The original cost Billy Gibbons $250 in 1968. The replica is listed at $39,999, and only thirty will exist.
Gibson are building thirty copies of the guitar Billy Gibbons bought with his share of the money from selling an old car.
The Gibson Custom Billy Gibbons “Pearly Gates” 1959 Les Paul Standard Collector’s Edition is listed at $39,999. Each one is hand-signed by Gibbons, and each buyer is admitted, with one guest, to an invitation-only evening with him at the Gibson Garage Nashville on Friday, October 16 at 7:00 p.m. Admission is not sold separately.
Gibson examined the original instrument in detail, taking 3D scans and measurements, and the Murphy Lab has aged each replica to match the condition of the real “Pearly Gates” as it stands today rather than as it left the factory in 1959. The P.A.F. humbuckers have been recreated to match the originals. The guitars are being made by the Gibson Custom Shop in Nashville.
This is not the first time the model has been reproduced. Gibson issued a Pearly Gates Les Paul in 2009 in a run of 350, of which fifty were aged and a further fifty aged and signed by Gibbons, starting at around $8,000. Thirty units at $39,999 is a considerably narrower proposition.
In 1968, Gibbons and a group of friends jointly owned a 1936 Packard. An aspiring actress they knew needed a car to get from Texas to Hollywood for a film audition, and they lent it to her, not expecting it to make it out of the state.
It made the trip and she got the part. The group decided the car had divine connections and named it Pearly Gates. When they told her to sell it, she wired the proceeds back to Texas, and Gibbons used his $250 share to buy a near-mint 1959 Les Paul Standard from a rancher in the Houston area. The name transferred to the guitar.
That was a year before ZZ Top existed. Gibbons was still playing in the Moving Sidewalks at the time, and formed ZZ Top in 1969. The guitar has been with him for the whole of the band’s life.
The evening at the Gibson Garage Nashville includes:
- A live performance by Billy Gibbons
- A private moderated conversation and Q&A with Gibbons and members of the Gibson Custom Shop team
- A meet-and-greet and individual photograph with Gibbons
- The signed Collector’s Edition guitar itself
- Food, drinks and onsite hospitality
Travel and accommodation are not included, the experience is non-transferable, and no refunds are offered to buyers who cannot attend. Gibson state that no separate cash value has been assigned to the evening.
Reservations are taken by phone through the Gibson Garage Nashville on (615) 933-6000. The venue is at 209 10th Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37203.
Gibson was founded in 1894 and is headquartered in Nashville.
