in the late '90s, i was in a band looking for a singer. the guitar player played a 1971 gibson les paul black beauty, and it amazed me how many people
A) judged our band serious because our guitar player played a les paul
B) asked "is that a REAL les paul?" breathlessly like they were asking if it was some religious antiquity or the dead sea scrolls
C) upon being told that it was, indeed, a real les paul, asked "can i touch it?"
really? can you touch someone else's guitar that feels pretty much like touching any wood with lacquer on it??? yet at least 20 people - probably more - asked if it was a real les paul and then asked to touch it. how weird is that?
as for how serious our band was, well, i'm not sure the guitar player having a les paul gave the drummer and i cred. and no one ever asked to touch our instruments, so i guess if the guitar player is okay, he passes his mantle of musical cred upon the rest of us
It's nuts, isn't it? In the late '80s I was playing guitar with a band that covered a lot of what I call "white guy r&b" like John Hiatt, Delbert McClinton. I had two guitars: A Strat and a '76 Les Paul Custom with an unusual raw maple finish and gold fittings (tuners, bridge, pup covers). Whenever the LP came out, people would ooh and aah like I had the Crown Jewels. You have to remember, they really were the schiznits in the late '60s--Clapton, Beck, Page, Mike Bloomfield--they all played one. Mine was stolen three years ago. I hadn't touched it in ages, I was sorry to lose it mainly because I'd been thinking about selling it.
