Gibson Guitar Introduces the Inspired By John Lennon Les Paul Jr.

by Staff.

Gibson Guitar's Custom Shop has introduced the latest addition to its Inspired By series of guitars, a Les Paul Junior created to reflect the modifications and aging of the instrument owned by John Lennon and played by him on August 30, 1972, at the Madison Square Garden concert to benefit the One to One Organization. In order to authentically recreate Lennon's LPJ, Gibson's Custom Shop received Yoko Ono's permission to conduct a complete hands-on review of the original, which is now on display at the John Lennon Museum in Tokyo. The result is a limited edition (300) Gibson Custom Shop instrument that reflects the several modifications that had been made to the original and that has been aged to look just like Lennon's LPJ. In addition to the guitar, the John Lennon Inspired By Les Paul Junior comes with a print on canvas of a portrait of Lennon by artist Allison Lefcort, and a Certificate of Authenticity and article by Andy Babiuk presented in a cover resembling the miliary-style jacket Lennon wore at the 1972 Madison Square Garden concert. The package has an MSRP of $7,527.

The article by Andy Babiuk, who is the author of the book Beatles Gear: All the Fab Four's Instruments, from Stage to Studio, is based on an interview he conducted with luthier Ron DeMarino in which DeMarino reveals that Lennon's LPJ was a 1950s Tobacco Sunburst model that Lennon had DeMarino strip to reveal the natural mahogany. Lennon also had DeMarino add what he referred to as a "humberdincker" pickup, Lennon's word for a humbucker. DeMarino installed a Charlie Christian pickup in the neck position, which required extensive routing and a major modification to the back of the guitar, added a toggle switch for pickup selection, and, later, replaced the wraparound tailpiece with a Gibson Tune-O-Matic bridge with a stop tailpiece and installed a new set of tuners and new tuning pegs in place of the original Kluson pegs.

Other Inspired By models from the Gibson Custom Shop include the Jimi Hendrix Psychedelic Flying V; Zakk Wylde Flying V Custom; Warren Haynes Model; Johnny R. Standard; Kiefer Sutherland KS-336; Elliot Easton SG; Roy Orbison ES-335; John Sykes Les Paul Custom; and, Peter Frampton Les Paul Special.

Gibson’s John Lennon Inspired By Les Paul specifications:
Model: John Lennon Les Paul
Pickups: P-90 Single Coil in the bridge position & Charlie Christian in the neck position
Hardware: Aged Chrome
Fingerboard: Rosewood
Scale: 24 ¾”
Nut Width: 1.689”
Nut: Corian
Bridge: Chrome ABR-1 with stopbar tailpiece (holes from original wrap tailpiece are plugged)
Neck Material: One-Piece Mahogany with Long Neck Tenon
Body Material: Solid Mahogany
Controls: Single volume, single tone, 3-way pickup switch
Color: Faded Cherry

Date Available: July 12th, 2007

Related Links
Gibson Guitar press release related to John Lennon Inpired By
Gibson Custom Shop John Lennon Inspired By Les Paul

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