny that now he and Peter Gabriel could be identical twins.