A 90th birthday gig for innovative Les Paul

4001 standard. Bluish finish, teal I think it’s called. I’d have to do some research to date it exactly but it’s from around 1977, possibly a touch earlier. It’s great for most of my bass guitar needs that my Fender fretless jazz bass can’t handle and it’s better for hard rock.

Since you’re interested in this gear, you might be interested in a very exotic instrument I have. I quite like the jingle-jangle Rickenbacker electric 12 string sound for rock but I get it on an electric bouzouki which is more versatile. It was custom made by Graham McDonald in Canberra who is one of the best 'zouk makers around; I’d love to have one of his accoustic instruments. Donal Lunny has played his intruments. He wired it like a strat which gives an enormous variety of tones; the out of phase settings accentuate the zouk sound. It can be made to sound like a Rick or Gibsen 12 string while also having lots of zouk sounds. The zouk tuning in fifths gives it sympathetic resonance that an ordinary electric 12 string would lack.