This is widely known as Jimmy’s Number One guitar – but on paper it is a 1959 Les Paul, also known as the “Holy Grail” of the Les Pauls. Page got his ’59 from Joe Walsh (James Gang; later Eagles) in April of 1969, and it very soon took the place of the Fender Telecaster which he was using at that time. Walsh did an interview with Guitar World magazine in which he shared the story about the exchange: Jimmy was still playing the Telecasters that he played in the Yardbirds. He was looking for a Les Paul and asked if I knew of any, ’cause he couldn’t find one that he liked. And I had two. So I kept the one I liked the most and I flew with the other one. I laid it on him and said, ‘Try this out. He really liked it, so I gave him a really good deal, about 1,200 bucks. I had to hand-carry it; I flew there and everything. So whatever my expenses were, that’s what I charged him. But again, I just thought he should have a Les Paul for godsakes! – Read full interview on Guitar World This guitar had a few modification done to it before it got into Page’s hands. The back of the neck was sanded down and shaved, making it very thin and easier to play – which was the thing that Page really liked about this guitar. After Page got to play the guitar for couple of gigs, he decided to swap the original Kluson tuners with gold-plated Grovers – since he was already familiar with them from his Les Paul Custom. The electronics were modified as well. Pickups were changed numerous times. Firstly, the guitar had Seth Lover PAF pickups, but after a tour of Australia in 1972 the bridge pickup malfunctioned, and was promptly replaced with a chrome T-Top humbucker which remained there for the duration of Led Zeppelin. The T-Top was eventually replaced with a custom wound Seymour Duncan humbucker sometime in the 90’s. The neck pickup remained the same until the 2000’s when it was replaced by a PAF humbucker from the 1960s.

Also, one of the original knobs was replaced with a push-pull knob, which enabled Jimmy to reverse the phase of the pickups. Another interesting thing about this particular guitar is that it’s still unknown what year model the guitar is. Due to sanding of the neck, and the fact that none of the pickups are original, the serial number on the guitar is no longer present. But most people agree that this Les Paul is probably a late 1959, or early 1960. Short interview with Jimmy Page talking about his Number One: As soon as I played the Les Paul I fell in love. Not that the Tele isn’t user friendly, but the Les Paul was gorgeous and easy to play. It just seemed like a good touring guitar. It’s more of a fight with the Telecaster but there are rewards. The Gibson’s got all that very stereotyped sound, maybe, I don’t know, but it’s got a really beautiful sustain. I do like sustain. It relates to bowed instruments. Sustain speaks for itself, that’s the whole thing. It’s the whole are that everyone’s been experimenting in, once it became electric, if you think about it – it was mainly sustain. – original source needed.