If there was one guitar in my extensive arsenal of 6 string weaponry that has been with me through it all, it would be my 1979 wine red 3-pickup Gibson Les Paul Custom.
Back in 1990, I was mostly playing an original Ibanez Iceman electric guitar as my regular go to ax. I had bought it for $225 from Consolidated Music in Barrington back when Jesus roamed the Earth. She was pretty damn good, and I had put thousands of hours of time on it, but I needed a backup guitar and thought that it might be time to spend a little money and get something nicer. I was a single dad working my first gig in radio, so money was crazy tight. Time to go shopping.
There was a tiny little guitar store in Seminole Florida known as Johnnies House of Guitars. Johnny was a true player.. a cool soul... with impeccable taste in instruments. His store was full of only the best and highest quality instruments and tube amplifiers from brands like; Gibson, Fender, Marshall, Gretsch, and Ampeg. Other brands were simply now allowed in the front door. This was my favorite store in all of Florida.
I tried out vintage Strats, Tele's, and several Les Paul's, but really fell in love with the 1979 wine red Les Paul Custom. I just seemed to play it better. The price tag read $1500. A fortune for a single dad working in radio, and more than I had ever payed for any piece of gear by nearly triple.. but Johnny was a friend. "A thousand bucks and it's all yours!" said Johnny as he peered at me through huge coke bottle lensed glasses from behind the tiny counter located by the front door. "and I know you ain't got the money, so if you want to do layaway that's cool."
He was right, I didn't. I gave him the $300 I had saved up and walked out the door empty handed.
After almost a year of making payments with all of my hard earned money, and stopping in for visitation rights, a tragedy happened. In a freak accident. The overhead garage door at my rehearsal studio started to sag. Nobody noticed. One day, when we went to open the door it sagged just enough to catch the top of the Marshall head sitting way up on the stack of 4x12 cabinets. It knocked if off, causing it to fall right on to the Ibanez iceman which was directly below it in the guitar stand. The neck snapped clean off. It was dead... and we had our first show that weekend at a place called Gators.
I took everything I had in the bank out, which wasn't much, and sold a speaker cabinet to a kid down the street, before heading off to see Johnny. In the way only a veteran music store owner can, he must have noticed something in my step, maybe the way I opened the door. "O.. Today's the day!", he said as soon as I put my foot on the mat. "I'm sorry that it comes in such a junky case, but you made a great choice, I know you are going to be happy you bought this guitar". The old hard shell case was more grey duct tape than it was original. only two of the latches would even hold it together. Johnny and I wrapped it up even further with more duct tape. I walked out the door like a king.
I played some amazing shows with that guitar over the next 20 years, from festivals in front of 25,000 people to small little bars, that Gibson Les Paul was everything Johnny said and more. It fit like a glove.
Two decades of long rehearsals in sweltering hot Florida studios along with the many outdoor concerts of me just sweating all over that guitar, and she was taking a beating. It was meant to be played, and I played it. She was amazing and never once let me down. The stock pickup went bad from the sweat pouring into it during shows. We went through a couple of toggle switches, but the beast kept playing. It was everything I had hoped and so much more, sending righteous tube driven guitar tone out through monster sound systems all over the state. It was most excellent.
Eventually, the binding started to crack and the frets shown serious wear and tear. The deep wine red color disappeared under a milky white haze. I'll never know how the pickguard got lost. Like a trusty old rifle she was oiled up and put in her case to retire until one day I could pay the big bucks to ressurect her back to her proper glory. She deserved that.. and so she sat..
Fast forward to 2018.
I had formed a band here in Chicago to do what I had done in Florida... help out some worthy charities and play fun community festivals. Mr Capone's Bootlegger Band was headlining some very cool shows, and we were having a blast. Gone was the day of using only one guitar for the show. I now had multiple guitars of all kinds to fill the needs of the big concerts.. and these guitars needed some expert maintenance.
My friends Pat and Jimmy at Goodtime Music in Streamwood Illinois had been doing an amazing job with setups on all the guitars I was now using during the shows. Goodtime Music is one of those outstanding little music stores than has managed to stay in business, beating all the odds against those massive big store chains and mega online retailers. The reason, Pat and Jimmy are the real deal... passionate and highly skilled at what they do.. incredibly cool and knowledgeable.. with a store full of high quality gear that any guitar player would love to own. I brought in my Les Paul.
For several weeks, Pat and Jimmy performed magic on that guitar. I have no idea how many hours Pat must have been polishing that finish to get all of those milky white sweat stains removed. The frets were level and polished... and a new pickup was installed with a sweet custom wiring idea from Jimmy. They managed to salvage as much of the old guitar as they could, even using a technique of melting plastic into the old cracked binding. The love and care they put into that guitar goes far above and beyond anything that I could have expected. The work was exceptional!
These days, I have about 30 very high end guitars of all kinds.. and even though a couple are considerably more rare and expensive than my 1979 Gibson Les Paul Custom, none will ever take its place. She continues to deliver incredible tone thanks to the hard work and exceptional craftsmanship of Pat and Jimmy at Goodtime Music.
Brother Johnny from Johnnie's House of Guitars passed away many years ago. His shop is now long gone and mostly forgotten by all except those of us who would frequently visit the great oracle for an afternoon of guitar talk and musical enlightenment. 30 years ago, Johnny said in the most casual of tones "you're going to be glad you bought this guitar!"... and he was once again perfectly correct. I am damn glad I bought that guitar. Thanks Johnny!
Written by Patrick Capone
*Thanks to Pat and Jimmy for bringing my trusty Les Paul back to life.
*God Bless Johnny
**Please support your local music store!