Page 11 - Guitar Classics Magazine - The Les Paul Bible 2019

STAR GUITARS

here aren’t too many 25-year-olds who can down at the tail end that gave the guitar its nickname. ABOVE Spot’s rare
tell you what it’s like to buy a 1959 Les Paul Although Spot has changed hands several times, in double-white PAFs contribute
from Joe Bonamassa, or pull guitars out of recent years it’s been one of Joe Bonamassa’s go-to to a sound that owner
Matthieu Lucas believes
T their collection that were formerly owned Les Pauls. When Bonamassa put the guitar up for sale
gave Joe Bonamassa “that
by Jimi Hendrix, Paul Kossoff and Jeff Buckley. through Rumble Seat Music in Nashville – the city in
special thing that he didn’t
But Frenchman Matthieu Lucas isn’t your average which he was in the process of buying a second home get on another electric guitar”
25-year-old – in fact he might be the owner of – Matt took the opportunity to buy a guitar that he’d
one of the most impressive and star-studded guitar long lusted after.
collections in Europe. “It was a guitar that I always loved,” he remembers.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that an inheritance “Even when I didn’t know anything about Bursts
or lottery win can be the only explanation for et cetera, when I was zero-scoring with Bursts and
someone so young being in possession of a treasure I hadn’t played one, I called this guitar the double-
trove of gear, but Matt simply traded his way up. white guitar. I always loved the sound of this
A few years back, Matt took the money he’d saved guitar, especially at the Borderline show [filmed for
waiting tables to buy an old Jazzmaster – little did he Bonamassa’s 2013 Tour De Force DVD], because
know that the guitar in question was an extremely Joe had a massive and woody sound. When Joe was
rare Jazzmaster prototype. He sold that guitar for a playing Spot, he had that special thing that he didn’t
lot more than he paid for it and ever since, he’s been get, in my opinion, on another electric guitar. Even
buying and trading on the way to establishing an with [his other Les Pauls] Skinner or Snakebite.
impressive stable of classic guitars now on display The neck pickup of Spot is really special.”
in his Paris showroom. When a guitar of this stature comes onto the
Perhaps the jewel of Matt’s glittering collection is market, prospective buyers have to move fast. “When
‘Spot’, the Gibson Les Paul Standard serial number Joe decided to sell it, I saw the news and we texted
9-1688 with distinctive double-white PAFs, an each other,” Matt recalls. “I texted the guy who was
incredible top and the unfaded dark patch of finish managing the sale at Rumble Seat Music. The day Joe

THE LES PAUL BIBLE 11