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Gibson Les Paul Special Billie Joe Armstrong Prototype
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Since they first started playing, Green Day have always been respectful of their fans and keen to offer them the best possible show, the best possible albums and even quality merchandising. Billie Joe Armstrong’s two signature models by Gibson (Junior single cutaway and Junior double cutaway) are no exception: they are in fact the best Les Paul Juniors recently made if you’re not ready to pay Custom Shop prices.
This excellent instrument is the result of many prototypes, all of which were put to the test in the expert hands of Billie Joe, a skilled specialist in vintage Les Paul Juniors since he owns an impressive collection.
This prototype dates back to 2005, two years before finally creating his double cutaway Les Paul Junior signature. The stenciled skull logo which is already there would later become smaller and inlaid on the pickguard. Besides, it resembles a Les Paul Special more than a Junior because it has two pickups and four knobs. It is hard to tell whether the signature model was originally supposed to be a Special before becoming a Junior or if it was simply an experiment.
One thing is certain and many pictures prove it: Billie Joe has extensively played it on stage, and the back bears the scratches of his belt buckle. This Les Paul Special represents both a very unique prototype and one of Armstrong’s weapons of choice for the stage.
Other photos
Billie Joe Armstrong
(1972)
Group : Green Day
Main guitar : Gibson Les Paul Junior
An absolute “must-hear” track : East Jesus Nowhere
The dirty rock kid, the eternal teenager who appeals to punks and goths alike, the Pete Townshend of the 2000s... Billie Joe Armstrong, singer and guitarist of the Green Day trio, is a character who never ceases to be fascinating. His right hand is a real riff machine, and he has restored respect for the aggressive and energetic rhythmic playing of Californian punk.
Armstrong started Green Day in 1986, with Mike Dirnt already on bass. The current drummer, Tré Cool, arrived in 1990, and the band has remained the same since then. The band has had colossal success on several occasions, and you have to admire their achievement in creating two peaks in their careers ten years apart; an unexpected and very rare phenomenon. Their first huge success was the album Dookie in 1994 (10 million copies sold), propelled by the single Basket Case. Their second triumph came in 2004 with the rock opera American Idiot and its 16 million albums sold. The recipe (big riffs and choruses to make a whole stadium sing along) remains the same, with a few additions that hit the mark, including a taste for acoustic ballads that got them huge hits with Wake Me Up When September Ends and 21 Guns.
In addition to Green Day, Billie Joe Armstrong is also part of the punk band Pinhead Powder. That lineup also includes Jason White, who tours with Green Day as an additional guitarist. On the softer side, he also recorded a duet tribute album to the Everly Brothers with Norah Jones, the magnificent Foreverly in 2013.For that acoustic album, he played a Gibson Everly Brothers, which makes sense. But his preference as a guitarist is above all electric and simplistic. He is known for his love of the Les Paul Junior model, either single cut or double. He has even had two signature Gibson models with a single P90 pickup, but has also been seen with Telecasters, Les Paul Custom Black Beauties, and a breathtaking array of other beautiful guitars. And among all that, his most famous guitar—the one he already had for Dookie and which represents his unalterable punk spirit—is of course Blue, a kit Strat covered with stickers and whose only pickup is an active humbucker in the bridge position. Simple, direct, and effective, like its owner.
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