Jimi Hendrix’s 1955 Gibson Les Paul Custom

Brand: Gibson

Model: Les Paul Custom

According to Larry Lee, this guitar was purchased by him and Jimi Hendrix in 1963 while they were playing in a band called Bob Fisher and the Bonnevilles. When Larry joined Gypsy Sun and the Rainbows in 1969, a week prior to Woodstock, Hendrix allegedly gave him the guitar, as Larry didn’t own an instrument at the time, having recently been discharged from the army.

This information comes from the EMP Museum (now the Museum of Pop Culture) in Seattle, the current owners of the guitar. It is assumed that the details were originally provided to the museum by Larry Lee, who sold the guitar through Sotheby’s in 1991.

Larry Lee playing the guitar at Woodstock. At this point, it had a white pickguard on it.

The Guitar’s Features

This 1955 Les Paul Custom is notable for having a Bigsby tailpiece and a replaced neck pickup. The original neck pickup on a ’55 Les Paul Custom, the Alnico V, features staple pole pieces. However, the pickup on Jimi’s (or Larry’s) guitar appears to be a P90, which was the same type of pickup fitted in the bridge position on these models. For photos, visit the thread on MyLesPaul forums: Jimi Hendrix’s 1955 Les Paul Custom

The Story Behind the Larry Lee/Hendrix Les Paul

There are some inconsistencies in Larry’s story that raise questions. The first issue is the claim that Hendrix kept the guitar for six years, from 1963 to 1969, without using it during any performances. Reports suggest that when Jimi traveled to the UK in 1966, he only brought one guitar with him, making it highly unlikely that this Les Paul Custom was stored somewhere, even in the U.S.

It’s also worth noting that Jimi did use a Les Paul Custom in early to mid-1968, but that guitar is not the same one. Besides having different specifications, the Les Paul is accounted for and is now displayed at the Hard Rock Cafe & Restaurant in Chicago.

While the latter part of Larry’s story, where Hendrix gave him the guitar to use with Gypsy Sun and the Rainbows, seems plausible, the earlier part of the tale doesn’t quite add up. Why would Hendrix keep this guitar after they allegedly purchased it together in 1963? And if he did, where was it during those six years? It seems unlikely that Hendrix, who struggled financially and sometimes pawned his guitars in the mid-1960s, would hold onto this Les Paul Custom without ever using it.