Mary Fords axe? WOW!
 

I saw this on pawn stars but now it's on Ebay....

Mary Fords Personal Gibson Les Paul Electric Guitar History Channels Pawn Stars | eBay

Who?

yer kidding...right? Les Paul & Mary Ford? Les Pauls wife? Famous guitarists? Come on man.

Hell, even I, who can't carry a beat in a bucket, know Les Paul & Mary Ford...

Les Paul and Mary Ford. They were the rock star couple before there was rock and roll. Before Les Paul invented it.

Really?

$250,000 buy it now, would have thought more but maybe that's about right.

I wonder when the pick up mod was done and by who?

Seems like it could be a good investment for someone. I've seen new guitars signed by U2 selling for 120k

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Les Paul basically invent the electric guitar ?

Pawn Stars paid $90K for it. Gonna make a sweet little profit if it sells for BIN

I saw that show. The owner wanted $250,000 and the pawn shop guy bought it from him for $90,000. The eBay seller has a $250,000 "buy it now price."

Its their website (Pawn Stars)...here's a jacket they paid $400 for I think...

Rare Vintage World War II 2 Cargo Pilot's Jacket ASO History Channels Pawn Stars | eBay

Kind of sort of but not really. Rickenbacher is generally credited with the electric guitar but it was a hollow body.

Les Paul perfected the solid body electric guitar.

His patents on recording technology are not as well known but are just as if not a more important contribution.

Thanks for that history lesson SmileWavy

It would be cool to visit their shop in Vegas..

I am not a guitar guy, but I saw that Pawn Stars episode. I think this guitar will be a really cool purchase for someone. I also think the documentation is equally important.

Actually Rickenbacker did. http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/electricguitar/pop-ups/02-02.htm well really it was slingerland,http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/electricguitar/pop-ups/03-12.htm but Les made it what it is today.

*cough* Leo Fender *cough*

Leo was late to that party. Leo was more the "Henry Ford" of guitar makers, with standardized parts and production line assembly.
He DID invent that instrument close to our hearts though. The electric bass guitar! Fender Precision Bass guitar :: Invention of the Electric Guitar :: Smithsonian Lemelson Center

i agree.

I can see it is labled "Les Paul".

But it looks like a SG body?

Yep SG stands for "solid guitar." Les was NOT a big fan of the style. Almost severed ties with Gibson over it.

True, but if you say "made it what it is today", I think Fender has a much bigger shadow in the industry than Les Paul. That isn't to diminish what LP did at all.

agreed. I feel as you that nobody really contributed more to the progress of the electric guitar than Leo. Yes he made it what it is today.

SG does not stand for "Solid guitar". It stands for "Spanish guitar" A name that was used years ago to distinguish between a lap style guitar and and the upright guitar with fretts.

Jerry

Solid Guitar.


Les Paul didn't like it, at requested that his name be removed from it, as it was originally a "Les Paul" too.

thanks Wolfe.

SG most certainly stands for Solid Guitar.

Les Pauls werent selling well in 1959-60, so they decided to change the body style to the SG, but still call it a Les Paul. The original Les Paul style was discontinued, hence why 1959 Les Pauls are worth north of $500K

Les Paul didnt like the SG style and asked his name be taken off it, but Gibson had excess stock of les Paul logos, etc.. so they used them on the very early SG's.

The electric guitar goes back way further than Leo Fender and Les Paul, btw. Charlie Christian, George Barnes.. even Django played electric.

I couldn't find that info on the gibson web site, however I did find it in a wekipedia article that I have found quite often to have many errors. Gibson used the "ES' code to indicate an "Electric-spanish" guitar and I still think the SG stands for spanish guitar.
Jerry

Solid guitar...

The Gibson SG: 50 Essential Facts

Read it and I will yeld to a higher authority however I am still not convinced until I can check with someone that will really know the truth. Even the guys now at Fender somtimes have a hard time coming up with the real history and print Internet rumors as fact.
That does not alter the fact that its a cool guitar and I hope they get their asking price although it doesn't look like they will. I'm thinking about going to ebay with my old Strat soon and it would be nice to know there are big spenders out there willing to put out the big bucks.
Jerry

Geez Jerrry...give it up.

I have a question out to a guy I know that wrote the book on Gibson and probably knows more about Gibson than they do. An interesting quote I read a few years back was a Fender big shot refering questions about Fender history to Richard Smith who wrote the book "Fender, the sound heard around the world", check with Richard he said, he knows more about our history than I do.
Jerry

http://www.lostwildcat.com/avatars/Wrong_Internet.jpg

Wow! I saw a video of her and Les playing "How High the Moon" (my favorite) and she wasn't playing this guitar, she had a gold colored Les Paul, I believe...

I'm sure she was allowed to own more than one guitar. :D

didn't paul tutmarc invent the electric bass before leo?

But weren't those more electric bass "Fiddles''...it hurt to type that. I mean you didn't put it over yer knee. The early Gibson EB (electric bass) I. It could be played upright or as a guitar.

The Smithsonian Channel has an entertaining show about the development of the electric guitar. It may even be factual.

Electrified: The Guitar Revolution - Smithsonian Channel

I just heard back from a guy I know. Robb Lawrence, celebrated author of at least a dozen books, 4 of which are about Gibson guitars and Les Paul. Robb was a long time friend of Les Paul and Leo Fender and can tell you what kind of toilet paper they used at the Gibson factory in 1949, well maybe not that much detail but he has done so much research he probably knows more than anyone about Gibson.
Robb response is that the "SG" stands for Spanish guitar not solid guitar. Spanish guitar was a very common name years ago to distinguish between what was called back then the Hawaiian steel guitar and the upright fretted guitar. When I was a kid people did not use the name "Solid body" to refer to any guitar. It was simply a Spanish guitar, acoustic or not. When I worked at Fender in 1960 nobody said "Hey, hand me that solid body".
Jerry

It's not Super Carrera, it doesn't stand for ANYTHING!

Oh, sorry... thought I was somewhere else. SmileWavy