Look Smart Trivia: Guitars Minus Guitarists

Or:

1. Pete Townshend
2. Robert Johnson
3. Rick Neilsen - Cheap Trick
4. Annie Clark (St. Vincent)
5. Kurt Cobain

Or:

1. Slash
2. Robert Johnson
3. Rick Neilsen - Cheap Trick
4. Annie Clark (St. Vincent)
5. Kurt Cobain

Or:

1. Eric Clapton
2. Robert Johnson
3. Rick Neilsen - Cheap Trick
4. Annie Clark (St. Vincent)
5. Kurt Cobain

Or:

1. Les Paul
2. Robert Johnson
3. Rick Neilsen - Cheap Trick
4. Annie Clark (St. Vincent)
5. Kurt Cobain

You see, there are a lot of famous guitarists who play a Gibson Les Paul.

@cinoclav Yeah, but those don’t look like Slash’s fingers.

Or:

1. Joe Walsh
2. Robert Johnson
3. Rick Neilsen - Cheap Trick
4. Annie Clark (St. Vincent)
5. Kurt Cobain

@cinoclav

Some of the iconic Gibson guitars that you may have seen or heard before are the:

Gibson Les Paul Electric Guitar

(Played by artists like: George Harrison, Duane Allman, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Slash, Ace Frehley, Peter Frampton, Billy Gibbons, Dave Grohl, Jimi Hendrix, Mark Knopfler, Alex Lifeson, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Les Paul, Joe Perry, Carl Perkins, Keith Richards, Randy Rhoads, Tom Scholz, Neal Schon, Steve Lukather, Eddie Van Halen, Joe Walsh, Zakk Wylde, Johnny Winter, Ronny Wood, Neil Young, Frank Zappa, and numerous other. This may be the most widely acclaimed guitar-design, ever!)

1 could also be Joe Bonamassa

@cinoclav On an unrelated note I saw Joe Walsh in concert a couple of years ago. He couldn’t string two intelligible words together but he could sure play that guitar. I was amazed.

@cinoclav I don’t think Townshend had a sunburst LP - his were usually black or red. I’d go with Page on that one.

I forgot to put quotes on what I wrote above- it’s cut and pasted from the Gibson website. I didn’t put that list together.

@stolicat He’s not my first choice, but…

@cinoclav #1 is definitely Townshend, I didn’t think so at first but then I saw the pic you posted above.
Same band-aid on same finger.

Only one I don’t know is #4, but I’m sure the rest are right and I assume you’re right about that one, too.

Well done.

@DennisG2014 I think the bandage is just a coincidence. I’d imagine a lot of guitarists end up with them due to the string blisters.

@cinoclav Well, damn - I was about to bet you my $5 coupon that it was him.
If you hadn’t posted the exact picture of Billy Gibbons, I’d have sworn it wasn’t him.

In fact, I was even going to smugly say,

I’d imagine a lot of guitarists end up with them due to the string blisters.

“only the ones who play by whipping their arm around like a windmill.”
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Jason was clever to crop out the ring on Billy’s left hand - I still wouldn’t have known it was him, but I would’ve known it wasn’t Townshend.

@DennisG2014 It was @stolicat that found the picture. I still haven’t seen it anywhere else.

@cinoclav @DennisG2014 @stolicat If you google the name of the photographer is shows up in flickr. I know nothing about flickr.

Or Ace Frehley? Wow. So many.

@sammydog01 Well, McCartney plays left-handed, so it’s probably not him.

@Limewater The photo could be reversed. Jason is sneaky.

#1 is Keith Richards. That’s my last guess.

@sammydog01 It could be reversed, but he didn’t do that with Kurt Cobain.

@Limewater
/giphy sneaky

@sammydog01 My real question is did you find the other 4 or just copy mine?

@cinoclav I copied yours. Is that bad?

@sammydog01 It looks like the '59 Sunburst design, which a whole lot of people have played.

@cinoclav I spent an hour looking for that bandaid and quit. If that’s a bandaid at all.

@cinoclav @sammydog01 OH CRAP!

@cinoclav @Limewater @sammydog01 Richard’s classic LP had the Bigsby Vibrato on it …

@cinoclav @Limewater @stolicat Now you’re using words I don’t know.

