Jimmy Page – Black Beauty

Jimmy Page owned a 1960 Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty complete with a Bigsby tremolo bar and three humbucking (yes three) pickups. Page used the guitar on many of his recordings as a session musician and continued to use it through his tenure with Led Zeppelin, most famously at Royal Albert Hall in 1970. Unfortunately, the guitar was stolen about three months after that concert and was presumed to be gone forever. However, in 2016, forty-six years after the guitar’s disappearance, the guitar was rumored to be back in Page’s hands according to a former Led Zeppelin roadie Henry Smith.

B.B King – Lucille

Over the years, Gibson collaborated with B.B. King to create several signature models, mostly all named Lucille, altering certain aspects for special releases. In 2005, Gibson presented King with the first prototype of an 80th Birthday model of Lucille. This was B.B.’s go to guitar until 2009, when it was randomly taken from him. Luckily, later that year, an avid guitar collector named Eric Dahl was browsing a pawn shop in Las Vegas and saw the black Es-355 model with the word’s “Prototype 1” stamped on the back. Dahl confirmed with Gibson that it was the real thing and he met with King in person to return his guitar.

Paul McCartney – Violin Bass

The iconic violin bass from Hofner is mostly iconic due to the international superstar who made it his trademark instrument: Paul McCartney. McCartney chose the odd-looking instrument because is has a symmetrical shape and when you turn it upside down to play it lefthanded, it “doesn’t look that mad.” The original bass was taken from Paul in the late sixties when the Beatles were recording their final album Let it Be. While the original has never been seen since, Hofner made McCartney an identical model of the violin bass that he continues to play to this day.

Peter Frampton – 1954 Gibson Les Paul Custom

Frampton’s most cherished guitar that he had since his Humble Pie days is a 1954 Gibson Les Paul Custom. In 1980, a guitarist’s worst nightmare came true when the guitar was presumed destroyed in a tragic cargo plane crash. Over thirty years later, the guitar was rediscovered in the Caribbean and returned to the legend in Nashville, Tennessee. Upon the reunion, Frampton said that “For 30 years, it didn’t exist – it went up in a puff of smoke as far as I was concerned.”

Michael Angelo Batio – Quad

One of the most unique creations was designed by metal guitarist Michael Angelo Batio and Wayne Charvel at Gibson. The four-necked beast, nicknamed the quad, was created after Batio and his label felt overdone by Steve Vai’s triple-necked guitar. After only the second show on a 1989 tour, the guitar was stolen. Years later, the guitar was discovered in England at a guitar shop and Batio was forced to buy back his own instrument!