The second replica guitar to result from Jimmy Page’s new partnership with Gibson is a replica of a guitar Page never owned or played on stage with Led Zeppelin, a fact that has confused many fans of the band.

The final issue of Guitar Player magazine, published on October 15, included an interview with a Gibson employee who confirmed that the guitar maker will sell 150 replicas of the 1964 Gibson SJ-200 guitar that Page played on Led Zeppelin’s debut album. LedZepNews has heard that the guitar is due to go on sale on October 22.

Producing a replica of this acoustic guitar, the second replica to emerge from the new partnership following the release of the 1969 Gibson EDS-1275 double neck guitar replica in March, was a curious choice. Ahead of the full reveal, we dug into the instrument’s history.

The acoustic guitar Jimmy Page played on Led Zeppelin’s debut album

Page borrowed a Gibson SJ-200 guitar from producer Mickie Most for Led Zeppelin’s debut album and used it to record “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You”, “Your Time Is Gonna Come” and “Black Mountain Side”, he explained in his 2020 book “Jimmy Page: The Anthology”.

“What made it different from most other J-200s is that it had a Tune-O-Matic moustache bridge with a neck similar to that of a Les Paul. It was only an experiment that they did for a year or two in the Sixties,” Page writes in the book.

Speaking to Guitar Player for its July 1977 issue, Page extolled the virtues of the guitar. “That was a Gibson J-200, which wasn’t mine; I borrowed it,” he said. “It was a beautiful guitar, really great. I’ve never found a guitar of that quality anywhere since. I could play so easily on it, get a really thick sound; it had heavy-gauge strings on it, but it just didn’t seem to feel like it.”

Page wasn’t able to borrow the same guitar to record Led Zeppelin’s second album, he explained in the book, but he did play it again in his April 23, 1970 appearance on “The Julie Felix Show”.

The exact year of production for this guitar is unclear. In Page’s “Anthology” book, it’s listed as a 1965 model. But Gibson’s new replica is based on a 1964 model, the company has said.

The guitar Page borrowed from Most had a “Flowers & Vines” splayed pickguard, a Sitka spruce top and flamed maple back and sides. It also featured a Tune-O-Matic bridge with white nylon saddles.

Why this guitar is so interesting (and rare)

To help us understand why Page and Gibson have chosen to replicate a guitar Page never owned, LedZepNews spoke to guitar enthusiast and expert on Page’s instruments Allen Garber. Garber is a guitar player and instructor in Houston, Texas who has spent decades studying Page’s gear and was previously featured in a 2021 Guitar World article.

“The Tune-O-Matic bridge with white nylon saddles was introduced to the specs of the SJ-200 in 1961 and was then withdrawn from the spec a few years later. I believe that style was only around into the late 60s,” he explained.

“The tone of the guitar changed drastically with the addition of the Tune-O-Matic (often referred to as ‘TOM’ for short) and most vintage acoustic guitar enthusiasts hated that change and they continued to denounce it and those guitars as rubbish. But it was those very TOM-equipped guitars that were responsible for so many great classic rock acoustic tracks,” he explained.

This rare combination of components means it’s now incredibly difficult for collectors to track down these guitars. “The only way to get an SJ-200 with a Tune-O-Matic bridge is to buy a vintage example,” Garber says. “Indeed they are relatively rare and pricey, and that’s with the understanding that the SJ-200 is already one of the most expensive production model guitars on the planet. Also, the Mickie Most guitar sported what Gibson currently calls the ‘Autumnburst’ finish. These are much rarer than the standard natural finish model.”

Other famous players of these SJ-200 guitars include Elvis Presley, who can be seen playing one in his ’68 Comeback Special, Pete Townshend of The Who who played a 1968 model for decades, Tom Petty, The Edge from U2, Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones, John Fogerty, Cat Stevens, Gram Parsons, Mike Nesmith and Mance Lipscomb.

Perhaps the most famous SJ-200 guitar is one owned by George Harrison which can be seen played by both Harrison and John Lennon in videos of The Beatles recording “Let It Be”. That same guitar was also used by Bob Dylan, who posed with it for the cover of his 1969 album Nashville Skyline.

The fate of Mickie Most’s guitar

The specific guitar Page borrowed from Most was also used by other guitarists within that same social and professional circle. Jeff Beck borrowed it to record “Greensleeves” for his 1968 album Truth. The back of the album even includes the line: “Greensleeves-(Aye, that’s a lovely ‘toon’) Played on Mickie Most’s guitar which by the way is the same as Elvis”

Another musician who borrowed Most’s guitar was Big Jim Sullivan, the session guitarist who was often booked for the same sessions as Page, leading him to be referred to as “Little Jim”.

The Most-owned guitar was stolen and its current whereabouts are unknown. “Mickie owned the acoustic and a great Fifties Strat with a maple neck, and he kept them in his studio,” Page said in an interview published in the July 2014 issue of Guitar World.

“Unfortunately, many years later, someone stole them—they just took a walk,” he continued. “He told me, and I said, ‘Mickie, I’m so desperately sorry to hear that.’ They were his instruments, man! That’s terrible.”

Jimmy Page’s replacement guitar

Most’s guitar never seems to have resurfaced. The guitar photographed for Page’s “Anthology” book is a different model of the same type of guitar purchased by collector Perry Margouleff and gifted to Page for his seventieth birthday. Margouleff is the same person who tracked down Page’s stolen “Black Beauty” 1960 Gibson Les Paul Custom guitar.

“The Gibson is, of course, not the original—I wasn’t the one who stole it! But I was talking with guitar collector Perry Margouleff about Mickie’s guitar and we were able to determine the model, because the one I played had a Tune-o-matic bridge, and there weren’t many of those made,” Page said in the 2014 Guitar World interview. “Now that I’ve said that, they’ll probably triple in price! Perry recently found one and gave it to me for my 70th birthday, and I really thank him for that.”

VGNut, a member of The Les Paul Forum, has claimed that he sold his 1965 SJ-200 guitar to Margouleff and shared photographs of what appears to be the same instrument now owned by Page. It’s unclear whether Gibson is basing its replica on this replacement guitar or images of Most’s original SJ-200 guitar.