Eric Clapton’s 1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard

This guitar was first seen at the Ahoy, Rotterdam, Netherlands, on April 23rd, 1983. It was seen again in 1985, on a photo of a collection of Clapton’s tour guitar taken backstage at Yoyogi Olympic Pool, Tokyo [Eric Clapton’s guitars – GettyImages]. and at The Prince’s Trust Rock Gala in 1987 (thanks George).

The guitar is most likely a vintage 1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard, which Eric apparently liked because the neck shape reminded him of the Beano Burst (see comments).

Specs

Based on the photos, it appears that at least in the 1980s the guitar was almost in a brand new shape. We see a bright red finish on the outer part of the sunburst, which is as known as”tomato soup” burst in the guitar circles. This is reminiscent of the models made in the latter part of 1960, because before that, Gibson used a different type of finish that would fade very quickly, and go from red to orange, and even yellow in some cases.

We also see barrel knobs, which according to GuitarHQ replaced the reflector knobs on models made approximately after serial number 0 7000.

All this basically confirms that the guitar was indeed a 1960s model, made in the latter part of that year.