If, for whatever reason, you’ve ever parted ways with one of your electric guitars and then immediately regretted your decision as soon as it’s left your hands, you’re not alone. Whether they've been sold to finance future purchases or declutter your collection, post-sale six-string blues are a real thing.
According to a recent interview with Guitarist magazine, Mark Tremonti knows the feeling all too well, and to this day still carries the regret he faced upon selling one of his prized guitars – a Gibson Les Paul Goldtop reissue – a number of years ago.
However, rather than being the result of catalog maintenance, Tremonti instead impulse-sold his six-string while Gibson and PRS were slogging it out in the courts over a legal dispute that pulled his own PRS signature guitar from the stock shelves.
When asked if he’d ever sold a guitar that he now regrets letting go, Tremonti explained, “There was a reissue Goldtop Les Paul that I used throughout the big Creed days and I sold it because there was a lawsuit between Gibson and PRS.
“I was just angry that my [PRS signature] guitar got taken off the shelves for all those years,” he continued, “and so I got rid of that Les Paul just out of anger.”
However, it was a decision that proved to be fateful, with the Alter Bridge guitarist continuing, “I should have kept it because the folks who had made that Les Paul had nothing to do with the folks who caused the lawsuit.
“And the business has changed hands: there’s new guys in charge who are doing great things. But that’s the one I wish I still had.”
The lawsuit to which Tremonti refers initially began two decades ago in 2001, and saw Gibson file against PRS over the release of the brand’s recently released Singlecut models, which first emerged in the late ‘90s.
After the courts ruled in favor of Gibson’s case, PRS’s Singlecut six-strings – including Tremonti’s debut signature guitar, which was released in January 2001 – were barred from production, and an injunction was ordered that prevented the models’ creation as of 2004.
Nevertheless, a reversal of the decision was ordered in 2005 and PRS production promptly resumed, with Tremonti’s signature axe making its way once again onto guitar store shelves.
And, though Tremonti was no doubt pleased with the outcome, the entire ordeal unfortunately left him with one great big Gibson Les Paul Goldtop reissue-sized regret to live with. Not the easiest of regrets to get over, we imagine.
Head over to Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitarist, which unpicks the history of Les Paul’s Number One, and features interviews with Billy Gibbons and Phil Manzanera.
