I had to go down to Tennessee this weekend. I thought about buying a wig on Amazon and getting the Sun Sphere selfie, but that just didn't work out. I did manage to go to the Songbirds guitar museum in Chattanooga, though.

Want to know how awesome this guitar museum is? Around 1952, Gibson came out with their first solid body electric guitar. It was the Les Paul, and after a few years' worth of modifications, they really built something great. Around 1958, the design of the Les Paul was about what you could pick up in a Guitar Center today: tune-o-matic bridge, two humbuckers, and importantly a sunburst finish. In 1960, because the popularity of these guitars was waning, Gibson ended production of the carved top Les Paul and switched over to the thinner, pointier SG.

In the late 60s, musicians started realizing how awesome the Les Paul actually was. Peter Green of the good version of Fleetwood Mac picked one up. Jimmy Page picked one up. Clapton got one. Slash eventually got five. Production of the Les Paul resumed around 1969, but guitars dating from 1958-1960 are incredibly rare and insanely valuable. If you want one, it'll cost you a quarter million dollars, at least. When Jimmy Page dies, his is going to sell at auction for at least a million. The same goes for Paul McCartney's left handed version.

So these are quarter million dollar guitars. The Songbirds guitar museum has thirty. If you want to do some research, this is the place to go.

Before going in, I had a few questions about how much thinner the 'wings' of this guitar actually are, and the carve on the headstock. These pics answer the questions:

The answer? The wings on my model are about the right thickness. The headstock carve is far more ornamental than you would expect. P90s work well with this design.

I'm putting this here for future reference in special projects: