“Most of the tone came from how much timber had taken off the neck, almost to Ibanez levels of thinness”: Bare Knuckle supremo Tim Mills reveals the tone secrets of Jimmy Page’s legendary ‘Number One’ Les Paul Standard

A black-and-white image of Jimmy Page using a violin bow on his 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard.

Jimmy Page’s ‘Number One’ 1959 Les Paul Standard has to be one of the best $500 ever spent. Purchased in 1969 from Joe Walsh, modified by Page, it’s one of those legendary electric guitars that has the whiff of Excalibur about it.

And for many of us mortals, the 2004 Gibson reissue of it is as close as we have gotten – and even then that was a rare beast. But with Page hooking up with Gibson, releasing a replica of his 1971 EDS-1275 double-neck and 1964 SJ-200 acoustic guitar, maybe in the not-so-distant future there might be another.