Gary Moore’s Gibson Signature Les Paul
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This is the first official Gary Moore signature model issued by Gibson. It was released in 2000 and produced until 2002. Gary himself used it often alongside his vintage Les Pauls.
The guitar was mostly based on a ’59 Standard, although it did feature some very noticeable differences. The body was finished in amber burst and the neck featured the same profile as a ’59, but the guitar had no binding on the body nor on the neck. It was also equipped with a pair of then newly developed BurstBucker pickups, although Gary’s main guitar which was actually a prototype, featured a pair of Tom Holmes pickups instead.
I use Tom Holmes pickups sometimes. On one of my signature Les Paul models, I’ve played around with different ones. Some new pickups are really good. I mean, if you can’t get a good sound today, I think there’s something really wrong with you!
Gary Moore Still Got the Blues – Again!
Based on the quote above, Gary possibly used a few of these guitars from 2001 onward, but almost every gig around that period seems to feature the prototype model with Holmes pickups. That guitar is easily identifiable since it’s the only of the bunch to feature pickup covers (stock models came with exposed zebra in the neck).
It is of course possible that Gary requested that his personal guitars had chrome pickup cover, but by looking through videos and photos of the guitar that Gary played from 2001, it all seems to be one same guitar. There’s a very distinguishable dark patch on the lower horn of the body where the flames on the wood appear to be less accented, and it is unlikely that two guitars had this same unique feature.
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The guitar shown with the more solid red cutaway appears to be the “Greeny/Moore” Les Paul, designated by the neck pickup turned around…Moore was given the guitar by Peter Green when Moore was coming up in the ranks. He later paid Green for it.
Not sure which guitar you’re referring to, but none of the images here show the “Greeny”. Note the lack of body binding on these guitars, which would certainly be there on a 59 Les Paul.
Also, from what I heard, Gary did not buy the guitar from Peter. He traded an old SG for it.
Thanks for all of your research on Gary’s guitars. I’m curious to know what pickups he used in his signature model LP on the “Tribute to Phil Lynette” dvd. It is clearly not the uncovered pups that were stock in his “signature” LP. As you probably noticed the pole pieces on the neck pup are reversed (closer to bridge than neck and also they are covered pups.