If you’re a gear collector, you already know all too well how easy it is to go overboard with your collection. The Guess Who’s Randy Bachman recently decided to “trim down” his collection of hundreds of guitars, which includes a pretty famous guitar that caused him a bit of physical grief back in the day in the form of back problems.
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Bachman is reportedly auctioning off almost 200 guitars from his collection. And one of those guitars is his famous 1959 Les Paul Standard that Randy Bachman used while writing and recording the hit song “American Woman”.
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In an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Bachman opened up about the decision to auction off so many guitars.
According to Bachman, it was the shocking return of his stolen 1957 Gretsch in 2022 which had been missing for 50 years that inspired him to cut down his collection. And he’s selling the “American Woman” guitar because it was “too heavy.”
“I’m putting in my ‘59 Les Paul Standard, which is one of the rarest in the world,” said Bachman in the interview. “The Les Pauls from ‘58 through ‘60 are the holy grail of blues and rock guitars. […] The Les Paul was too heavy.”
Bachman went into more depth about the decision to auction off the iconic instrument.
“After playing it for 10 years and screwing up my back, the doctor said, ‘You’ve got to stop playing guitar.’” he continued. “I said, ‘That’s not going to happen.’ I went into the music store and said, ‘What’s the lightest guitar you have?’ He said, ‘A Fender Stratocaster.’ So I started playing Strats in BTO. I still played the Les Paul sitting down in the studio, for solos in BTO, because of the big, thick fat sound in that guitar and then my rhythm tracks were the Stratocasters.”
He also went on to say that the Les Paul still looks “pretty much brand new”. He said that has not modified it at all since he first purchased it.
Randy Bachman’s Les Paul Landed Him With Severe Back Pain
Years ago, Bachman had severe back pain that landed him in front of his doctor. That doctor told him he needed to stop playing the guitars. Obviously, Bachman said “that’s not going to happen.”
Decades later, Bachman is still playing the guitar and performing live. Since his days with The Guess Who (who are touring without him), he formed Bachman-Turner Overdrive and nurtured a successful solo career.
Photo via YouTube
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