A 1974 Gibson Les Paul Custom electric guitar, formerly owned and played by Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols, has just been sold for $390,000 at auction, well beyond its $100,000 - $200,000 estimate.
The Gibson was originally owned by New York Dolls guitarist Sylvain Sylvain, before being passed on to Steve Jones. As one expects from a guitar owned by '70s punk guitarists, it's heavily worn from play, with the finish yellowed from cigarette smoke. In addition, there are multiple breaks, cracks, and repairs.
To add to its quirks, there are also "tan lines" where 1940s pinup girl decals were previously placed, plus four mounting holes for a Bigsby B5 vibrato, which Jones removed when he became the guitar's new owner.
While many other white Les Paul Customs have been sold off as Sex Pistols originals, auction house Julien's confirmed this is indeed the iconic Steve Jones Gibson.
The guitar comes with a history of punk lore and shady manager deals. As previously mentioned, the guitar originally belonged to Sylvian Sylvain. However, manager Malcolm McLaren allegedly took the Les Paul as payment for managing The New York Dolls.
He brought the guitar to the UK and gave it to Steve Jones after he started managed The Pistols. It became Jones’ go-to guitar during The Sex Pistols' short but influential existence.
Jones confirmed the story in a 1996 interview with Guitar World. “Malcolm was managing the Dolls for a while. And when he finished managing them, he brought this guitar back to England with him. I guess they owed him money or something and gave it to him as payment. It had a Bigsby bar, but I took it off because the thing kept going out of tune.”
Construction-wise, the guitar features a mahogany body with a maple top, a 24.75” scale length three-piece mahogany neck, and a 22-fret ebony fretboard with mother of pearl block inlays.
The broken headstock is inlaid with a mother-of-pearl Gibson logo and equipped with gold Grover tuners. Although the guitar was originally finished in Arctic White, years of poorly ventilated clubs and little care turned it into its now-iconic yellow hue.
Steve Jones' 1974 Gibson Les Paul Custom was part of Julien’s Music Icons auction, alongside Prince’s Cloud 3, Bob Dylan and Robbie Robertson's 1965 Fender Telecaster, Randy Bachman’s collection of over 200 guitars, and John Lennon’s lost Help! Framus 12-string – which has become one of the most expensive guitars to ever sell at auction.
