Epiphone has teamed up with the Gibson Custom Shop once again to bring us an affordable replica of one of the most iconic – and valuable – electric guitars in history, Jeff Beck’s 1954 Oxblood Les Paul.
Joining the million-dollar guitar club in January, when it and over 130 of Beck’s guitars went under the hammer at Christie’s, the Oxblood Les Paul was a true one-off, and arguably his most-famous guitar.
This was the guitar he was pictured with on the cover of his 1975 debut solo album, Blow By Blow. It was originally a Goldtop, fitted with P-90s, until its owner – not yet Beck – asked for some modifications, and came into Beck’s possession just as his “YardBurst” 1959 Les Paul Standard was in need of repair.
Speaking to Guitarist ahead of its auction, Amelia Walker, specialist head of Private & Iconic Collections, Christie’s London, detailed the story of how the original Oxblood Les Paul ended up with Beck. It goes back to 1972. Beck, Bogert & Appice are on tour in the States, and Beck is looking for a Les Paul in Memphis.
“His search for a new Les Paul coincided with the ‘Yardburst’ getting damaged again – because it has had a few fair breaks, that poor guitar. So he was really looking for a guitar that could replicate that fat Les Paul sound,” said Walker. “BBA was a loud band and that was their signature [style] – a power trio with a lot of volume.”
Beck visited the venerable Strings & Things but didn’t find what he was looking for. Ironically, his friend, Buddy Smith, who was driving him around these stores, had visited Strings & Things not long before and had picked up the Oxblood.
Unbeknownst to Beck, this was exactly the guitar that he was after, and it sitting right there in in Smith’s car.
“Buddy hadn’t yet paid for it, however. The guitar itself had been owned by another guitarist,” said Walker. “This guy had taken it into Strings & Things six months previously and said, ‘It’s a Goldtop. I want you to respray the guitar to match my shoes [laughs]. I don’t want these P-90s, either, I want humbucking pickups and I want a slimmer neck profile. Here you go.’
“So they did all the modifications that we see now. Then, when he went back to pick it up, he decided he didn’t like it any more, and then Buddy Davis walks in, says, ‘I love it.’”
Beck and Smith made the deal, and the Oxblood was about to get famous.
Now, back to the replicas. In 2009, Gibson unveiled a limited edition Custom Shop run of them, 50 aged to match the original. If memory serves us well, there was a similar Epiphone Oxblood Les Paul released around that time, and it, too, had a wraparound bridge like the original, but this release – launched today to celebrate Beck’s birthday – is unquestionably a very different instrument, with a higher-end spec and more faithful to the original.
As per previous Inspired By Gibson Custom, this is Epiphone going all-in with the spec at this price point. We have Gibson USA pickups, with a Custombucker humbucker pairing in the neck and bridge positions. There is a Gibson Historic Wraparound bridge.
The fundamentals of this Epiphone guitar’s build are also quintessentially Gibson. The body is solid mahogany, capped with maple, and it has a glued-in mahogany neck shaped into a Jeff Beck custom profile (“a Large C”), and joining the body with a long neck tenon – one of the biggest selling points of these Inspired By Gibson Custom models.
Another selling point – huge selling point – is the return of the ‘Open Book’ style headstock, with the Epiphone logo inlaid in aged MOP. Very tasteful, and that aged mother of pearl matches the trapezoid inlays on the rosewood fingerboard.
Again, befitting the hotrodded vibe of the original, this has been fitted with a set of Schaller M6 90 tuners. There’s a Graph Tech nut. Under the hood you’ve got ‘50s-style wiring, with Mallory caps, CTS potentiometers. On these models you have Switchcraft jacks and switches as standard.
The whole thing ships in a hard-shell guitar case, and this is as high-end – and as cool – as an Epiphone Les Paul gets. Priced £1,199/$1,1299, the Jeff Beck 1954 Les Paul Oxblood is available now. See Epiphone for more details.
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