Gibson.com
October 5, 2012
Joe Perry of Aerosmith is a true guitar aficionado. He has said in interviews that he owns somewhere around 600 guitars. Perry has had two signature Gibson Les Paul models over the years. The first signature model from 1997 had a Translucent Black Burst finish, and a built in mid-boost circuit. The Joe Perry Boneyard Les Paul has a one-of-a-kind Green Tiger finish that actually looks like tiger stripes, and is available with a Bigsby.
Joe Perry had a 1958 Les Paul that was his main workhorse with Aerosmith for most of the seventies. In the May 2001 issue of Guitar World, he told the story of how he got rid of it and subsequently got it back:
“I sold it in 1981, I think, I was broke and I needed money for Christmas. Then, around the time we were doing Get a Grip, I started thinking, I gotta get that guitar back. I had no idea where it had gone. But one day Brad came into the studio with a guitar magazine. The centerfold was Slash’s guitar collection. And there was my guitar, sitting right there. I called Slash and said, ‘C’mon man, sell it back. I’ll give you what you paid for it.’ But he wouldn’t part with it. I felt bad, because every time I’d see him I’d bug him for it. And then finally I stopped talking to him. He never called or anything. Then when my 50th birthday came around, he got some idea in his head that he wanted to give it back to me. Which he did, the night of the party. We were onstage jamming with Cheap Trick. I had no idea what was coming.”
Joe Perry on his “Billie” guitar, as told to Premier Guitar:
“It started out as a standard B.B. King Lucille model, and I picked it because there were no F holes to get in the way of the artwork. It’s amazing that guitar plays as well as it does. I changed the electronics; it has one volume and one tone now. The inspiration was the nose art you saw on airplanes during World War II. I wanted to put the most beautiful woman I could find on there, so naturally, I chose my wife. I sent it out to an airbrush artist and he did a great job. When I got it back, I opened the case and gave it to Billie, and she hated it. She was so embarrassed she refused to come out of the dressing room at Aerosmith shows when I was using it. She couldn’t stand the sight of seeing herself on a 30- or 40-foot screen at shows. Now, she’s okay with it…My Billie guitar rings like a bell when the volume is down. When you turn it up, you can get a great rock ‘n’ roll crunch, and it’s a good heavy metal guitar too. It does everything well. That guitar is really special.”
Article continued: (here).
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