Guitarsenal: In The Beginning, There Were Knockoffs...

This is the first in an ongoing series I've decided to call "Guitarsenal" where I explore the various guitars of Jimmy Page.

"Hip, Young, Guitar Slinger"

When you imagine Jimmy Page, you think of the long black hair in the dragon suit, clutching a wicked Sunburst 1959 Gibson Les Paul...or maybe even a crazy looking double-neck Gibson EDS 1275, or possibly he's just bowing a sick Telecaster that is covered in crazy psychedelic paint. Very few people looked cooler holding a guitar than Jimmy Page, but then very few people played cooler guitars than him either.  This of course was not always so...

Jimmy didn't start off with the Gibson Les Pauls, the Double Necks, or even the Fenders, no, like most mortals Jimmy got his start on cheapish guitars with suspect wood, crafted to look like the guitars your heroes played. He wasn't wearing the dragon suits then either...lots of sweaters, lots of khaki.

Of course the story is often repeated that when Jimmy decided he wanted to play guitar after seeing a mate from school strumming away, there was already one at his house; an old spanish acoustic model. Of course, no pictures of this guitar exist, at least in the public domain, thus the first reportable guitar we have evidence of Jimmy playing is of a Hofner Senator:

The Hofner Senator was a second tier guitar out of the Selmer catalog of guitars that were one of the main proprietor of musical instruments in Post-War England. The guitar could be equipped with pickups, but Jimmy's apparently was not. The top was maple laminate, not the highest quality of wood, but for a beginner guitarist in an era when rationing was still in effect all across the country, it was a highly prized possession. The Hofner Senator, as you can plainly see, is modeled after the big jazz box guitars manufactured by Gibson in the 1940s and on. You can easily picture Wes Montgomery, or Charlie Christian playing with a guitar similar to this one on their lap...though theirs would not be made of Maple laminate.

After Jimmy had played his acoustic Senator for a while, he decided he wanted to plug in, crank the volume, and play some old time Rock and Roll. For this he decided he wanted a Strat, so he got one...sort of. Jimmy's next guitar was a 1957 Resonet Grazioso; a sort of Czechoslovakian copy of the famed Fender Stratocaster.

This guitar was manufactured by a large Czechoslovakian co-op group that also produced furniture. It cost 55 guineas and was the closest thing a person could get to an actual Fender Stratocaster in Europe at the time. Obviously there were some marketing problems with a name that rolls off the tongue like Grazioso, so Selmer changed the name to the Futurama guitar.

Jimmy's guitar was came in a two tone tobacco sunburst, had three single coil pickups, twenty-one frets, with a body made of beech wood. The controls on this guitar were a little different than the typical Fender Stratocaster, while it did have a master volume and tone control, it didn't have the standard single pickup selector to switch from pickup to pickup, but rather had three different on and off switches that controlled each pickup. (I actually rather like the idea of that configuration)

It was an odd guitar indeed especially by the quality standards of today. Not only have guitars gotten better in terms of quality control and so on, but the knock offs have improved vastly over time as well.

Jimmy with his Resonet Grazioso in 1960

My point in bringing these guitars to light is this, nobody, and I mean nobody who was ever really worth much of a damn has started off with shimmering vintage Stratocasters, or Gretschs, or Gibsons, or any other guitar that one may dream over. Most of us start with pieces of crap that kinda look like the guitars our idols play...I certainly did, and so then did Jimmy Page. The playing comes from your head, your heart, and your hands; period. This can not be overstated, it doesn't matter if you have a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard, or an Epiphone Les Paul 100, if you have the ability, you have it, and if you don't, well, you don't, and no guitar you ever buy will change that fact. Trust me, I've learned the hard way.

However, I will say this, if you're really dedicated, eat loads of ramen, and save your pennies wisely, then maybe one day you can afford a guitar that some other person may "ooh" & "ahh" over, then look to their Squier bullet and just smile.