Chords for The Stories Behind Another 6 Famous Guitars

Now and then, certain instruments [F] become as [E] identifiable as the musicians that play them.
And today, we're [D] looking at the stories behind another six famous guitars.
Buckle up, [E] sit back, enjoy, here we go.
Nothing screams punk rock [C] quite like a [D] cheap, beat-up old guitar covered in stickers.
[E] So for Green Day frontman, Billy Joe Armstrong, his guitar blue is the [Em] perfect match.
As a child, [A] Billy by no means grew up [G] rich.
His mom was a widow [C] who looked after [G] a family of seven by working at a [A] diner.
She noticed that her youngest 10-year-old son, Billy, was [E] taking to music, so she saved
up all [G] her tips to buy him a used blue Fernandez strap copy.
[A] In fact, there's [E] a Polaroid of a 10-year-old Billy attached [Dm] to the back of the guitar to commemorate [G#] this.
The instrument was bought from [Em] Armstrong's guitar teacher, George Cole, who had gotten
it from someone else, apparently at one point [E] it even belonged to Santana's bass player.
Either way, Billy grew a [Am] special attachment to it and would continue to use [B] it throughout his career.
It's [Em] decorated and heavily modified, some [G#m] changes done due to necessity.
During [Am] Green Day's set at Woodstock 94, the guitar took a bit of [B] a beating.
The bridge pickup was filled with mud and gunk, [D] prompting Billy to replace [E] it.
Since then, the other two pickups have been disconnected [G] and the selector is fixed to
[F] the bridge [A] position.
Moving on, have you ever had to change your guitar mid [Am]-song at a show?
It's a bit of a pain.
[A] Now imagine having to change your guitar [E] five times.
Well Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick [G] solved this age-old problem with his Hamer [C#m] quintuple neck.
That's right, there are [F] five separate necks on one guitar, 72 strings, can [D] you imagine
tuning that thing?
There's a [F#] 12 string, a fretless, one neck with [G] a whammy bar, and two standards.
The original quintuple [Em] neck dates back to 1981.
Rick had a [G] stage bit where he would strap five guitars around his neck, play [A] one, take
it off, play the [G] next until he was down to the [C] final one.
In Rick's words,
Eventually, [Am] this part of the show gave birth to the idea of building [Em] a multi-neck guitar.
The [Am] original concept was to have a sixth neck that spun like a roulette [G] wheel, so that I
could play [Am] one neck and then rotate to the next.
But [C] then I decided to go with something more [D] conservative, five necks in a row.
The [C] original has since been retired, but if you go to see Cheap [G] Trick now, you can find
him [A] playing a checkered version of the famous quintuple neck guitar.
Another famous guitar from the 80s is Dimebag [C] Darrell's Dean from Hell.
In [G] 1982, a teenage Darrell Abbott won a maroon Dean [C] ML in a [D] shredding contest.
Darrell played this [A] guitar for years, but like many up and coming musicians, he [B] was
faced with some tough financial decisions.
One decision presented itself in the form of a [E] yellow Pontiac Firebird.
[B] This was the 80s, and that car was about [E] as cool as they came.
Darrell was desperate to own it, and went to sell [D#] his Dean ML to his friend Buddy [G#m] Blaze.
Blaze politely declined, [E] saying it was too special of a guitar [F#m] to get rid of.
His advice was ignored, [Am] and Dimebag ultimately ended up selling it to someone else.
Now, we could all use a friend like Buddy, because when he came across that guitar again,
[Fm] he bought it back.
He modified a number of things, painted it with that iconic lightning [E] bolt, and eventually
gave it [Am] back to Darrell as a gift.
The instrument came full circle, and it would be Dimebag's signature guitar [E] for years to come.
The next [A] guitar on our list is perhaps the most important of them all, Les Paul's Log.
While this may not be the prettiest thing you've ever laid eyes on, it is the first
solid [G] body electric guitar.
As a youngster, Les Paul would often tinker [B] with his equipment.
[A] One of his early innovations was rigging [C] up a microphone from a telephone [G] and a broomstick
to amplify his voice and [E] harmonica.
He figured he could get more tips from the people at the back of the diner [C#] he played
at if they could hear him better.
This [E] worked, but the problem was they still couldn't hear his guitar.
Les went to his workshop.
He would rig up a number of contraptions to amplify [E] his acoustic instrument, but nothing
encapsulated the sound he was looking for.
