SOLD! - Gibson Collectors Choice Ed King 1959 Les Paul "Red Eye" Aged CC16A

The original "Red Eye" is an iconic guitar once owned by Ed King of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
 
Even more remarkable is that it was stolen from the “Sweet Home Alabama” co-writer at gunpoint on Fathers Day in 1987! “I had some other stuff for sale and it’s a long story, but I kind of got caught unawares and that guitar left, and it’s a good thing I didn’t get shot and killed over it,” Ed recalled. It would take 10 years for him to be reunited with it...
 
When Ed purchased the guitar in 1982 in New Jersey, it had an interesting spot. The guitar was sitting in the sunny window of a guitar shop back in 1960 for a long time and the sunlight caused all the red dye to fade except where the hangtag was... Ed nicknamed it ‘Red Eye,’ and it was one of his favorite guitars.”
 
Gibson Custom’s Collector’s Choice series provides players with the opportunity to experience the precise look, feel and tone of some of the rarest guitars in history, through unrestricted hands-on access to specific vintage Les Pauls in some of the world’s top collections. 
 
This beauty has an aged and faded “Dirty Lemon” burst which accurately matches Ed’s Les Paul, right down to the subtle traces of red in key areas where it was unevenly exposed to UV light over the years. Among other distinct details included are a rounded ’59 neck profile that has been scanned and duplicated for an exact match; the precise top carve, along with precise renditions of every critical angle and curve; and a pair of Gibson’s finest PAF reproductions, designed, engineered, and built based on extensive testing of the originals, to capture that essential burst tone.