SOLD! - 2011 Gibson Custom Shop Eric Clapton “Beano” 1960 Les Paul VOS Burst

Includes:
- original 1968 Beano comic book!!
- OHSC case with EC signature silk-screened
- COA Certificate Of Authenticity leather booklet
- Gibson Custom Shop vintage replica EC Strap
- Gibson Custom Shop cord
- Hangtags
- Warranty card
- CD of John Mayall Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton
 
"The Burst that changed the world forever"
Eric Clapton's original 1960 Les Paul Standard is legendary for not one, but several significant reasons. Clapton's playing on John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers' Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton album of 1966 (forever after known as "The Beano Album" because Clapton himself was reading a Beano comic book in the LP's cover photo) is seminal blues-rock: searing, dynamic and ferocious. While anonymous street artists famously scrawled "Clapton is God" on the walls and train stations of London, the virtuosic ex-Yardbird brought the mighty sunburst Les Paul roaring back to popular music. One listen to the creamy, yet biting snarl of Clapton's playing on tracks like "Hideaway," "Double Crossin' Time," or "Key to Love," and countless guitarists the world over were instantly turned on to the power of this rare, and previously under-appreciated, Gibson solidbody electric guitar. Virtually overnight, the single-cutaway Les Paul (deleted from the Gibson catalogue after 1960 and redesigned to the double-cutaway SG body shape) was a "must-have" for any serious guitarist who wanted to make their mark on music. leaving a lasting impact on the history of rock and blues. The sound of that guitar plugged into a cranked Marshall Bluesbreaker amplifier would leave a lasting effect on the sound of blues and rock for years to come.
 
That is the exalted side of the "Beano Burst" legend. The tragic side of the tale is that this groundbreaking instrument was stolen from the artist later in 1966, while Clapton was rehearsing with Cream for the band's first tour, and was never recovered. 
 
With close cooperation with Eric Clapton the Gibson Custom team set out to reproduce this iconic instrument in limited numbers as the Gibson Custom Eric Clapton 1960 Les Paul Standard. This would lead to its own challenges with no original instrument to analyse but through collaboration with Clapton, the examination of photographs of the original instrument and several prototypes the final 500 guitars were released with 350 guitars finished with Gibson's proprietary Vintage Original Spec (VOS) treatment, 95 guitars were hand aged by Gibsons In house finish specialist Tom Murphy with a final 55 not only aged by Tom Murphy but hand-signed by Clapton himself. 5 of these were kept by Eric himself.
 
This particular guitar is in excellent condition with just a few blemishes and marks. It has a very cool maple top with just the right amount of figuring and mineral streaks, very alive from different angles. The nitro Burst replicates the softened Cherry Sunburst finish of the original Beano Burst perfectly. The neck profile feels like a comfortable size ’59 neck, going towards '60. The one piece lightweight mahogany body joins the neck at a period correct angle of 4º with the desired long-tenon joint. The guitar holds tune well thanks in part to the nickel Grover Rotomatic tuners (a common mod) that Clapton added to his original and the nickel-plated ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic bridge and lightweight aluminium stopbar tailpiece. The guitar sounds so sweet with its 2 custom designed 'Custom Bucker' PAF Humbucker pickups that feature slightly mismatched coils wound with accurate turns of 42 AWG enamel-coated wire, just like original PAF's from the era, and are made with genuine Alnico III magnets. Into a cranked valve amp with (or without) a Rangemaster the classic “Bluesbreakers” sound is there instantly.