Billie Joe Armstrong’s Gibson Les Paul Special DC (White, Skull)
This Gibson Les Paul Special double-cutaway was one of Billie Joe Armstrong’s main touring guitars during 2010, but according to his tech, it had been with them since 2005. The guitar was part of a long back-and-forth with Gibson, as Billie and his tech spent nearly two years working on prototypes to recreate a Les Paul Junior the way it was built back in the 1950s.
The result was this white double-cut Special, fitted with a tortoise pickguard and a skull design spray-painted just behind the bridge. It had a single P-90 pickup in the bridge position and retained the stripped-down controls Billie prefers.
Billie used the guitar extensively on stage during the 21st Century Breakdown tour. In the 2017 Green Day Reverb auction, it was revealed that this guitar was essentially a prototype for what would later become the 2012 Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior production model.
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