Dave Grohl’s Gibson Les Paul (Tobacco Burst)

Dave was seen playing this guitar in the early days of Foo Fighters, including on their first ever gig, played on February 19th, 1995 in downtown Seattle. According to Dave (see quote at the bottom of the page), he used this guitar to record the Foo Fighters’ first album, released in 1995.

He was also photographed with the guitar at The Fillmore in San Francisco, California on July 26, 1995, and in 1997 at the Pukkelpop Festival in Hasselt, Belgium. However, since Foo Fighters played a lot of gigs between 95 and 97, it’s very likely that Dave used the guitar extensively during that period, as one of his main ones. He probably rotated between a couple of different Les Pauls, SGs, and Explorers.

Dave’s Attempt at Customizing it

Around the mid-2000s, during a behind-the-scenes video of Studio 606, Dave showed the guitar as it was sitting in a case in the storage room. He explained that at some point he tried modifying it but gave up and the guitar remained unfinished.

Here’s a Les Paul that I decided I was gonna customize to look like a mash box racing car. This is the guitar that I recorded the first Foo Fighters album with, and I totally ruined it.

Dave Grohl

If you happen to know when exactly the above video was filmed, please be sure to leave a comment below.