Jimmy’s EDS-1275 made its live debut in March
1971, allowing him to play 12-string and six-string
parts without swapping guitars and it certainly did
become iconic. The popularity of double-necks grew
as other players saw Zep’s guitarist toting the Gibson
beast, so much so that Gibson reissued the EDS-1275
in 1975, again built only to special order.
JIMMY’S OTHER GUITARS
Jimmy used other guitars in Led Zeppelin beyond
the three main electrics we’ve covered. His flat-top
acoustics weren’t often seen in performances, but
of course he used them to good effect in the studio.
For the first album, it’s usually his Gibson J-200 we
hear, but before the third album sessions he bought
a Martin D-28 and this was one acoustic occasionally
seen onstage.
He first used his D-28 live in summer 1970, mic’d
up for pieces like Bron-Yr-Aur, while for later tours
he had it fitted with a Barcus Berry pickup. He
acquired a second D-28 later in the 70s, intended
for pieces that required an alternate tuning.
Jimmy had a couple of 12-string electrics – a Vox
and a Fender. They were almost exclusively for studio
use, although he did play his Vox Phantom XII now
and again live with The Yardbirds, as can be seen in
Jørgen’s Yardbirds gig images.
A further electric was Jimmy’s distinctive black-
and-white Danelectro Standard 3021, another of the
guitars he’d owned since his session days back in the
60s. With Zep, he used it live primarily in alternate
tuning for White Summer/Black Mountain Side as well
as a few other songs.
Dano Standards are known also as ‘Short Horn’
models, which not only relates obviously to the shape
of the body, but also to the name that Danelectro
gave to a matching bass.
“I knew when it came to the time of Led Zeppelin,
I knew exactly what I wanted to do,” Jimmy told me,
“exactly how I was going to go about it, exactly
what material. The stage was already set, the scene
was set, because I’d played all those underground
clubs with The Yardbirds, there was the elements
of it in there. There was an audience for it, if I got
a good band together. And I didn’t just get a good
band, I had a phenomenon together. It was really
exciting! Imagine!”
Led Zeppelin Denmark:
1968-70 with photography
by Jørgen Angel and words
by Søren Vangsgaard is
out now via Flying V Books©(^) JØ
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©
(^) JØ
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JIMMY PAGE
GUITAR MAGAZINE 67