Page 63 - Guitar Classics Magazine - The Les Paul Bible 2019

STAR GUITARS

ollector Matthieu Lucas has treated us to it and we figured it out. It’s a ’55 Black Beauty ABOVE Free legend Paul
a close-up look at some spectacular guitars bought by Paul Kossoff’s father in the USA and Kossoff owned this guitar in
in these pages already. Yet if the ’59 on he brought it back to his son in London. early band Black Cat Bones
C page 8 wasn’t impressive enough, the next “There are pictures of Kossoff with short hair, 15 and he left his mark on
stickers left in the cavities;
instrument to be removed from its case and placed or 16 years old, playing that guitar,” Matt continues.
Eric Clapton also used the
gently on the tiled floor of Matt’s 17th-century home “He was playing it with Black Cat Bones before Free. guitar for a time
for our perusal was owned by a teenage Paul Kossoff He was trading a lot with Eric Clapton and you can
prior to Free, and quite possibly traded with Eric see a picture of Clapton with that very same guitar
Clapton and played onstage with Cream in 1967. in 1967 in Cream. The guitar initially came from Eric
Kossoff apparently scraped the yellowed lacquer off Clapton’s tour manager.”
the binding of the then-10-year-old guitar to restore It’s a guitar with the blues in its DNA and a very
it to its original white appearance and blacked out the special one for Matt. “I’m a huge Paul Kossoff fan,”
‘Les Paul Custom’ legend on the truss-rod cover. He he says. “When I discovered his music, I understood
also wrote his name on stickers that he stuck to the the genetic link between BB King, Paul Kossoff and
underside of the control and switch cavity plates. Angus Young, with that vibrato. That was really
“When we started doing business, we tried that important for me; after five years thinking I could
guitar maybe like five years ago,” remembers Matt. never buy the guitar, I’m very happy to own it.”
“We went to see the guitar, but we didn’t have the
money. Then last December, another guy was selling To see more of Matt’s guitars, visit mattsguitar.shop

THE LES PAUL BIBLE 63