My guitar ...

Rockers share stories of their most prized possessions

Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 21, 2006 at midnight

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John Fogerty bought his blindly at a music store. Otis Taylor paid a high price for one while antique shopping. Jeff Beck got one in a boozy transaction. Jimmy Page was given two. We're talking about guitars, but not any guitars. These are instruments with stories behind them, not only about how they were found, but why they matter to the musicians. Just listen to some of the stories.

Led Zeppelin's Page owns two of the most legendary guitars in rock history - and he didn't pay for either one. He was given his 1958 Sunburst Gibson Les Paul by Joe Walsh in May 1969.

"It's on the bulk of the Led Zeppelin work," says Walsh, who gave it to Page because "he just wanted one.

"I found two in Ohio. This was before they were, like, $30,000. I had two, and on one the neck was a little small for me. He has smaller hands."

Ironically, Page hadn't had any luck getting his own Les Paul because of Led Zeppelin's success.

"Everybody wanted a huge amount of money back then to sell him - because he was him - a guitar," Walsh says. "I said 'Hey, Jim, why don't you just take mine? If you get used to it and like it, go ahead and run with it. If I need it back, I'll call you.' "

With that guitar now being among the most valuable in the world - the Stairway to Heaven solo was played on it - isn't it time to make that call?

"Well, he won't give it back," Walsh says, laughing. "That's the only problem. He won't give it back! Naw, that's his guitar and it makes me feel really good that it ended up in all that music."

In 1966 Beck gave Page the guitar that was used on the first Led Zeppelin recordings (the Walsh and Beck guitars can be seen in the band's DVD release from 2003). While fans have long thought Beck gave Page the rosewood 1959 Fender Telecaster as a thank-you for getting him in the Yardbirds, Beck says he gave it to him when he quit the band.

"I left the day I gave it to him. I walked out," Beck says. "I was in Dallas. I said 'Jim, I've had enough of this. You'd better have this guitar. I can't be bothered to take it home.' I just ran to the airport with my bag and went home."

"I wish I had kept that," Beck says now, though "in return he gave me a 1930 plastic Maccaferris (guitar), really rare, unused."

Some believe the quality of guitars declined for a period from the ones made in the '50s and '60s. "Those came from a time when the competition was pretty stiff and those companies were in their original form," says John Fogerty. "It was in the '70s that big corporations started buying up the music-instrument makers. Things got really bad for quite a few years.

"Now they're a lot better than even then. There are a lot of little guys making great guitars so the big boys have to pay attention. What we're living in is the golden age of guitar-making."

Paul Westerberg

Formerly of the Replacements

• The guitar: 1955 Les Paul Junior

• The story: "Jeez, I think I've broken every one that actually meant something to me. The latest one that's very nice was a gift from Johnny Rzeznik (Goo Goo Dolls), who gave me a 1965 (Gibson ES) 330 that he found in a shop in St. Paul and just sent it over to my house because he was in town . . . That's very cool. I do have my '55 Les Paul Junior that I'm smart enough not to take out of the house anymore. It's still in the closet. I've got a million-dollar guitar in the closet, then three steps closer is my first buck-fifty guitar. I play the first thing my hand grabs. I don't give a . . . really. It's in the fingers."

• His endorsed guitar, the First Act Paul Westerberg signature guitar: "The simple design I liked and I wanted them to make me a very clean, almost surf guitar. They told me they'd sell it for $159 or something like that. But it's funny now, you walk into Toys R Us and you'll see me on the guitar case. There should be a new wave of kids picking them up this Christmas."

I've got a million-dollar guitar in the closet, then three steps closer is my first buck- fifty guitar. I play the first thing my hand grabs. I don't give a . . . really. It's in the fingers."

Paul Westerberg

Jeff Beck

• The guitars: '54 Fender Telecaster and a '54 Stratocaster.

• The story: "The '54 Strat was intended for someone other than me. I found it in my road manager's room. He didn't tell me he'd gotten it for someone else so I grabbed it. I put the money he paid for it on his bed and ran out with it (laughs). I said 'What the guy doesn't see he doesn't grieve.' The Telecaster used to belong to (the late) Steve Marriott (of Humble Pie). He was playing in a studio near me and as the night went on he got a little bit soused with the drink. He said 'You can have that. You make a better noise with it than I do.' And I said, 'No, I'll leave it here and if it's still here when you're gone tomorrow I'll believe you want to give it to me.' I went to the studio the next day and it was still there."

