FREE SPIRIT

Paul Kossoff’s ‘Stripped Top’ 1959 Les Paul was almost certainly the guitar he used to wax All Right Now. Here, Steve Clarke walks us through the original features and numerous changes that this historic Les Paul has seen

As well as being an author, authenticator of vintage guitars for Bonham’s auction house and a highly experienced repair and restoration specialist, Steve Clarke is also the man entrusted with the maintenance of Paul Kossoff’s iconic ‘Stripped Top’ 1959 Les Paul Standard, the instrument Koss used to play the Isle of Wight Festival and that he almost certainly used to cut Free’s enduring classic, All Right Now.

“I’m grateful that the guy who owns it today trusts me to be the only guy that will service it and keep it in good order,” Steve says. “So I’ve been lucky enough to be able to take the guitar apart and check it over in detail.”

As such, Steve was uniquely well placed to cut through the fog of myth that often swirls around such iconic guitars, driven by plausible – yet inaccurate – theories based on hearsay and speculation.

“The guitar was known to have a very, very slim neck so people on forums would say that Paul Kossoff had shaved the neck down,” Steve recalls. “And you’d think, ‘Wow, that’s interesting.’ You’d also see it argued that it had to have been converted from a Goldtop because the back of the guitar is very dark. As you know, a lot of ’57 Goldtop Standards tended to have a darker brown stain on the back. So, at the time, you’d think, ‘Well, that ticks a box, so it must be.’

But when I actually examined the guitar I found out that neither thing was true.”

Even hardcore ’Burst aficionados weren’t sure what the reality behind the myth was, Steve recalls.

“Somebody from Joe Bonamassa’s management heard I was working on the guitar and passed on a message from Joe: “Could you please ask Steve Clarke whether that Paul Kossoff guitar was once a Goldtop?” And I wrote back with some of the details that indicated it wasn’t a Goldtop at any stage. To give just a couple of examples, the toggleswitch area still had some red stain [underneath] and it had a double-white humbucker in the neck position. You only started to see those white bobbin colours appear in late 1959, so that also argued against an earlier build. The story goes that the company making the bobbins for Gibson ran out of the black pigment, so you started to see a lot of zebra coils and double whites appearing around at that point.”

These and numerous other details of the guitar meant Steve was able to build conclusive evidence that it was made in 1959 – and he was also able to piece together the numerous mods and changes made to the guitar while it was in Kossoff’s keeping and during the years after it passed into Mike Gooch’s hands. Here, Steve strips away the myths behind this storied instrument, part by part.