Billie Joe Armstrong’s 2012 Gibson BJA Les Paul Junior Doublecut

This guitar was the first Les Paul Junior that Gibson ever built specifically for Billie Joe Armstrong. It appears that the prototype was completed sometime in early 2012 and would go on to form the basis for a short-lived production model, made between 2012 and 2013. The guitar had a double-cutaway Junior body finished in glossy TV Yellow, with a mahogany body and neck, and a brown granadillo fingerboard – a dense Central American hardwood that Gibson was using at the time in place of rosewood.

The guitar became widely known after the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas in September 2012. During the band’s set, Billie stopped the show over a time dispute, shouted “one minute left???”, and smashed the guitar on stage. The instrument was not lost – his guitar tech repaired it shortly afterward, and it continued to appear in his live rig.

Specs

In terms of unique details, the guitar had a black pickguard with an inlaid Adeline skull logo – the same design Billie has tattooed on his hand. It was fitted with a Gibson H-90 pickup made specifically for him, designed to keep the bite of a P-90 while reducing hum.

The production version of this guitar was built in limited numbers and only for a single year, which has made it relatively scarce on the used market. When examples do appear, they usually sell in the $3,000 to $5,000 range, depending on condition.