Model: Gibson ES-355 Color: Ebony Year: ?
Used in... - 2012 - featured in some backstage shots at Coachella (April 2012) - played live in (I Wanna Live in a Dream in My) Record Machine and (Stranded on) The Wrong Beach in August 2012
Details Original vintage ES-355s in Ebony are rare things. And original vintage ES-355s in Ebony with a stopbar and a long pickguard are real unicorns. So, here are my two guesses about this guitar: - it is a Custom Shop reissue, artificially aged, from the late 2000s & early 2010s (most probable) OR - it is an original vintage model from either 1959 or 1960 that has been repainted in black (definitely less probable) Anyways: it was first seen in April 2012 inside Noel's tour bus at Coachella. It was probably kept backstage so that Noel could strum a few chords in his room during the tour. If it is an early 2010s reissue, was it bought in the US shortly before Coachella? Who knows. It is quite likely that it was kept backstage during the following dates of the tour; maybe, while in Japan, Noel added a sticker to the pickguard (more about that in the next sections).
At the Frequency Festival in Wien (16 August 2012), Noel's cherry red ES-345 (the one with a trapeze tailpiece) was damaged in some sort of way: "So, it would seem the last time we spoke I was getting ready for a festival in Vienna? It was good as I remember. [...] Spoiled only by the death of one of my guitars. Well, it might not be actually dead but it was seriously maimed. A sad day. Rest in pieces my friend, I loved you very much."1 At the next gig, the V Festival in Chelmsford, the broken ES-345 was replaced with this ebony ES-355. It was then used also at the second V Festival date in Weston, at Marlay Park in Dublin, at Belsonic Festival in Belfast and at Rock en Seine in Paris. Then, in early September, at the Jersey & BIC Borunemouth gig, the damaged ES-345 (now repaired) reappeared and the ebony ES-355 dropped into oblivion...
Stickers We can safely said that the sticker was added in May 2012 during the Japan/Korea leg of the tour. It's a sticker available in Japanese shops that reads "zawa-zawa".2 I can't speak a word of Japanese, but it seems that "zawa-zawa" is a pretty common onomatopoeia used in manga and anime: it is the sound effect for "liveliness, noise, crowd" or for "leaves of a forest moving." Fascinating.
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The Chief's Guitars - Noel Gallagher's guitars: a complete guide - Oasis and NGHFB 