In this episode of "Guitarsenal" I'd like to feature Jimmy's next two guitars after his stint with some of the lower end no-name brands he'd been using previously.
If you have been reading this then you know Jimmy had started out playing a Czechoslovakian made Fender Stratocaster copy called a Resonet Grazioso. Well in the early 1960's when he was about 16 or so, Jimmy decided to ditch the knock off and get the real thing. So he went out and bought a real deal Fender Stratocaster guitar was manufactured in 1957 and came in a Tobacco Sunburst finish.
It is actually quite remarkable that Jimmy was able to get his hands on one, it certainly must have been one of the few actual Fender brand Stratocasters floating around England at the time. Jimmy described how he got a hold of it by saying; "I just started exchanging and getting better and better ones. I think the second one I had was a Fender Stratocaster, and that was the first good guitar I ever had."
Jimmy actually still owns this guitar to this day. It was even featured in the film "It Might Get Loud" a documentary about the electric guitar featuring Jimmy, The Edge from U2, and Jack White from the White Stripes and The Raconteurs. Jimmy describes getting the Stratocaster in the film: "Just tremendous, I couldn't believe it when I actually got it home and it was in the house...fantastic. This was the one, this was the one I was after."
When Jimmy joined Neil Christian and the Crusaders, he began making a steady income, anywhere between ten and twenty pounds a night, so with his earnings he decided to purchase another guitar to add to his collection. He chose to buy an orange Gretsch Chet Atkins Country Gentleman. This guitar endorsed by country legend Chet Atkins was a hollowbodied semi-acoustic electric instrument equipped with f-holes in the body.
Jeff Beck would comment on Jimmy's period with Neil Christian and go on to mention the Gretsch, "Page was sort of raving around with a big Gretsch Country Gentleman. It looked big on him because he was such a shrimp - all you saw was this guitar being wielded by a pipe-cleaner man."
Jimmy would eventually trade in his Country Gentleman to help him acquire a 1960 Gibson Les Paul Custom; "The Black Beauty". The Les Paul cost 185 pounds, and though it certainly hurt him to part with his Gretsch once he played the Gibson, he knew he had to have it. (I'm certain many guitarists are familiar with this feeling.
If you have been reading this then you know Jimmy had started out playing a Czechoslovakian made Fender Stratocaster copy called a Resonet Grazioso. Well in the early 1960's when he was about 16 or so, Jimmy decided to ditch the knock off and get the real thing. So he went out and bought a real deal Fender Stratocaster guitar was manufactured in 1957 and came in a Tobacco Sunburst finish.
It is actually quite remarkable that Jimmy was able to get his hands on one, it certainly must have been one of the few actual Fender brand Stratocasters floating around England at the time. Jimmy described how he got a hold of it by saying; "I just started exchanging and getting better and better ones. I think the second one I had was a Fender Stratocaster, and that was the first good guitar I ever had."
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| Jimmy with his "first good guitar" in 1973 |
When Jimmy joined Neil Christian and the Crusaders, he began making a steady income, anywhere between ten and twenty pounds a night, so with his earnings he decided to purchase another guitar to add to his collection. He chose to buy an orange Gretsch Chet Atkins Country Gentleman. This guitar endorsed by country legend Chet Atkins was a hollowbodied semi-acoustic electric instrument equipped with f-holes in the body.
Jeff Beck would comment on Jimmy's period with Neil Christian and go on to mention the Gretsch, "Page was sort of raving around with a big Gretsch Country Gentleman. It looked big on him because he was such a shrimp - all you saw was this guitar being wielded by a pipe-cleaner man."
Jimmy would eventually trade in his Country Gentleman to help him acquire a 1960 Gibson Les Paul Custom; "The Black Beauty". The Les Paul cost 185 pounds, and though it certainly hurt him to part with his Gretsch once he played the Gibson, he knew he had to have it. (I'm certain many guitarists are familiar with this feeling.
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| "Cricket anyone?" |
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