The sound of the ZZ Top cannot be understood without the now legendary Pearly Gates. This guitar is a 1959 Les Paul Standard made by the Gibson firm. We suppose that at this point it is not necessary to explain the influence of the guitars of this brand in the world of blues and rock.
Billy Gibbons purchased this guitar in 1968 from a farmer outside of Houston for $ 250, the equivalent of about $ 1,800 today. Taking into account that decades later a Japanese came to offer him 5 million dollars for it, we could say that it was not a bad deal. The guitar was totally original, it even kept the strings with which it left the factory. He also had a spare set of strings and a love note from an old farmer’s girlfriend.
Billy Gibbons totally loves his gears, as without them, of course, we won’t have those awesome licks and riffs in any ZZ Top song. In the video below, Billy Gibbons visits a Guitar Custom Shop of Europe’s biggest MUSIC STORE before ZZ Top’s performance in Cologne (Germany) in 2014.
Keep going for the video below: