“Eric’s Les Paul gets stolen, and he knows I’ve got the other one. He starts calling me relentlessly. I charged him £200. It’s worth about two million now”: Andy Summers recalls selling Eric Clapton his Gibson Les Paul ‘Burst for a bargain price

The Police guitar player Andy Summers has actually exposed how, after having his precious Beano ‘Burst Les Paul taken in ’66, Eric Clapton “non-stop” asked for him to offer his own.

Both guitars were purchased from London’s Rose Morris music store, which is still open after over 90 years of instrument-slinging, however it was Clapton’s that rapidly ended up being the standout.

Speaking on Rick Beato’s YouTube channel, Summers discussed how Clapton had actually been influenced to get his own initial Gibson Les Paul with a sunburst surface after seeing Summers flaunting his.

“Eric was assisting American blues surface area in the UK– he was extremely purist about it,” Summers discusses in the video. “I strolled into The Flamingo one night and Eric was on phase with John Mayall preparing yourself for a set. He saw this gorgeous sunburst Les Paul I had and stated, ‘Where ‘d you get that?!’ Naively, I informed him and Eric went and got the other one.”

The instrument ended up being an important component in the success of John Mayall’s 1966 album Blues Breakersassisting influence a generation of prospective blues guitar players. Seen checking out a copy of the Beano on the record’s cover, it was quickly called the ‘Beano’ album, with Clapton’s Les Paul getting a comparable name.

Its residency in the hands of Clapton, nevertheless, was short-term as it was drawn from a church hall practice space later on that year. That spelled problem for Summers.

“I had actually moved over to a ’58 White Telecaster,” he describes. “I liked it more than the Les Paul for some factor, so it remained in a case under my bed, however he understood I had it. He kept calling me. ‘I do not wish to offer it. I do not wish to offer it.’ I felt a little bit strange about it due to the fact that it appeared like the back pickup didn’t work. None people understood shit about electronic devices; a guy might have simply repaired it in one tweak.

“I kept withstanding it,” he continues. “And I didn’t feel excellent about it, however ultimately I consented to offer it. He called me many times; he simply actually desired it.

“I charged him 200 pounds for it,” he goes on to expose. “It’s worth about 2 million now. Who understood?”

Even with the Clapton association, Summers might be overstating the guitar’s worth a little bit, however we’ll forgive the poetic license. Current ‘Bursts– consisting of the beautiful ‘Miss Swiss’ and Kirk Hammett’s flame-tastic Sunny — have actually been noted for $450,000-$500,000. Clapton guitars do choose huge cash– the ‘Fool’ Gibson SG cost $1.27 million simply last month — however this specific Les Paul does not have rather the very same family tree.

That stated, in his chat with Beato, Summers goes on to state how, after getting the cash from Clapton’s supervisor, he hand-delivered the guitar to Advision Studios. There, Clapton was tape-recording Cream’s launching album, Fresh Creamwith Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. The guitar was utilized throughout the album and the double A-Side, I Feel Freewhich followed.

Its tradition too was cut brief. In early ’67, Clapton’s 2nd ‘Burst suffered a head-break (see the image below– thanks for the area, GroundGuitarand it didn’t get the most fragile of repair work, which led him to move over to an SG Standard rather.

Today, it’s part of dealership Drew Berlin’s comprehensive vintage guitar collection and includes a mandolin-style Gibson headstock. ‘Eric Clapton’ is engraved where the initial headstock would have been.

A 3rd ‘Burst, this time a ’58 design, did periodically see some usage on Cream’s goodbye trip the list below year. It was quickly left in the hands of Free’s Paul Kossoff after Clapton– then in Blind Faith– supported the band in the summertime of ’69.

The location of Clapton’s initial Beano ‘Burst stays a secret to this dayand yet, in the brief time Clapton utilized it, it left an effective tradition.

A young Texan called Billy Gibbons– who would later on form ZZ Top, for any not-so-sharply dressed readers– was simply among lots of enamored by Clapton’s coupling with the Les Paul.

“The noise was so intense therefore appealing,” Gibbons showed throughout a discussion with Guitar player

“The appeal drew everybody’s interest to try to suss out where this noise was originating from. The photo of Eric on the back cover was a hint. We stated, ‘Ah, search in the background, there’s a Marshall, however it’s not huge, and ah, take a look at that. They do not make those anymore– however it is among those Les Pauls!'”

Both the Beano ‘Burst and Summers’ Les Paul have something of a mythic quality to them today, having actually become part of the legendary minimal run of Gibson ‘Burst designs, produced in between 1958 and 1960. They were changed by a brand-new double-cutaway design and by the mid-’60s the ‘Bursts were considered the “old design”.

Summertimes’ current chat with Rick Beato was an anecdote goldmine as the 80-year-old talked through his extensive 60-year-career. Among the stories spun, Summers reviewed an unscripted jam he had with Jimi Hendrix and Mitch Mitchell.

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An independent author with a fondness for music that gets strange, Phil is a routine factor to Prog Guitar Worldand Overall Guitar publications and is specifically crazy about shining a light on unidentified artists. Beyond the journalism world, you can discover him composing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Diagnosisin which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a range of tunings. He’s likewise a released author and is presently penning his launching book which chucks dream, folklore and humankind into a huge melting pot.