This was my first REAL or should I say expensive guitar and the one that started a Gibson love that lasted nearly a decade. At one time I had about 50 Gibson guitars in my collection and some 14 Les Pauls!!! This guitar will always remind me of my mom and has a lot of sentimental value.

After playing my friends Les Paul (this was when Guns 'n Roses exploded) I asked for my parents permission to spend a large percentage of my college scholarship to buy this guitar. See kids, a good education is important so stay in school! After buying this Les Paul I wrote my mom a letter saying how much I loved my new guitar and that I was finally happy and would NEVER need another guitar ever again. At this time I had some 9 or 10 guitars in my collection. She still has that letter and reminds me of it every time we talk about my guitars, lol! Love you mom and I am so blessed to have such awesome parents.

Ironically, when Charvel, Jackson, Kramer and Ibanez guitars dominated the music scene, I was hooked on Les Pauls. In fact, all of the next guitars I purchased were Gibsons; a 65 SG Jr., Les Paul Custom, Les Paul Special and a Gibson Howard Roberts hollow body. Needless to say over the years my Gibson collection grew and more Les Pauls followed. You have to admit that a Les Paul is still one classy looking axe and will always be identified with rock 'n roll.

When I bought this guitar I actually wanted a cherry sunburst Les Paul a la Jimmy Page. Unfortunately, the guitar store only had the tobacco sunburst finish in stock and I did not want to wait. However, I have no regrets as I am very happy with her and think she looks great.

The only changes I have made to this guitar were to remove the pickguard (I loved the look of Slash's Les Paul with no guard), to add strap lock buttons after she fell off the strap during band practice and to replace the bridge pickup with various Duncan's over the years. Today she has a Seymour Duncan Antiquity pickup in her and sounds terrific.

This is still one of my favorite Gibson squeezes and more importantly, a guitar my mom still enjoys talking about. This guitar rivaled Garfield (my very first guitar) as my main player through my college years. I would never part with this guitar for sentimental reasons and have no regrets about spending my scholarship money on her. Hell, that is why Mac 'n Cheese and Ramen Noodles are so cheap - to help feed stupid college kids who spend all their money on guitars and/or parties!