Up to1999 I had never lusted for any guitar as much as I did for this Les Paul. My Gibson addiction was out of control in those days and I made a weekly visit to one of the best Gibson dealers in the country, Centre City Music in San Diego to check out their inventory. In fact, the first time I saw this guitar was when I went there to pick up my Gibson ES1275 (double neck) that Saul (the owner) had ordered for me. I was floored when he showed me this Les Paul that he had just gotten in. It was love at first sight and I thought this guitar had it all and then some - an unusual color (Warren Haynes used a Les Paul with this same color, cinnamon burst), gold hardware (the original pickups even had gold colored screw poles), a nice medium grade flame maple top and of course the no pickguard look which completely sold me. Man, I was so distracted that I hardly played my new double neck.

Whenever I was in the same area as the store I could not resist going in to make sure that she not been sold. I remember a few times staggering back from the pub late at night and pressing my face up against the front window to see her. I felt liked a child all over again (I probably acted like one too!!). Driving back from dinner one evening, my girl at the time (Marie) suggested that we stop in to see if the baby was still there. Saul was just closing up and said he was expecting us which at the time I thought was kind of strange. It turned out that Marie had called Saul and told him we were coming to get the Les Paul after dinner. How cool is that.

I replaced the original (black) Gibson pickups with zebra Duncan Antiquity's (they look much better in my opinion) and I replaced the original truss rod cover with one that had Marie's name engraved on it. This Les Paul looks killer and still excites me to the same degree as when I first gazed upon her. I love the way she looks, feels and sounds, as Tina Turner sang, "Simply the best". Ironically, this was the last Les Paul I purchased as my Charvel fever was just blossoming and the rest as they say is history, or should I say a full blown Charvel addiction.