The Les Paul Auction

[Peter Huggins]

I was fortunate to attend the auction this weekend of the property from the estate of Les Paul, held at Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills. It was some pretty rare air in there, lots and lots of history. I was hoping to perhaps get one of the lesser instruments, such as a Stella, but even the Stellas in the collection ended up selling for $1000 or even more in a couple of cases. There was a Fender no-caster guitar, a gift from Leo Fender (who signed it on the back of the headstock) to Les back in 1951 that reached a winning bid of $180,000.00 (three times the top estimate). There was one steel guitar in the auction, a Gibson Electraharp from 1956, 8 strings and six pedals. it was in very clean condition and in tune when I strummed it, but the pedals were not hooked up. It realized a top bid of $4,250.00 .

Not everything was completely out of reach, even though most of the lots sold for four or five or even six figures. I managed to win Les's drill press, with a winning bid of $250.00 (plus buyer's premium of 25% and sales tax = $339.84 . Not horrible).

I got to meet Les several times, and every time I drill a hole in something I'll think about him cutting up some poor guitar

[Ron Whitfield]

Any guitar touched in any way by Les was better off for it.

I understand the LP museum rep was snagging most of the important items.

[Joe Casey]

I have a guitar given to me by him and signed personally..It says " to Country Joe" Keep picking..LES ..Jim Joe his personal assistant I'm sure was at the auction as he was given most of Les property.Including the Holy Grail and the first multi track recorder..I believe the "Log" is headed for the Smithsonian..I'm told Paul Mcartney has offered tons for it...below is a picture of the Guitar known as the "Holy grail"...

[Jack Stanton]

I had the opportunity to visit Les in his Mahwah home back in the 90's. The living room , dinning room and kitchen were literally crammed with guitars, amps, sheet music ,trade mags,etc. The kitchen sink was full of reel to reel tapes and microphones. Couldn't find a place to sit down. He took us into the studio, which was neat as pin. Incredibly cool seeing the first multi track machine and the place were he and Mary filmed their TV show.
He was quite a character!

[Joe Casey]

Jack do you mean this one ..
Also remember this guitar?/
And heres the authentication of the guitar I first posted..

[Jack Stanton]

Joe,
Could have been. Had a bunch of them in the studio. To tell the truth, I was pretty damn awe struck the whole time we were there. There must have twenty guitars laying around in the house.

[Larry Miller]

Joe Casey wrote

I believe the "Log" is headed for the Smithsonian..I'm told Paul McCartney has offered tons for it...

The "Log" has been in the Country Music Hall of Fame for years, I hope they don't move it.

[Joe Casey]

I stand corrected,I never seen it and JJ said the Smithsonian wants a guitar to which I assumed that would be the one...But there are many..The Black one I posted was his late favorite..

[Peter Huggins]

Hi Joe, Thank you for the pictures, that 295 looks great! The original log is at the CMHOF, but there were some duplicates built as well. There is one at the Discovery World museum in Milwaukee, WI. That one has a Gibson L-12 neck where the original one has an Epiphone neck. There are also displays featuring some of Les's inventions and many guitars at the Rock'N'Roll hall of fame in Cleveland, OH and also at the Mahwah Museum in Mahwah, NJ. The Smithsonian got the original Ampex 8-track.

"Visit www.lespaulfoundation.org for announcements of additional exhibits"

[Joe Casey]

The LOG