“I bought this one from a pawn shop in Rapid City, South Dakota when I was on tour with The Cult supporting Metallica in the summer of 1989 (16th June). I got it for $400 and it’s the only ever guitar that I’ve bought from a pawn shop, all the others have been from an actual guitar shop or a private person. I was bored on a day off in Rapid City and there was a lot of shops selling Native Amercian stuff and bric a brac and 99% of the time they sell crap instruments but this one was actually… Read the full article.

The natural-finished Gibson Les Paul Customs seen in Cult videos like “Heart of Soul” are black Customs with the front finish removed. Billy explains, “I picked up this one in Los Angeles in 1988 and the first thing I did was have the front finish taken off it as an homage to Mick Ronson.” Mick was David Bowie’s guitarist in the 1970s and legend has it that on one drug fuelled night on tour he stripped all the finish off his own black Les Paul. It’s not only the look that Billy had customised, he continues, “Like all my Les Pauls I… Read the full article.

“This was made for me by the Gibson Guitar Custom shop in 2000 although nobody can find any record of them doing so, but they did make it for me to my specification ie the kind of neck I like and it never had a scratch plate. Unusually the wood on the front of this guitar actually matches as it’s only in two pieces. On a regular black Les Paul there’s three pieces of wood glued together to make the front in strips, one holds the pick-ups, one at the top and one at the bottom. I think because it’s… Read the full article.

“This black Les Paul Custom is a ‘57 re-issue Black Beauty and has a great story.  In 2006 The Cult went to do a gig in Bulgaria, at a place called Kavarna, on the coast and we could only carry a limited amount of equipment on the plane. So the promoter of the show had a rep in Germany who was a guitar collector and he brought a couple of his own guitars along for me, one of which was this Black Les Paul Custom re-issue. Anyway, I carried a couple of guitars on the plane, my White Falcon and… Read the full article.

“In 2009 I bought this Blonde 1980s Les Paul Custom as an impulse buy. I was in an interview in a guitar store and then I had to basically change everything on it… the pick-ups, I had it re-fretted, I had it worked on extensively. It’s not particularly collectable it just felt OK.” Billy Duffy – January 2013 Photo by Matthew Constatinou SHOP ONLINE IN THE U.S. NOW

“This is my favourite recording Les Paul. I occasionally take it on the road but mostly it’s for recording. I generally play songs from ‘Sonic Temple’ on the Les Paul Custom and songs from ‘Electric’ on the Les Paul Gold Tops. They just feel better for those particular types of songs.” Billy Duffy – January 2013 BUY Gibson Les Paul Traditional Pro Gold Top ONLINE IN THE U.S. NOW

“This one is just a regular production 1960 re-issue Gold Top that Gibson made in 2000. It was quite inexpensive but it just sounded really good. I did all the usual changes though: changed the pick-up and tuning pegs, took the scratch plate and pick-up cover off. The reason why I take the pick-up covers off is that it makes the guitar less prone to feed back and squealing at loud volumes. Guys like Jimmy Page take them off by the bridge, because the bridge is where you really crank the sound. I use this one all the time live.… Read the full article.

The goal for Gibson when they introduced the Les Paul Junior in 1954 was to have a high-quality guitar that was still affordable. This was achieved by stripping the Les Paul down to the basics: one pickup, one volume knob and tone knob. It was equipped with one P-90 dog ear pickup in the bridge. It was originally released in sunburst, but Gibson also introduced the TV version (a kind of yellow, also known as TV Yellow) for professional musicians, who would be featured playing the guitar on television; the yellow would look white on black and white television, without the glare… Read the full article.

“This guitar was made for me in 2008. At the time a friend of mine was working at Gibson and we got fairly advanced in developing a Billy Duffy Signature Les Paul. I was really pushing Gibson to make it a wood fronted guitar like I was playing at the time and you can see all the pictures from that era and to this day are with my Wood Fronted Les Paul Customs. Unfortunately, Gibson didn’t want to do that because they were planning on doing a Mick Ronson Tribute Guitar, like the one that had inspired my love for… Read the full article.

This 1958 reissue ‘Flame Top’ Les Paul was built to Billy’s exact specifications by the team at the Gibson Custom Shop in Fall 2013. You can read the full story about how a visit to the Custom Shop whilst on the ‘Electric 13’ tour with The Cult here… My New Gibson Custom Shop ‘Flame Top’