Johnny Marr’s 1980 Gibson Les Paul Standard (Black)

Johnny got his first “proper” electric guitar with the money he earned from appearing on Devil’s Advocate, a late 1970s UK TV show. The program featured 99 teenagers discussing social issues like unemployment. Although Johnny was seated in the front row, he kept his comments brief due to nerves and the unusual experience of being on TV at just 16 years old.

He bought the guitar secondhand at the A1 Repairs shop in Manchester, the same place where he would later buy his famous red Les Paul.

There was also another reason for his silence: the teenagers on the show were supposed to be unemployed, but Johnny actually had a job working at a clothes shop called Aladdin’s Cave. The shop owner, hoping for some free promotion, made a deal with Johnny. For every appearance on the show, he got to wear a new suit from the store and was paid £20 on top of that.

They put me on the front row and I sat there in a Johnson’s suit that only rock stars could pull off, or indeed afford, until they realised that I wasn’t contributing very much. On the two occasions when I did, I mumbled and looked very nervous, like I wanted the camera to go away.

With the money I’d made from the TV show and working at the shop I was able to buy a second-hand black Gibson Les Paul, which was the first proper classic guitar I owned. I’d spend most nights playing it in my bedroom and working on ideas for songs. I’d sit on the floor with my guitar and record ideas on to a cassette while Angie lounged on the bed, flicking through magazines and looking at record covers.

Johnny Marr – Set the Boy Free: The Autobiography

Angie was, of course, Johnny’s girlfriend at the time, whom she met when he was 15, and she was 14 years old.

I’ve always said that the most important thing that’s ever been in my life is Ange. I really wasn’t over exaggerating that in the book – if anything I was playing it down. I always say she made me brave. We started going out when I was 15 and she was 14, and it felt incredible to know that I’d already met the person that I was going to spend the rest of my life with – my hormones didn’t have to worry about that like other teenage boys. We were inseparable. It was really sweet.

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Specs, The Guitar’s Fate

Based on the photos and the serial number, the guitar is a 1980 model, finished in black, featuring white plastic components (poker chip, pickup rings) with the pickguard removed. Aside from the missing pickguard, everything else seems to be completely stock.

As for its history, Johnny traded the guitar for a Gretsch about a year or two later. Nearly four decades after that, a friend reached out to Marr, saying he found a guitar that looked identical to his old Les Paul. After inspecting it, Marr confirmed it was his first Les Paul and bought it back.