Dave Grohl’s Gibson Les Paul Custom (Alpine White)

This is one of the guitars that Dave used in the early days of Foo Fighters, from around 1995 to 1997. It was seen in numerous concerts, including at the Virgin Megastore, New York, 1996, Phoenix Festival in 1996, and the Bizarre Festival in 1997 – just to name a few.

Specs

Based on the appearances, the guitar is a Gibson Les Paul Custom. This can be deducted from the large block fretboard inlays and the split diamond headstock inlay, which are features of an LP Custom.

As per the year of manufacture, there are websites claiming that the guitar is 1991, but as usual, they don’t share any sources. It could be a 90s model, but there were also guitars like those produced in the 70s. If you happen to be an LP Custom specialist and can figure out the date from the photo above, be sure to leave a comment.

Used by Chris Shiflett?

A guitar that looks exactly like Dave’s white LP Custom was used by Chris Shiflett during the Foo Fighters 2000 Reading Festival gig – and continues being used to this day. However, in a number of interviews, Chris stated that Dave bought him that Les Paul after he joined the band.

So, since there’s a potential here to confuse these two guitars as one, it’s important to point out that they are actually two different guitars. Dave probably still has his old one sitting somewhere in storage.

The first Foos stuff I recorded I was still using a 1982 Les Paul that I got for my 15th birthday quite a lot, and when I joined the band Dave bought me a couple of guitars: a ’91 white Les Paul Custom that I used all through those years and still use a lot

It’s like your grandparents when they get too old to get divorced!” Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett on 25 years of Foo Fighters | Guitar.com

I remember at the first rehearsal we had Dave said how many guitars do you have. I was like, well, I have two but one of them’s got a broken headstock so I really had like one functional guitar at that point.

He just kind of chuckled and he was like – well, we got to get you a couple more guitars. So the next morning before rehearsal I went with him to a bunch of guitar shops out up on Sunset Boulevard here in L.A. We went to whatever the one around the corner was, and he bought me two guitars and this was one of them.

Chris Shiflett – Premier Guitar Rig Rundown