In a recent interview with Rick Beato, Andy Summers of The Police revealed how Eric Clapton begged him to buy his ’59 Les Paul Sunburst in the 1960s. The guitarist recalled getting one of the two Gibson guitars in Rose Morris, saying, “Eric went to find [the other].” He nabbed it. As a result, he now copies. So, we both have Les Pauls, right? So time passes. Eric’s Les Paul is stolen, and he knows I have the other. He starts calling me all the time.”
He described the state of his guitar at the time, “Now, strangely, this is history. I’d upgraded to a 58 White Telecaster. That’s exactly what I was doing. For some reason, I preferred it to the Les Paul. I’m not sure, pickup setup, whatever. And he was well aware of it. I hid it beneath the bed. It was under the bed in a case.”
Summers’ Les Paul had a problem, but Clapton insisted on replacing his stolen one, “However, he kept calling me. ‘I don’t want to sell it. But I had a strange feeling about it because the back pickup appeared to be broken. Because none of us knew the first thing about electronics. He could have easily fixed it with a single tweak.”
Finally, The Police’s guitarist sold the guitar and stated the price: “I kept resisting it. But eventually, he called me so many times that I agreed to sell it with some, uh, forgiveness. I wasn’t happy about it, but he wanted it. So we agreed on a price. I charged him £200 for it. It’s now worth around $2 million. “Who’d have guessed?”
Gibson Guitars Didn’t Work For Summers The Way They Did For Eric Clapton
The Les Paul guitar, which cost around $80 at the time, was Clapton’s main guitar with Cream from 1966 to 1967, and it was featured on the ‘Blues Breakers’ album. Summers, on the other hand, was not a fan of that model, as he previously stated in interviews.
The guitarist explained on ‘Everyone Loves Guitar’ a few months ago. “I didn’t take to the Les Paul; something was wrong with mine.” It seems symbolic; I traded in my Les Paul for a white ’58 Telecaster. It was a pretty radical-looking guitar in London at the time.”
He continued, commenting on the guitar, “The Les Paul was a heavy, strange little guitar with an overdriven sound.” In my case, I believe the back pickup was off, though it didn’t seem to bother Eric [Clapton].”
The ex-police officer also reflected on guitar culture in 1960s London, claiming Gibson couldn’t compete with Fender until the ES-335 was introduced. He elaborated, “The ES-335 had arrived somewhere in there before I went to London, which was a fantastic breakthrough.” Gibson had finally gotten it right. They created the Les Paul, but the Stratocaster is the ultimate guitar; it’s flawless. “Leo Fender was correct.”
