Honestly, if you're a guitar nerd, the story of the Jimmy Page Black Beauty Les Paul is basically our version of a Holy Grail quest. It’s not just about a 1960 Gibson Les Paul Custom. It’s about a guitar that defined the sound of the 60s session scene, vanished into thin air at an airport, and then miraculously reappeared forty-five years later like a ghost coming home.
Imagine being Jimmy Page in 1970. Led Zeppelin is the biggest band on the planet. You’re touring North America, and your favorite "tuxedo" guitar—the one you used for nearly every session gig from Petula Clark to Donovan—just doesn’t show up at the baggage claim.
It's gone.
The Guitar That Built the Legend
Before the "Number One" Sunburst Les Paul became his visual trademark, Page was a Black Beauty man. He bought this 1960 Les Paul Custom brand new in 1962 for about £185. It was a stunner: three PAF humbuckers, a Bigsby tremolo, and that sleek ebony finish.
He loved it. He used it on roughly 60% of his session work between 1963 and 1966. If you hear a killer guitar part on a 60s British pop hit, there’s a massive chance it’s this exact guitar.
But Page was a tinkerer. He wasn't satisfied with the stock wiring. Most three-pickup Les Pauls have a somewhat limited toggle switch that doesn't let you use the bridge and neck together. Page had it custom-wired with extra toggle switches—some say two, some say three—drilled right into the body. This let him tap into every possible pickup combination. It was his sonic Swiss Army knife.
The Minneapolis Disappearing Act
In April 1970, the unthinkable happened. Led Zeppelin was flying from Milwaukee to Montreal with a stopover. Somewhere in the chaos of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul airport, the Black Beauty vanished.
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Page was devastated. He took out ads in Rolling Stone for a year, offering a "no questions asked" reward.
Nothing.
For decades, the guitar was just... gone. Rumors flew. Some thought it was destroyed. Others thought a collector had it hidden in a vault. In reality, the truth was much more mundane and sort of heartbreaking. It had been stolen by an airport employee and ended up under a bed for twenty years.
How the Black Beauty Finally Came Home
Fast forward to the mid-90s. A guy walks into Willie’s American Guitars in St. Paul, Minnesota. He’s got a black 1960 Les Paul Custom. Nate Westgor, the shop owner, looks it over. He knows the Page story. He sees the Bigsby. But there’s a problem: the extra switch holes are gone.
The guitar looked too "clean."
Westgor ended up selling it to one of his employees, a musician named Paul "Bleem" Claesgens. Bleem played that guitar for twenty years, having no clue he was holding the most famous missing guitar in rock history.
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It wasn't until 2014, when Bleem brought the guitar back to the shop for some work, that the truth came out. Under a black light, Westgor noticed something weird. There were circular "ghost" marks under the finish where holes had been professionally filled and lacquered over.
Then they saw the "smoking gun."
Page’s guitar had a very specific, slightly "off" mother-of-pearl inlay on the 12th fret—a little streak that was unique to that piece of shell. They compared it to old photos. It was a perfect match.
The Trade of a Lifetime
Returning a guitar worth millions (some estimates put it at $10 million in today’s market) isn't as simple as dropping it in the mail.
Nate Westgor and Bleem did the right thing. They contacted Perry Margouleff, a producer and close friend of Page who happens to be a world-class guitar hunter. In October 2015, the exchange finally happened.
Page didn't just take the guitar and run. He understood that Bleem had owned and loved this instrument for two decades. In a move that’s pure class, Page gave Bleem a 1959 Les Paul Custom as a "thank you" for the return.
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When Page finally opened the case in his London home, he reportedly sat there for twenty minutes just talking about it before even touching the strings. It was like seeing an old friend who’d been missing in action for half a century.
What You Can Learn From the Black Beauty Saga
If you’re a collector or just a fan, this story actually has some practical takeaways.
- Document everything. If Page hadn't had those high-res photos showing the unique 12th-fret inlay, he might never have proven the guitar was his.
- Trust the "black light" test. If you're buying a vintage instrument, a UV light can reveal repairs, overspray, and filled holes that the naked eye can't see.
- Modification matters. Ironically, the very thing the thief tried to hide—the extra holes for the switches—is what eventually helped identify the guitar.
Today, the Jimmy Page Black Beauty Les Paul is back where it belongs. It even spent some time on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s a reminder that in the world of vintage gear, nothing is ever truly lost—it’s just waiting for the right person to look under the lacquer.
If you're looking to capture that specific tone yourself, you don't need a $10 million vintage original. You can look into the 2008 Gibson Custom Shop reissues, though even those are getting pricey. Most players find that a standard three-pickup Custom with a "Page wiring" harness gets you 90% of the way there without the decades of heartbreak.
Check your local listings for a 1960s-spec Custom, but maybe keep a black light in your pocket. You never know what's hiding under a coat of old paint.
Actionable Steps for Enthusiasts
- Verify your gear's unique markers: Take macro photos of unique grain patterns or inlay flaws on your prized instruments.
- Invest in a basic UV/Black Light: Use it to inspect the finish of any "too good to be true" vintage finds.
- Study the Page Wiring: If you want that sound, look for "6-way" or "3-toggle" wiring diagrams online; it’s a relatively inexpensive mod for any three-pickup Gibson-style guitar.