Credit: Far Out / Rob Bogaerts / Anefo / Chris Hakkens)
Mon 2 June 2025 18:30, UK
The concept of love at first sight might not mean anything when it comes to people, but it definitely does when it’s about objects. As strangely materialistic as that sounds, we’ve all had that moment when we see an item and immediately want it, feeling a pull that’s clear as day. Eric Clapton was in London’s Flamingo Club sometime in the mid-1960s when he first felt it: Andy Summers was over the other side of the room, wearing his Sunburst Les Paul.
Well, it wasn’t exactly his, per se, but he knew that it eventually would be, no matter what. There’s a fire to knowing something belongs to you that most musicians will probably feel multiple times throughout their careers, especially when it comes to gear. And, while we all know the importance of having the right equipment for whatever approach feels right for any given person, most people feel particularly possessive over certain guitars, and the Les Paul was once the star of this story.
The reasons why are all there: it sounds better, gives out a nicer, fuller tone, and is more versatile than most others that were doing the rounds in the ’60s, and yet, one of its biggest selling points was something that could be considered shallow. And that’s the fact that, put plainly, it also looked really cool. Especially the Sunburst one, with the way its colour and sheen looked just right, impressive in any kind of lighting. No wonder Clapton had to pick his jaw up off the floor.
The day he saw it on Summers, he did what anyone under the familiar Les Paul spell would do, and asked him where he could get one of his own. “Naively,” Summers recalls, he told him where he’d just got his “down the road” in a well-known Denmark Street guitar shop, where he knew there had been two, one of them now his. Knowing that Clapton would immediately go down to get the second one, he wished he’d picked up both, but suppose that’s the expected attitude of someone who eventually learnt how coveted they would be beyond this specific moment in time.
The kicker came when Clapton lost his, which introduced a whole new issue for Summers, because he suddenly became Clapton’s favourite person. He had the other guitar, the sister to the missing piece, and he wanted it back, no matter the cost. Summers, as you’d expect, started out feeling frustrated at Clapton’s persistence (“he kept calling and calling”), and remained adamant (“No, I don’t want to sell it…so I kept resisting it”).
Eventually, though, he gave in and sold it to him for £200. Considering the fact that they go for around £2 million now, you can see why he feels this was a grave mistake. The icing on top of the cake was also the sting he felt when he first took it to him, when he was recording for Cream’s Fresh Cream. Already feeling pressured to give away something he knew he actually wanted to keep, Summers overheard the moment everything felt all the worse for it. “You could hear them all talking and [Clapton’s] going, ‘Fuuuuucking hell, it’s great! Wow!’ And I felt so terrible that I’d let Eric Clapton have my Les Paul.”
While Clapton clearly made good use of it, a fact that also likely comforted Summers from time to time, there’s nothing like passing on something you always felt a certain pull towards, like a collectible item you once had that suddenly surges in value, or a Sunburst Les Paul you criminally undersold to someone in the same musical circle as you. At least, all things considered, Summers was already beginning to move on to another Telecaster that he loved even more, and gave Clapton the Les when he was still very much in love.
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