Bare Knuckle has arguably become one of the – if not the – world's largest independent electric guitar pickup manufacturer, and with that level of reputation comes the A-list clients.
For founder Tim Mills, this meant getting the chance to analyze the guitar of one of his bucket-list guitarists: Jimmy Page’s “Number One” 1959 Les Paul Standard.
“I’d love to make something for Jimmy Page,” he replies when asked by Guitar World who his dream client would be.
“He actually sent his “Number One” 1959 Les Paul to my workshop because of a pickup issue just before the 2007 Led Zeppelin reunion. It was fantastic to analyze such a brilliant guitar,” he goes on to reveal nonchalantly. “The back of the neck had this odd carve where it got thin from frets three to nine.”
Indeed, Page's “Number One” – purchased in 1969 from Joe Walsh and (heavily) modified by the Zeppelin guitarist – is, at least for gearheads, as inextricably linked to Page as his Stairway to Heaven solo.
So what exactly makes its tone so special? “Interestingly, the neck pickup was just shy of 9k. Normally that would be muddy and hot, but because the magnet had discharged so much and the coil windings were heavily asymmetrical, it was behaving more like a single-coil,” he dishes.
“That’s why it had this woody, almost SRV sound. The bridge was a symmetrically wound 8.2k Seymour Duncan installed around the late Seventies. It was nicely balanced with a good growl.”
However, the most surprising revelation from Mills assessment was that, "Most of the tone came from how much timber had taken off the neck, almost to Ibanez levels of thinness. I was amazed the truss rod hadn’t popped out.
“Honestly, working on Jimmy Page’s guitar was bucket list stuff for me!” he concludes.
In February last year, Gibson announced a new multi-guitar series with Jimmy Page, kicking off with the signature 1971 EDS-1275 double neck. While there’s no news of the Number One just yet, we imagine it's only a matter of when, not if.
