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When did Page First Use His Les Paul


pinky

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Good question. I'm not really sure. Page did play a LP with the Yardbirds - the Black Beauty Custom which has since been lost/stolen. But I'm assuming you mean the famous #1 guitar.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say maybe he didn't use it until the 2nd or 3rd tour of the US, so some time Early 1969?

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He used both for a while. Pictures from May 2, 1969 show him using both. Sometime in May '69 he switched to the Les Paul #1 as the primary guitar. The #2 Les Paul I believe shows up in 1975. As far as the red Les Paul, Cleveland 1970.08.26 is the earliest pic I have seen with that guitar.

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No, that is Petra Nemcova. My pic is in this thread:

http://forums.ledzeppelin.com//index.php?showtopic=5951

Holy crap dude!...you also look allot alike Dick The Bruiser without the blond hair...about the personality bit: you have always been one of the kindest posters on any forum...I guess I wouldn't want to "make you angry"....lol

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Better yet, anyone know where he got it?

Did he buy it at a music store, get it directly from the Gibson factory or did someone give it to him?

In fact it would be cool to know where he got his more "famous guitars" from.

According to this gear guide the 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard (No. 1) was purchased from Joe Walsh in April 1969 for £500.

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He said (in an interview CD from 1977) when he was doing sessions for Immidiete, they changed his guitar to Les Paul Custom after his first two days. That must be when he started, because he staid with it. I can't remember which guitar he had been using before that on sessions.

Edited by aen27
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You were playing acoustic guitar during your session period?

Yes, I had to do it on studio work. And you come to grips with it very quickly too, very quickly, because it's what is expected. There was a lot of busking [singing on street corners] in the earlier days, but as I say, I had to come to grips with it, and it was a good schooling.

You were using the Les Paul for those sessions?

The Gibson "Black Beauty" Les Paul Custom. I was one of the first people in England to have one, but I didn't know that then. I just saw it on the wall, had a go with it, and it was good. I traded a Gretsch Chet Atkins I'd had before for the Les Paul.

What kind of guitar were you using on the first Led Zeppelin album?

A Telecaster. I used the Les Paul with the Yardbirds on about two numbers and a Fender for the rest. You see the Les Paul Custom had a central setting, a kind of out-of-phase pickup sound which Jeff couldn't get on his Les Paul, so I used mine for that.

Was the Telecaster the one Beck gave to you?

Yes. There was work done on it, but only afterwards. I painted it; everyone painted their guitars in those days. And I had reflective plastic sheeting underneath the pickguard that gives off rainbow colors.

It sounds exactly like a Les Paul.

Yeah, well that's the amp and everything. You see, I could get a lot of tones out of the guitar that you normally couldn't. This confusion goes back to the early sessions again with the Les Paul. Those might not sound like a Les Paul, but that's what I used. It's just different amps, mic placings, and all different things. Also, if you just crank it up to distortion point so you can sustain notes, it's bound to sound like a Les Paul. I was using the Supro amp for the first album, and I still use it. The "Stairway to Heaven" solo was done when I pulled out the Telecaster, which I hadn't used for a long time, plugged it into the Supro, and away it went again. That's a different sound entirely from the rest of the first album. It was a good, versatile setup. I'm using a Leslie on the solo on "Good Times Bad Times". It was wired up for an organ thing then.

What year is the Les Paul you're using now (1977)?

1959. It's been rescraped [repainted], but that's all gone now because it chopped off. [Eagles guitarist] Joe Walsh got it for me.

Edited by SteveAJones
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  • 4 years later...

Plant introduces the final encore of the 4-26-69 Winterland Ballroom show as "a new song, featuring the new guitar and tambourine". The band then launches into the earliest-known performance of Whole Lotta Love, an incredible version of the song that is very different from all that would follow. This show also marks the earliest recorded appearance of the theremin, and Jimmy was enjoying it so much that he even used it (to jarring effect) in Dazed and Confused and Communication Breakdown! I know that the following night at Fillmore West is a better recording and I see that that the Fillmore show is very popular with people in this forum, but the 4-26 Winterland show has been my favorite live Zeppelin performance for over 25 years now. The 2nd U.S. tour is my favorite tour, and the 4-26 show was absolutely magical from beginning to end.

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Page first used a Les paul in 1965 during the session years however not the two

rare 58 and 59 your use to seeing per the zeppelin years. He's had 2 Black Beauties

during his career. Most of the Yardbirds were played with his Telecaster.

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