@cinoclav @Limewater @sammydog01 This thing:

@cinoclav @sammydog01 See the pic Cinoclav posted of Townshend playing the same guitar with the same bandage on the same finger…
If the band-aid fits you must… win $5?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@stolicat So:
a. Did you know that before or learn it today? Because that’s pretty cool to know.

b. Looking at photos Jimmy Page’s hands look a lot like the ones in the photo.

c. Here’s a rabbit hole I found complete with threads on Jimmy Page and Keith Richards
https://www.mylespaul.com/forum/vintage-les-pauls.7/

d. I’m going to a Led Zeppelin tribute concert with Jason Bonham and I’m really excited!

@sammydog01 a. if you play(ed) guitar, even haphazardly as I do, you know about vibrato bars, especially the Bigsley. All the cool guys had them, all the way back to Chet Atkins and his ilk.
b. After seeing that shot of Townshend above, now I’m not so sure.
c. That site is amazing - the Les Paul has inspired many a rabbit hole, and I’ve met collectors who don’t even play
d. and I’m jealous - I have to mow the fields this weekend.

altho it looks like none of Allman’s LPs had the white pickguard. I still think it’s Page.

@DennisG2014 Thank you!

Or:

1. Peter Frampton
2. Robert Johnson
3. Rick Neilsen
4. Annie Clark (St. Vincent)
5. Kurt Cobain

@cinoclav as I drove off after my earlier inputs I was kicking myself for not looking up Jeff Beck. Could be. I hope @JasonToon lets us know where he got that image from.

@JasonToon Billy Gibbons?

He was born in Texas and his guitar is called Pearly Gates.

@sammydog01 Are you submitting that as a guess…?

@JasonToon YES! Plus the 2-5 that @cinoclav gave us.

@JasonToon @sammydog01 Does that mean if it’s correct I get $4 and @sammydog01 gets $1?

@cinoclav @JasonToon Sounds fair!

@JasonToon @sammydog01 Totally kidding. I was actually tempted to list every single big name Les Paul player in that #1 slot. Figured that was almost a sure fire way to win today. I still haven’t seen that particular photo, but looking closely, the rings that Gibbons wears do seem to match up. I believe that’s a ring and not a bandage you can see on his right hand. Plus you can see the very edge of one on the middle finger of his left hand.

@cinoclav I went through images from that list I posted above that came off the Gibson website. It was cool- I saw ZZ Top and Ozzy Osbourne last year and two of those guys were on the list. This was a fun challenge.

@sammydog01 I was super close to listing BG with the rest of them earlier. Glad I didn’t, you definitely deserve one of these.

@cinoclav @sammydog01 dang - a little rotational trickery …

@stolicat I totally knew it had to have been rotated since they were all in the same basic position. It wasn’t likely you’d see an electric guitar at that angle. Where’d you find the image?

@cinoclav @sammydog01 @stolicat You found it! It just came up in a Google Search for me, I think for “Billy Gibbons guitar” - but I can’t seem to conjure it forth again, so…

@cinoclav The only reason I got it was because I saw Jason’s hint first.

@cinoclav @JasonToon @sammydog01 @stolicat
Oh man, that thing must be imbued with so much magic.
“Pearly Gates” origin story: https://www.guitarplayer.com/players/billy-gibbons-tells-the-story-behind-his-1959-les-paul-pearly-gates

Don’t know if it’s still there, but when I was in London in, I think, ‘06, the Hard Rock there had ‘The Vault’, which was an actual vault in the basement, decorated like a shrine and filled with magical artifacts that they let you get up close and personal with, even holding the guitars.
I held and played Hendrix’s flying V, Keith Richards’ SG, SRV’s Strat (but not “Lenny”, his main steed) and a bunch more. They were almost all very valuable even without their legendary owners, they radiated magical, musical power, and holding them was a religious experience.
The rest of the day I floated around London with a stupefied grin on my face.

If it’s still there, I’d absolutely say it’s a must-see for any music fan who visits London.

I’ll post some pics.

