As you might already know, Noel’s Cherry Sunburst Les Paul will be auctioned starting on 29 August 2024 – coinciding with the 30th anniversary of Definitely Maybe. All the details are available on Sotheby’s website.
The estimate is £60k-£80k, which is quite a lot for an early ’90s Made in Korea Epiphone but hey, this is the Supersonic guitar – the one used to record the song and featured in the video! It was also Noel’s go-to guitar for both live performances and studio recordings from 1993 to early 1994.
The page of the guitar has been updated, so check it out!
And keep reading this blog post after the break for a few remarks about serial numbers and, erm, knobs. Yeah, right…
The interesting new detail is the serial number: S9214903.
This confirms that it is a 1992 model made in the Korean Samick factory. I had previously narrowed down the production date to somewhere between late 1991 and early 1993, based on videos of Noel’s guitar and countless photos of early ’90s LPs, analyzing their small distinctive features. God only knows how many screencaps I collected from bad rips of the Gleneagles gig!
Unfortunately, the Samick factory temporarily switched to a no-month format for serial numbers between early 1992 and late 1993: the “S” stands for Samick, “92” indicates the year and the remaining digits are simply a meaningless production number. So, Noel’s Les Paul is the 14903rd set-neck guitar numbered in 1992, but beyond that, there’s not much more we can discern. Serial numbers before and after this period include the month in the two digits following the year – but guitars from this batch do not.
The guitar’s background is thoroughly detailed on its dedicated page, but to summarize: Noel gave this Les Paul to his friend Digsy in June 1994 – who kept it until sometime in 2021, when he allegedly sold it for £15k.
Some might find it gross that it hasn’t even been cleaned for the auction – but I actually appreciate the dusty patina and all the scratches!
When Digsy sold it to the current owner, the guitar was missing the bridge pickup tone knob, the neck pickup knob was not original and the toggle switch tip near the “Rhythm / Treble” ring was also missing.
A replacement for the missing knob has been added, but the switch tip is still missing! Imagine paying £80k for a guitar without the switch tip!
To be fair, finding a correct tip isn’t as straightforward as it seems. These early ’90s Samick Les Pauls had a very specific Korean-made ‘boxed’ switch – and neither Chinese nor USA-made Switchcraft tips fit the threaded metal part.
How do I know? Because my 1993 Made in Korea Les Paul (identical to Noel’s and briefly featured in this post) had a switch tip with the wrong thread that kept falling off. In the end, it was easier to track down an identical NOS Korean switch on the net with the appropriate tip to match!
The Chief's Guitars - Noel Gallagher's guitars: a complete guide - Oasis and NGHFB 