“8am one morning there was a knock at the door. It was a cop and he said: ‘Do you have a red Gibson guitar SG model?’ I just handed it to him”: Pat Travers owned three Gibsons by the age of 16 – his luck would not last

Pat Travers plays a red double cut electric guitar as he performs onstage at the Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, Illinois, October 19, 1979.

You don’t often hear that someone’s very first guitar was a 1968 Gibson Les Paul Gold Top – but this was the case for Pat Travers who, received one for his 14th birthday.

Admittedly, it was 1968, but it was still a generous gift – sadly, though, as Travers explains in his recent interview with Rick Beato, his good fortune was about to take a prolonged turn for the worse.