More than Fender, more than Paul Reed Smith, hell probably even more than Gibson itself, the most recognizable name is guitars is Les Paul. His is the most iconic guitar ever created. And its probably the most used guitar in recording history, although it would be difficult to verify that. Most any guitar player has owned one, played one, or dreamed of owning one since they first picked a note. And now, the original Les Paul, the very first Gibson Les Paul, owned and approved by Les himself, is going up for auction. IT will go under the hammer at Christie’s in New York on October 13, 2021.

This is a 1952 gold-top. Its being sold by Les Paul’s son Gene, and Tom Doyle, the guitar builder who worked with Les for 45 years. According to Gene, Les worked for almost 3 decades of guitar building experiments before he finally received this very first Gibson Les Paul. Which, doing the backwards math, means Les had been building guitars since the 1920′s!

Check out some pics of number 1, and Les holding it back in the day.

According to Christie’s the estimated final bid could be from $100,000 to $150,000. Personally that seems insanely low for the very first of its kind, especially considering that the most expensive guitars ever sold went for upwards of $1-2 million. Of course those were owned and played by the greats such as Hendrix, Cobain, Gilmour, and Richards.

You can read more about the guitar at guitar.com, and they will soon launch an in-depth piece they did with Gene and Tom about Les and his guitars. Plus they have a really cool close up of the neck pick-up where you can still see the guide lines Les drew when he rebuilt it and drilled the holes.

Check out some pics of Les and his guitars with just a few of the superstar players who rock the world’s most iconic guitar.

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