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Model: Gibson Les Paul Custom
Color: Black
Year: 1978 (serial: 73048576)

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For informational and non-commercial use only. Please do NOT publish this content elsewhere.
If you share or use this information, please provide proper credit and link to the website.
I appreciate your respect for the years of dedicated, freely available research! Thanks.

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Used in...

- 1994-2017

- the main live guitar between August 1994 and April 1995

- subsequently played live in 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2017

- used during the (What's the Story) Morning Glory? recording sessions

- used during the Standing on the Shoulder of Giants recording sessions

- played by Johnny Marr during the Heathen Chemistry recording sessions

- featured in the video of Whatever (1994)

- featured in the video of In the Heat of the Moment (2014)

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Details

At the infamous Newcastle gig on 9 August 1994, a fan climbed on stage and Noel used his '53 (ex-Marr) Les Paul guitar to defend himself. So, Johnny Marr sent him another Les Paul, a black Custom. And not a random one - it was his main guitar in 1985:

"I've got this black Les Paul that I wrote Bigmouth Strikes Again on, and The Queen Is Dead... and it's on the whole of The Queen Is Dead, pretty much."

Marr recounts the episode in his autobiography:

"I got a manic phone call to tell me that the night before in Newcastle the band had got into a fight onstage with some of the audience and the Les Paul I'd given Noel had got damaged. 'So what do you want me to do about it?' I asked. 'Have you got another one we can use?' came the reply. I looked at my guitars and reasoned: 'Well, he's accustomed to playing a Les Paul from The Smiths and The Who, so I can't send him something crappy.' I grabbed my black 1970s Les Paul that I used on The Queen Is Dead and stuck it in its case with a note that said: 'It's a bit heavier, in weight and sound. If you get a really good swing on it, you'll take some fucker's head off — Love from Johnny'"

'70s Les Pauls are known for being heavy guitars indeed. In Noel's words:

"And that guitar is the fu**ing heaviest piece of equipment I've ever picked up in my life!"

The switch between the control knobs - a feature that makes this guitar instantly recognizable - operates a coil split: it was used to record the bending riff in the intro of the song Morning Glory.

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The first documented appearance of the Black Custom in Johnny's hands is dated May 16, 1985. Between August and September of the same year, it was used to write and record Bigmouth Strikes Again at RAK Studios in London. Then, between October and November, Johnny played it while recording The Queen Is Dead at Jacobs Studios in Farnham.

At the time, the guitar looked a little different: it had no pickguard, featured a TP-6 fine-tuning tailpiece and had gold pickup mounting rings and a gold toggle switch plate. The pickups were not the original Gibson T-Tops either (those aren't easily coil-splittable): chances are they were DiMarzios - I've covered all the details in a dedicated article on the blog.

Johnny played the Les Paul Custom live throughout 1985 and 1986. After a Smiths gig in Carlisle in October 1986, he wrote the chord sequence for Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me on the Les Paul. Again, in January 1987, Johnny wrote I Started Something I Couldn't Finish on it. Both songs were eventually recorded at The Wool Hall in March 1987 and released on the final Smiths album Strangeways, Here We Come.

Johnny Marr also played it during a few Electronic gigs in 1991.

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Sometime between 1992 and 1994 the guitar underwent a few modifications: the TP-6 tailpiece was replaced with a conventional stopbar, and the gold rings were swapped out for regular cream pieces from a Les Paul Standard model: original Les Paul Customs came with black plastic parts. A matching cream pickguard was added too.

And here we come to 1994, when the guitar was handed to Noel after the Newcastle incident on August 9. According to recent comments by Johnny Marr, he took it to Birmingham with a handwritten note inside the case. This likely means that he gave Noel the guitar on August 11 before the Wolverhampton gig, which is just on the outskirts of Birmingham.

This leaves a little unsolved mystery: which guitar did Noel play on August 10 in Leeds? The most sensible answer would be the Bigsby-equipped Antique Sunburst Epiphone Riviera, which was brought on tour as a spare. Or perhaps it was the Gibson Firebird, which Noel definitely acquired sometime in the summer of 1994, certainly before August 26. Unfortunately, no pictures from the Leeds gig seem to exist.

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The black Les Paul was Noel's main guitar throughout the second half of 1994: it famously featured in the official video of Whatever, that was filmed on December 5 in Wimbledon. On the following day, Oasis filmed their Jools Holland performance at the BBC Studios in London: the Les Paul was played for Whatever and I Am the Walrus.

In early 1995, Noel used the now-repaired Sunburst Les Paul and a newly acquired Les Paul Goldtop more frequently than the black Custom. Then, the famous Wine Red Epiphone Riviera entered the scene, and the black Custom was put aside until the Be Here Now era in 1997. However, it was used during the What's The Story Morning Glory? recording sessions, specifically for the title track.

It was played live again in D'You Know What I Mean? and Wonderwall, during the first few gigs of the USA tour in June 1997. It was also used in Wonderwall during Noel's solo electric performance at the infamous Tibetan Freedom Concert in the same month.