The closest he got was turning a [C] piece of steel rail line into a guitar.
It [G] sustained like nothing else he'd [A] ever heard, and he knew he was onto something.
Of course, this thing was totally [D] impractical, but the seed was planted in [C] Les' head.
If he could [A] create a solid body, he would eliminate the feedback from amplifying an acoustic [C] instrument.
So Les attached [E] electronics and a guitar neck to a solid [B] piece of pine, and finally he had
found the sound he was looking for.
Unfortunately, the appearance [E] was too strange and jarring for an audience, and it was back
to the drawing board.
To make this guitar a little bit more conventional, he sawed an [B] Epiphone hollow body in half,
attached [E] the wings to the side, and in 1941, the log as we know it [F#] was complete.
It took some 10 years of convincing, but eventually Gibson saw the potential [E] market for a solid
body electric guitar.
They brought Les Paul in to design it, and came up with something you may have heard
of, the Gibson Les [C#m] Paul.
Speaking of Les Pauls, there is one in [F#m] particular that has an [E] especially [G#] interesting history,
and that's Joe Perry's [C#m]
1959 tobacco burst [E] Les Paul.
In the 70s, Aerosmith was one of the biggest bands in the world, and throughout this time,
guitarist Joe Perry had one [C#] go-to guitar.
This tobacco burst Les [C#m] Paul was special.
The coloring [F#] was darker than the traditional cherry [E] bursts, and apparently it had once
been owned by [G#] the legendary Dwayne [E] Allman.
Come 1982, and Joe had [B] fallen on some hard times.
He was faced [E] with an expensive divorce, as well as [G#m] an equally expensive substance problem.
To deal with his financial [G] woes, he was forced to sell his prized possession.
The guitar passed through a number of hands before it eventually landed in the possession
of Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash.
Slash had idolized Joe Perry, and that very Les Paul growing up, so when he got the chance
to [D] buy it, he jumped on the opportunity.
[G] The years go by, and Joe Perry and Aerosmith are back on the upswing.
Joe decides to try and track down [D] his favorite old guitar.
It [G] seems like a wild goose chase, until one day, he opens up a magazine, and there's
a picture of it [G] sitting in Slash's collection.
Joe called up [E] Slash, who wasn't looking to sell it, and he would [A] continue to pester
his friend until he eventually [D] gave up.
Fast forward a few more years, and [Gm] it's Joe Perry's 50th [G] birthday.
He's on stage jamming at his party when his [Em] guitar tech hands him the 1959 [A] Tobacco
Burst Les Paul, telling him [Dm] it's a gift from Slash.
You can't have a [Am] video about famous guitarists [C] without at least one fender in it, so last
on our list today is Rory [A] Gallagher's 1961 Stratocaster.
This beautifully [C] worn Strat is synonymous with perhaps [D] one of the greatest underappreciated [Am] blues [B] talents.
Rory bought it in his [C] hometown of Cork, Ireland for a mere 100 [G] pounds.
It's thought that this was the first Strat to make its way [Gm] into the country.
The story goes [E] that someone else had ordered it, but the wrong [G#] color was sent.
The guitar was put on display, and in 1963, [Em] it was bought by Gallagher.
It would be his number [G#] one guitar throughout his career, [F#] even though it went missing for
an extended [G] period of time.
The axe was stolen [F] right out of his van, much to the dismay of the guitarist.
An appeal was [B] made on Irish TV to get it [C] back, and fortunately, the police were able to track
the [E] six-string down.
Many have speculated as to [F] why the finish of this guitar [A] is so worn.
It's said that it may have had [C] something to do with Rory's sweat.
It could have been the fact that it sat in a rain-filled ditch when it was [Dm] stolen, or
maybe it just had an [Fm] unusually thin finish.
Either way, this is a [Am] truly beautiful instrument that absolutely sang when in the [D] hands of
the blues master.
[Dm] Ladies and gentlemen, there you have it, the [Fm] stories behind another six [A] famous guitars.
If you enjoyed this video, check out my first installment in this series where I [D] look at
seven other famous axes.
And if you like what I [A] do, please consider heading over to my Patreon [Dm] page where people
like you can support the [G] content that I make.
Thank you all for watching, [Am] I'm [C] SamuraiGuitarist, and I will see you again [Dm] soon. _