@cinoclav @JasonToon @sammydog01 @stolicat
It’s still there. Here’s a write-up from this year w/ some pics.
https://usenava.com/stories/2019/01/14/lens-hard-rock-cafes-secret-vault/
I had forgotten that it was the original HRC and I definitely didn’t know the cool story about Clapton and Townshend being the first ‘donors’.

I wonder if they’ll still let you hold the guitars.
At the time, I was working at a music shop, selling guitars, and we took more precautions when letting people try out the new $500 guitars than the Vault tour guide had me take with these priceless guitars (e.g. watching out for belt buckles, zippers, rings, keys in pocket, etc. - anything that might mar the finish). I was flabbergasted.

Stand by for my own pics…

@cinoclav @JasonToon @sammydog01 it was buried deep in one of the Les Paul temple sites - googling images for “Billy Gibbons Pearly Gates” brought it up.
https://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?177434-Billy-F-Gibbons-quot-Pearly-Gates-quot-burst-folder/page2

@cinoclav @JasonToon @sammydog01 @stolicat
Ok, it was 2003 - feel free to keep this mental image of me - lets pretend I’m not 16 hard years older with even less hair.

Hendrix’s Flying V:

edit: I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, but whenever I try to upload more than one pic to the same post, it displays multiples of the first pic uploaded.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
A few more to come.

Jeff Beck’s Esquire (pre-Telecaster; this thing would be worth 10s of thousands even w/out a famous owner):

Keith Richards’ SG:

One of SRV’s Strats, it had the ridiculously heavy-gauge strings he used still on it, and they were covered in finger grunge - sweet, holy, SRV finger grunge.

@DennisG2014 And to think, I was excited just to see Alex Lifeson’s guitar at the Hard Rock in Toronto. (Note: I’m a gigantic Rush fan.) Getting to actually hold some of that history is quite amazing.

@DennisG2014 Thanks for the photos!

Last one. Les Paul’s Les Paul:

There was one more that I regret not having a picture of; it was Duane Allman’s '54 sunburst Strat - the first year they were made. IIRC, it had a serial # w/ a bunch of zeros in it.
That thing was a true historical artifact. It was amazing. I was probably too in awe to remember to ask my brother to snap a pic.

Here’s Duane Allman’s Strat (not my pic):

Holding these guitars was akin to holding Gandalf’s staff or Harry Potter’s wand (except the guitars and their owners are/were real).

@cinoclav A friend of mine just told me about this:
https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2019/play-it-loud
I’d love to see it, but doubt I’ll make the trip down to NYC.
Besides - it’s only look, no touch.

Presumably the Les Paul with a name is Black Beauty.

@MightyE Those were my very first group of guesses way up there. It was determined #1 isn’t Page. I’m sure the guess above of Gibbons is correct after Jason’s giveaway.

@MightyE Is your family member a musician or just a huge fan? That’s really impressive! We found a lot of guitars that looked like #1 and used the big hint Jason gave us to guess Billy Gibbons which might be wrong.

Ah! My viewer hid some of the original answers. Rats.

My family member is really just a fan. He said all the pictures were wrong (many looked the same to me). 1. is apparently a “flame top” and not many of those were originally made, and he thought it looked like one that was made in a “reissue” version.

Actually, musician is probably more accurate given the number of bands he’s played in an guitars he owns.

@MightyE If he’s in a band he’s a musician. Say Hi for me.

@sammydog01 I actually realized saying just a “fan” was inaccurate and could get me in trouble.

@MightyE I won’t tell.

@f00l

Sticky Fingers trivia:

The album was released around the world with the familiar cover but in General Franco’s Spain it was hailed as obscene and the record company had to change the sleeve. They did so with an image that some consider to be a far more obscene visual of sticky, treacle covered, fingers gesticulating in a tin can. The new sleeve was designed by John Pasche (who designed the first tongue logo), and Phil Jude (who later photographed the goat’s head for the inner sleeve of Goats Head Soup).

Not content with changing the image the government also insisted that ‘Sister Morphine; was also dropped from the album. It was replaced by a live version of Chuck Berry’s ‘Let It Rock’. All this meant that the album was not released in Spain until three months later on 16 July 1971.