Jimmy Page Reveals The Fate Of Led Zeppelin I Guitar
Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page got emotional when recalling how a well meaning friend destroyed the guitar that he used to record the band's debut album.
Page reflected on the making of the album, telling Music Radar that it was done in 30 hours, so that's pretty mind-boggling".
He then discussed the Fender guitar he used on the record, "The Telecaster was employed all the way through that album. It's just a small little amp that I'm using, with a 12-inch speaker, and an overdrive box, and a wah-wah pedal at times. But it just goes to show the versatility of the Telecaster and what could be achieved with the minimal amount of equipment."
Page then said that he left the "magical Telecaster" at home to hit the road to promote the album and when he returned home, he discovered that a friend had ruined it. He said, "In 1969, I go on tour and I leave my Telecaster behind with somebody who made ceramics and was also a bit of an artist," Page begins, clearly pained by the memory.
"He was going to look after my house, because I'd had a break-in there and I'd had a guitar stolen, a Coral sitar, during one of the tours. So I was really nervous about leaving the house where we did all the rehearsals with Led Zeppelin and everything, and word had got around, so I thought, 'I can't leave the house empty. I'll leave somebody to look after the house.'
"So I went off and did the tour, and the tour was absolutely amazing, as you can imagine. All of the Led Zeppelin tours were just getting more and more and more immense. The popularity of the band was just at such incredible levels. Each year that we went back, it just got bigger and bigger and bigger.
"So I came back and thought, 'Oh, I'm so glad to be home,' because I really enjoyed my home. My friend said, 'I've got a present for you.' I said, 'Oh, what's that?' I figured it was going to be a bit of ceramics. He said, 'A guitar!' I looked at the guitar and I didn't for one moment think it was mine.
"It was a Telecaster, but it had been painted with all these modulating lines, with very earthy colors, all over it. I said, 'Yeah, where's my guitar?' He said, 'Oh, no - that's it. That's my present. I repainted your guitar for you.' I didn't open the case. I didn't wanna see it. Now, I would probably smash the guitar over his head, but as it was I was still so vibed out from the tour that the whole thing didn't really fully connect. And, anyway, I was using a Les Paul at the time."
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