Saturday afternoon, I said farewell to my 1985 Gibson Les Paul Standard in Alpine White.
She was never just another guitar. I bought her for myself in Nagoya as a 50th birthday gift—a little marker of time, and something I chose simply because I could. A 42-year-old Gibson with Tim Shaw PAFs, she carried a certain weight in more ways than one.
And strangely enough, the farewell turned out to be exactly what I would have wanted.
Just before the trade, I pulled her out for one last 15-minute session. She went into Dorcas and then the Fender Pro Junior. No elaborate testing, no attempt to convince myself that I should keep her, no searching for faults. I just played.
One word came to mind:
Enjoyable.
That mattered.
Because if this really was our last session together, I wanted my final memory of the ’85 Les Paul to be of enjoying her—not of negotiating her value, packing her away, or wondering whether I had made the wrong decision.
Now she has gone to someone else, and the family has welcomed a new instrument:
2013 Fender Japan Ritchie Kotzen Signature Stratocaster
Maple fingerboard
Transparent Red Burst
Along with her came S$2,400 cash.
That changes the equation rather nicely.
The Kotzen Strat is not Joy. Not yet, anyway. Joy remains the elusive yellowish Strat I am looking for—the one that might eventually sit alongside Lady and the other instruments that have earned their place in my little musical world.
But the Kotzen is interesting in her own right, and the cash component gives me breathing room. There is no need to rush the Joy search. The right guitar can wait.
And perhaps that is the nicest thing about this whole trade.
I didn’t lose the 1985 Les Paul.
I had her for a chapter.
She was a birthday gift to myself, bought in Nagoya, and she gave me enough good moments that I could let her go without needing to invent a reason to keep her. I even got to enjoy her one last time before she left.
If the trade had fallen through, I would have been perfectly happy to keep that 42-year-old Gibson around and let her hang out with me every once in a while.
It didn’t.
So now there is a Kotzen Strat in the family, S$2,400 in the kitty, and a little more space for whatever comes next.
Sometimes a guitar doesn’t need to stay forever to have mattered.
Sometimes fifteen good minutes at the end are enough.
I still have a little piece of the 85 les paul with me: a handwritten piece of paper with these words: “Gibson (1985) Les Paul Standard AW 84295531”. This serial number is not even correct. “24” instead of “42”.