Nearly $95,000 worth of Gibson Adam Jones 1979 Les Paul Custom Silverburst guitars have been stolen

Gibson
(Image credit: Gibson)

The new Gibson Adam Jones 1979 Les Paul Custom Silverburst models are already hot property due to their limited run, but now 13 fans who had preordered the Custom Shop electric guitars have been left empty handed following the theft of a whole pallet of them at a truck stop.

“Somehow out of a truck full of guitars, this ONE pallet was singled out and stolen at a truck stop"

The pallet of 'Pauls was stolen from a Sweetwater Music truck at the Flying J Travel Center in Whiteland, Indiana on October 30, 2020. The truck was making its way to Fort Wayne, IN, the headquarters of Sweetwater Sound and it sounds like the thief or thieves knew what they were targeting.

“Somehow out of a truck full of guitars, this ONE pallet was singled out and stolen at a truck stop,” says Sweetwater Chief Supply Chain and Merchandising Officer Phil Rich. “Totaling close to $95,000 in guitars, we feel this person/s knew exactly what to look for and when.”

Gibson

(Image credit: Gibson)

“These guitars were the dream guitars of 13 Gibson and Adam Jones fans, who had been patiently waiting for them to be delivered"

Cesar Gueikian, Gibson

Gibson are now helping Sweetwater in their efforts to retrieve the guitars, consistently of four $10,000 aged and signed Adam Jones models plus nine $6,000 VOS guitars.

“These guitars were the dream guitars of 13 Gibson and Adam Jones fans, who had been patiently waiting for them to be delivered,” says Cesar Gueikian of Gibson. “We have decided to publish the serial numbers of the 13 stolen guitars and are appealing to all of Gibson’s fans to keep an eye out for them and let us know if they surface. Our fans should ask any third-party sellers for a serial number before purchasing to be sure they are not being sold one of the stolen guitars.”

GIbson

(Image credit: Gibson)

“Our loyal customers have been waiting a long time to receive these guitars and will be devastated,” adds David Fuhr, SVP of The Sweetwater Experience. “We hope Gibson and Sweetwater’s tight-knit community of guitarists will be able to help us recover the stolen items and that the people responsible for the theft are caught.”

Anyone with information regarding the guitars is asked to contact Detective Kenny Polley of the Whiteland Police Department at KPolley@whitelandpd.us or (317) 535-8100.

Below is  the list of serial numbers for the stolen guitars. 

Sweetwater / Gibson

(Image credit: Sweetwater / Gibson)
Rob Laing
Guitars Editor, MusicRadar

I'm the Guitars Editor for MusicRadar, handling news, reviews, features, tuition, advice for the strings side of the site and everything in between. Before MusicRadar I worked on guitar magazines for 15 years, including Editor of Total Guitar in the UK. When I'm not rejigging pedalboards I'm usually thinking about rejigging pedalboards.