The story of Jimmy Page’s Led Zeppelin Les Pauls: four guitars that shaped Led Zeppelin
There are few images in rock and roll more iconic than Jimmy Page playing a Gibson Les Paul during the heyday of Led Zeppelin. Page and his Les Pauls continue to inspire generations of musicians to this very day – but what do we know about the actual instruments that Page used to shape the course of rock history? It turns out there were four primary Les Pauls that had a meaningful and lasting impact on the sound of Led Zeppelin, and this is their story…
READ MORE: The Gear Used by Jimmy Page on Led Zeppelin II
“Number One”
Jimmy Page got his famous Number One Les Paul from Joe Walsh in early 1969, and it was put to immediate use in May of that year to record Led Zeppelin II. The guitar quickly became his favourite instrument, replacing his Dragon Telecaster, which he had been using predominantly up until that point. When Page started acquiring backups for that guitar, he dubbed it his “Number One”.
Number One began its life as a Sunburst 1959 Les Paul Standard. Today, this is considered perhaps the most expensive and desirable vintage guitar for collectors. This is in no small part because they were used to stunning effect by guys like Page, Billy Gibbons, Eric Clapton, Joe Walsh, Keith Richards, and Rick Nielsen – but it’s not the only reason.
The ’59 Burst models are also holy grails because they were quite rare, with less than 2,000 ever having been made before they were discontinued – it was only later on that players like Page realised that these were also tremendous instruments that possessed rare sonic qualities. These factors combined mean that you’re looking at about a quarter of a million dollars for a Burst at the low end of the spectrum.
Jimmy Page’s “Number One” Les Paul. Image: Nigel Osbourne/Redferns via Getty Images
Page didn’t pay anything like that for his, of course. There is some discrepancy regarding how much was paid for the guitar. It was likely $500 plus travel expenses, as Joe Walsh flew it to Page himself – Walsh estimates it probably cost Page about $1,200 in total – equivalent to over $10,000 today. A lot of money for a guitar that wasn’t even all-original…
Walsh had the neck of the guitar shaved down and then refinished by Virgil Lay of Lay’s Guitars in Akron, Ohio. Page has theorized that the reason he wanted to sell it was because it didn’t feel the same when he got it back. After Page acquired it, the guitar went through modifications such as the addition of sealed Grover tuners, which he had become more accustomed to on his Les Paul Custom. As of 2003, it had a push/pull pot that would reverse the polarity of the neck pickup – essentially a Peter Green mod.
The pickups in the Number One have been changed out several times over the years. Shortly after purchasing the guitar, Page uncovered the bridge pickup, exposing the white bobbins beneath. It would have started out with the legendary Seth Lover patent applied for (PAF) humbuckers. In 1972, the double white bobbin bridge pickup failed, and was replaced by a chrome T-Top humbucker which remained there for the duration of his days in Led Zeppelin. The T-Top would subsequently be swapped out for a custom-wound Seymour Duncan pickup sometime in the 1990s. The neck pickup remained stock until the 2000s when it was replaced with a PAF humbucker from 1960.
Jimmy Page’s “Number Two” Les Paul. Image: Nigel Osbourne/Redferns via Getty Images
“Number Two”
Page got another 1959 Les Paul Standard Burst as a backup to his Number One. This one was pretty much identical to his Number One and he would often have the pickup covers. He even had the neck shaved to replicate the profile of his Number One. This guitar was often kept in the Kashmir tuning (DADGAD) after Physical Graffiti came out in 1975. In 1980, Number Two was also equipped with the modification to put the pickups in series or parallel. It is unclear if Number One or Number Two got this mod first.
Jimmy Page performing with Led Zeppelin during the 1977 US tour and playing his “Number Three” Les Paul. Image: Richard E. Aaron/Redferns via Getty Images
“Number Three”
Jimmy Page’s “Number Three” Les Paul started its life as a late-1969 Goldtop that had been re-painted red. While most Goldtops of that era came stock with mini-humbuckers or P-90s, Page’s was fitted with full-sized humbuckers. It is commonly believed that Page got this guitar in 1970 as a replacement for his Black Beauty which had been stolen after a show in Minnesota (more on that soon). He was first seen playing the guitar on stage in 1970 shortly after his Black Beauty went missing. It remained in the rotation until he got his Number Two Les Paul, at which time Number Three seemed to become a husk to experiment with in Page’s latter years.
The bodies on the Les Pauls back then were known as “pancake bodies”, which refers to the use of several slabs of mahogany and maple that were sandwiched together to comprise the body. Some people call this a hippie sandwich. The back of the body had a considerable amount of wood routed out to make room for a B-Bender, which was added sometime around the mid-80s, by Gene Parsons.
A B-Bender was a mechanism invented by Parsons and Clarence White in 1968 that allowed a musician to bend one single note (most commonly, the B string). The bridge of the guitar was modified and bending the note was usually achieved by wiggling a lever – traditionally, that lever was connected to where the forward guitar strap button was, turning the guitar strap into a functional part of the guitar’s machinery. To bend a B note, a player would simply pull down on the guitar slightly.
The resulting sound was much akin to the sound of a pedal steel guitar – primarily heard in country western music, but in the hands of Page, it found a new audience in the world of rock ’n’ roll. However, Page wouldn’t have the B-Bender installed until sometime in the mid-1980s, long after the days of Led Zeppelin. According to Parsons, even though Page liked the system, he thought that removing large portions of wood negatively impacted the sound of the guitar. Still, he continued using the guitar occasionally, even as recently as during the O2 performance in London in 2007.
“Black Beauty”
Page had one other famous Les Paul during his Les Paul era, a 1960 Les Paul Custom Black Beauty with three humbucking pickups that he bought in 1962 when he was only 18 years old. He used it for his studio work at the time and through the early years of Led Zeppelin until 1970 when a baggage attendant stole it at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport while the band was on tour. That guitar would ultimately be returned to Page nearly 45 years later in 2014 and Black Beauty remains in Page’s possession today.
These four guitars combined to change the shape of rock music forever, and played a huge part in making the Les Paul the most iconic hard rock guitar of them all.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
