Bernie Marsden

Tales Of Tone And Volume

Former Whitesnake man curates God’s own guitar collection. An hourglass beauty reclines on red velvet, curves gleaming in the spotlight. A solicitous centrefold shows off an endless neck and svelte body. Strictly speaking, this is not pornography, but for men (and it’s always men) of a certain persuasion Bernie Marsden’s near-mythical guitar collection may prompt the same response.

Marsden’s most storied instrument is the 1959 ‘Beast’ Gibson Les Paul, but that’s just the tip of the axeberg, with Tales Of Tone And Volume curating 85

of his favourite instruments, via delicious photography from Melvyn May and pithy commentary from the bluesman himself – at one point he introduces a battle-scarred Telecaster replica, its dings caused by a bout of drunken backstage knife-throwing.

In theory, Marsden’s demographic should lap this up, although at £95 for the Standard Edition and £495 for the leather-bound A3 Beast Edition) it’s rather steeper than the price of a copy of Razzle.

Henry Yates