Flea

Red Hot Chili Peppers

• The guitar: 1961 Fender Jazz bass

• The story: "I recorded most of the album (Stadium Arcadium) with it. It's a beautiful sounding, beautiful feeling bass. It's incredible. Someone gave it to me. I traded a Modulus bass I had for it, but the guy was going to give it to me. It's a very rare and very gorgeous bass."

• On the road: "I was having a hard time with that bass in a big room getting a clear sound, especially when I play fast. It became mushy live." So while on the road he plays the Modulus, the brand he endorses.

Robert Randolph

• The guitar: 2002 custom-made Fender Telecaster.

• The story: "I got a red sparkle Tele, I won't let that thing go. That thing's got the tone. I've had the thing for about four years now. I got it from the custom shop. Fender really wanted to make me a Tele. There's just something about it, man, I love that guitar."

Wayne Coyne

Flaming Lips

• The guitar: 12-string, mid-'70s Alvarez acoustic

• The story: "I've had a lot of favorite little instruments around. Because I'm not very precious about them, they get destroyed little by little. That was the very first guitar I ever bought. I think I got it in 1976. If I realized how hard it was to tune up an acoustic 12-string I never would have bought it. I was only able to get it in tune twice. It's the very first guitar I ever bought and I still play it, but I don't really play it as a guitar. I play it as a freaky noise instrument."

• His new, improved Alvarez: "You'll notice it only has five strings on it. The back is torn out and I put in the hole this DJ/theramin sort of thing that as you go to touch it it makes all these weird special effects."

Otis Taylor

• The guitar: Black 1963 Fender Stratocaster

• The story: The Boulder bluesman bought it from an "antique-dealer friend. He didn't want to sell it, so I paid him a lot of money. I said 'You cannot let me walk out of this house without this guitar.' It's just old and has a great swampy sound. It's a part of my sound; it has been on all my albums. Somebody did a really horrible refinish on it. I've started to keep it stored someplace. It's getting too valuable (to take on the road)."

Dweezil Zappa

• The guitar: Fender Stratocaster from Jimi Hendrix.

• The story: "Frank (Zappa, his father) is synonymous with playing a Gibson SG. He also had very unique electronics in all of his guitars. He was very ahead of his time. He's got two SGs that if the house was burning down I would definitely go get those. I have probably way too many guitars, 60 or 70 guitars. I would definitely take a handful of guitars out of a burning house - the two SGs of Frank's and also I have the Jimi Hendrix guitar that Frank received from Jimi after the Miami Pop Festival that they both played. It's a Stratocaster that's all burned up. I'd race out of there with four guitars."

Todd Park Mohr

Big Head Todd & the Monsters

• The guitar: 2005 RC Design Aspen

• The story: "This here is one of my faves . . . My name for (it) is 'Junior', though it is a new (2005) RC Designs "Aspen" model. It is a fully hollow-body approach with a 12-inch archtop. It distorts real nice but is very full and rich in tone. Kind of the best of vintage, a la 2005! Other favorites include a 1961 Stratocaster, a '58 Les Paul re-issue, and a stable of Benedict Groovemasters."

Joe Walsh

• The guitar: 1960 Gibson Les Paul

• The story: "I still have a '60 that, unfortunately, in this day and age I don't take out and travel with it. I just like a Gibson sunburst with standard pickups. I play Les Pauls in the James Gang because it's a thicker sound. It's a little more powerful. I find Fenders and Stratocasters to just be a little bit thinner (sound)."

John Fogerty

• The guitar: 1968 Les Paul Custom

• The story: "I still have the original Les Paul Custom that I played on I Heard It Through the Grapevine and Midnight Special. It's a D-tuned guitar, a special tuning down lower. That guitar is just magic. That one doesn't travel anymore; I only use it for recording."

• How he got it: He bought it with his first big Creedence Clearwater Revival money. "I didn't know much about guitars. I walked in and picked that off the wall and said, 'Yeah I'd like this one.' I didn't understand all that fine geeky stuff about the different scales, different lengths of the necks, that various manufacturers had."

On the block

Two guitars have fetched big bucks at auction block:

George Harrison's Fender Telecaster, used in the rooftop concert in the Let It Be movie, sold for $434,000 in 2003

Eric Clapton's main Fender Stratocaster (a composite of a '56 and '57) sold for $959,500 in 2004.

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