“I felt kind of bad about it because I should have paid a fair price”: Kirk Hammett felt so guilty about buying Neal Schon's Les Paul on the cheap that he called him to ask if he wanted it back

Kirk Hammett plays his Mummy ESP signature guitar [left]; Neal Schon plays a Les Paul on a stage lit up in purple.

Kirk Hammett makes no secret that he is a collector. He can’t help himself. He’ll buy guitars, he’ll trade them. If there’s something about an electric guitar that speaks to him then he’s an easy mark. It’s in the blood.

But he has an eye for this stuff. Hammett has acquired of the rarest vintage guitars around, such as the Bigbsy-equipped 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard that left the factory with a black finish. He had Joe Bonamassa to thank for that one, giving him a heads up text after he spotted it in Carter Vintage Guitars. There is only three of them in existence – with rumours that a fourth is out there somewhere, like Bigfoot.