Jimmy Page Number Two Les Paul Electric Guitar - Aged

Every musician knows that late '50s Sunburst Les Paul Standards are hard enough to come by as it is. Obtaining a pristine and exemplary '59 'Burst and modifying it for heightened performance and vastly expanded tonal options? Unheard of¦unless, of course, you're Jimmy Page. That's exactly what the legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist, perhaps the world's most iconic Les Paul player, did with his own '59 Les Paul Standard, and now”thanks to the extreme efforts of Gibson's Custom Shop and the intimate collaboration with Jimmy Page himself”the artist's hallowed "Number Two" Les Paul is available to guitarists, in the form of the Gibson Custom Shop Jimmy Page "Number Two" Les Paul. Produced in strictly limited numbers, with two levels of aging, this Gibson guitar captures the look, feel, sound, and versatility of one of the greatest artist-owned Les Paul guitars of all time, and it is likely to disappear from authorized Gibson dealers in record time.

The 1959 Gibson Les Paul guitar that has come to be known as "Number Two" was purchased by Jimmy Page in 1973 after trying for some time to acquire an exceptional second Gibson Les Paul. This was several years after having acquired his other legendary Les Paul”"Number One", a '59 'Burst with shaved-down neck profile and no serial number”a gift from Joe Walsh. "Number Two" was essentially all original when he acquired it though Jimmy did have some modifications done to the neck shape so that it would more nearly match the feel of his "Number One". The guitar neck is certainly slim, but not to such extremes as the now-ultra-slim neck on "Number One". It had a strong, beautiful sunburst finish with a red element that had faded to a dusky amber-brown, along with a clear serial number dating it to 1959. Page played this Les Paul frequently through his days with Led Zeppelin, and in the early '80s decided to make it an even more versatile electric guitar and "explore the full range of what the two humbuckers had to offer".

Page designed a switching system for coil splitting, series/parallel, and phase-reverse options for both pickups, and employed a skilled electronics technician to devise a working schematic and make his sonic vision a reality. The result comprised a push/pull pot on each of the Gibson Les Paul guitar's four standard controls, plus two push-button switches hidden beneath the pickguard, all mounted on a '59 Les Paul Standard that is otherwise a superb example of the breed, both in tone and playability.

The Gibson Custom Shop Jimmy Page "Number Two" Les Paul was recreated with intense, inch-by-inch examination of Page's original electric guitar, inside and out. The process of getting it right involved the production of a number of hand-built prototypes, each of which was checked and critiqued in detail by Page himself. Approval of the final iteration was only offered after the legendary artist had intricately examined and extensively played this last prototype in his London home”after which it was given the thumbs-up, worthy of being the template for the Gibson Custom Shop Jimmy Page "Number Two" Les Paul. Only 325 Jimmy Page guitars will be produced in total: 100 will be aged by vintage-reproduction master Tom Murphy; 25 more will be aged by Tom Murphy and signed by Jimmy Page; and 200 guitars will be finished to Gibson's VOS specs.

Body
Crafted from a uniquely figured two-piece Eastern maple top attached to a one-piece, solid, lightweight, genuine mahogany back, the Custom Shop "Number Two" Jimmy Page Les Paul follows the body lines and dimensions of the original '59 Les Paul Standard.

Neck and Headstock
The neck of the Custom Shop Jimmy Page "Number Two" Les Paul is constructed from one piece, quarter-sawn, lightweight mahogany for improved strength and resonance. The luthiers in the Gibson Custom Shop carefully match the grains and weights of the Jimmy Page guitars' bodies and necks to optimize tone and sustain.

Electronics
On this Gibson Custom Les Paul, each of the controls' potentiometers has been replaced with a push-pull pot for individual pickup switching functions, while two miniature push-pull DPDT switches have been mounted under the pickguard to provide additional universal switching functions.

Hardware
The Number Two Gibson Jimmy Page Les Paul is equipped with top”of-the-line hardware. From the Grover tuners to the stopbar tailpiece to the period-correct "antique bell" truss rod cover, it retains and replicates every bit of its predecessor's strength.