Gibson Les Paul hitting $180,000 on eBay

On the very loose basis that eBay uses technology, we wanted to bring you an interesting story from the interweb about just how much a 1960 Original Gibson Les Paul Standard guitar is being offered for on the world's top electronic auction site. It's a little bit more than it cost when first sold. KitGuru selects a medium Fender pick to add a sprinkle of irony.

Dazed and Confused could refer to Jimmy Page inn Madison Square Gardens, coaxing weird and wonderful noises from his guitar with a violin bow, but it's equally likely to apply to the KitGuru office staff as we stare at a page on eBay and wish we'd bought one of the original Gibson guitars a decade ago.

Les Paul was a designer and electronics guru, brought into the Gibson guitar company as a consultant in 1950 – having pitched them everal unsuccessful concepts in the late 1940s.   Even during his early days with Gibson, Les Paul was not always successful (or his ideas were not fully understood – either by Gibson as a company or the country/world as a whole).

It was the unsettled early start to the Gibson-Les Paul relationship that creates the $180,000 price tag seen on eBay today. Only 1,700 of these guitars were made. It was killed off to be replaced by the SG.

Ironically, it was on a Blues Breakers album in 1966, with a young Eric Clapton on guitar, that the Les Paul finally gained prominence as a serious contender to Fender's designs.

Looking back at the history of iconic songs, the enduring image of Les Paul is everywhere. If you want to spend £550 and ‘pretend', there are options for you, but one of the original 1,700 Standards will set you back around $180,000 and no mistake.

KitGuru says: Two guitar shapes dominate the history of rock and pop music. Between the Stratocaster and the Les Paul, the majority of cool riffs are stuck in a corner and pwned. Sure the McCartney Hofner Bass and Young's SG are famous, but the Strat and Les Paul lead the way. Anyone sitting on a dozen or so classic guitars in storage right now, is looking at a tidy little nest egg. Aren't they Bill?

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