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During the summer of 1999 the guitar was modified by Noel himself.
The cream pickguard, the cream pickup switch rings and the gold knobs were replaced with black ones; the humbucker pickups were replaced with two P-90s that had been removed in 1994 from Noel's Gibson Firebird:

"There were really modern pickups in it and I didn't like them. So I tossed the pickups out, took some from another guitar and put them in this. I cut the holes out myself. It's the one I've used the most for these recordings [the album Standing on the Shoulder of Giants]. It's a better guitar now."

Noel talked again about the pickup change in 2023:

"Somewhere down the line the pickups had got damaged, and I had taken them out. And those P-90s are from a Firebird that I had. It was only then that [Johnny Marr] said: 'Oh, that's The Queen Is Dead guitar'. And I was like: 'Why didn't you fu**ing tell me that earlier before I butchered it?"

This Les Paul was Noel's main guitar during the recording of the Standing on the Shoulder of Giants album in 1999:

"There's nothing better than a black Les Paul and a Marshall stack. I don't give a f**k what anybody says."

Then, in late 1999 it was played live in Cigarettes & Alcohol, Supersonic, Champagne Supernova and Helter Skelter.

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In 2000 and 2001 it was sometimes used for live performances of Gas Panic! (e.g. Jools Holland 2000). In May 2001, during the Brotherly Love tour, Noel played it when he joined the Black Crowes with Gem at the end of their set for a cover of Down on the Street by The Stooges. 

In October 2001, Johnny Marr played his old Les Paul again to record guitar parts for (Probably) All in the Mind, a track from the 2002 Oasis album Heathen Chemistry.

After a long hiatus, the black Les Paul Custom resurfaced in 2014, played by Noel in the official video of In the Heat of the Moment. In 2017, throughout the U2 support tour, it was played live during the same song.

Noel briefly mentioned it in a 2015 interview, again recalling its weight:

"[Johnny] gave me a guitar, and there was a fight on the stage with some members of the audience – fu**in' as**oles. The guitar got damaged, but he gave me another one to replace it. I've still got that one and I still play it from time to time. It's a bit heavy for me, but it's a beautiful Les Paul.”

In February 2024, to coincide with the opening of the Gibson Garage in London, a replica of Noel's black Les Paul Custom was released. Only 20 pieces were made available worldwide, and they could only be purchased in-person by attendees on the official opening day. Further details about the replica can be found in this blog post.

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Stickers

This guitar has an interesting history of stickers: the iconic oasis logo (most likely fanmade) was added to the pickguard while the band was in Japan, between 16 and 18 September 1994; it was later removed before 1997.

Then, sometime after 2001 the following were added:

- an Adidas logo on the new, black pickguard

- three white arrows, added in 2001 during the Brotherly Love tour (this comes from the artwork of the 1992 The Jam single Precious)

- a USA flag in the shape of a heart

- a The Strokes logo on the rear control cavity cover

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This is a fansite. It is not affiliated with Noel Gallagher, his management or his record label.
For informational and non-commercial use only. Please do NOT publish this content elsewhere.
If you share or use this information, please provide proper credit and link to the website.
I appreciate your respect for the years of dedicated, freely available research!
Visit the “Info & About” page for contact details and more.
Thanks!

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1. Marr’s Guitars – Johnny Marr, 2023 ↩︎
2. http://www.smithsonguitar.com/2008/12/johnny-marrs-gear.html ↩︎
3. Set the Boy Free – Johnny Marr, 2016 ↩︎
4. That Pedal Show, 2023 ↩︎
5. That Pedal Show, 2023 ↩︎
6. http://www.smithsonguitar.com/2008/12/johnny-marrs-gear.html ↩︎
7. Details recovered from various threads at https://www.morrissey-solo.com ↩︎
8. The Smiths FAQ – John D. Luerssen, 2015 ↩︎
9. Details recovered from various threads at https://www.morrissey-solo.com ↩︎
10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzATiYA2ojw ↩︎
11. Marr’s Guitars – Johnny Marr, 2023 ↩︎
12. https://www.oasis-live.net/shows/1994/1994-08-10a ↩︎
13. That Pedal Show, 2023 ↩︎
14. Thanks to Live4Ever forum user mahsteve for narrowing down the date of some pictures taken at Wheeler End studios in 1999. ↩︎
15. Total Guitar – May 2000 ↩︎
16. That Pedal Show, 2023 ↩︎
17. Total Guitar – May 2000 ↩︎
18. Thanks to mahsteve on the Live4Ever forum for the heads-up! ↩︎
19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjouslDYXXI ↩︎
20. Marr’s Guitars – Johnny Marr, 2023 ↩︎
21. https://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/noel-gallagher-talks-guitars-production-songwriting-and-chasing-yesterday-618083 ↩︎
22. Thanks to Matt in the comments section for identifying the sticker! ↩︎