1969 Gibson Firebird III - Ex Jimmy Page / John Bonham + HSC

Well here is something we do not see every day and it is a rare treat to see a guitar on the marketplace that Jimmy Page used to own!

Not only that, it was also owned by John Bonham after he won it from Jimmy Page in a game of Spoof..!

This is a 1969 (last year) Gibson Firebird III that Jimmy Page bought from Mike Ladd's Guitar City  in Memphis TN along with a purple Les Paul. It has been modified with Jaguar style pickup switching, painted black, replaced pickguard and has the 'Custom Made' plaque on the body probably to cover the old short Vibrola holes (see pics).

Jimmy Page owned this for a while, it is unclear whether he used this on any recordings, then it was handed to John Bonham after he won it playing spoof in some bar somewhere. 

John Bonham kept it for a while then gave it to his business partner in 1978. In case you did not know, before John Bonham became one of the best and most well known drummers ever, he had a stake in a property development company and it was his business partner in this venture who received this guitar from him.

The business partner in question has held on to this for the past 45 years and decided it is now time for it to go to a new home so has taken it to us to sell on his behalf and we are now thrilled to be appointed the sole agent for the sale of this spectacular and historic guitar. How many ex-Jimmy Page guitars are out there...?

We have provenance in the form of email exchanges between the current owner and Mike Keckler who worked with Mike Ladd in his workshop customising guitars and well remembers Jimmy Page buying this.

There are no repairs or breaks that we can detect although it has been refinished in black so that could be hiding something. It comes with a non original, very nice, period case and a strap which by itself must be worth a few bob...!

There is a crack by the control cavity which is old and does not need any attention, it has had a refret with larger frets than original, other than that it plays well and sounds very cool too.

We do not think this will last long and due to the rarity of ex-Led Zeppelin equipment (especially ex-Jimmy Page AND John Bonham). So do not be surprised if this suddenly disappears from our listings page...

Snooze and ya Looze as some people like to say.