(CelebrityAccess) – Jimmy Page’s legendary dragon guitar has been given a reboot after 50 years, according to AP.
Fender instruments revealed its recreation of the iconic Telecaster earlier this week.
As the story goes, Page was gifted the guitar by former Yardbird’s bandmate Jeff Beck, at which time he decided to hand-adorn it with mirrors and poster paints in the form of a psychedelic red and green dragon.
For Page, the guitar symbolized the end of his Yardbird days and the beginning of Led Zeppelin. He even went on to use the ’59 Tele to write and record songs like “Dazed and Confused” for the first Led Zeppelin album. Unfortunately, the guitar was later ruined by an unassuming house-sitter who, not realizing the instrument’s sentimentality, opted to cover Page’s artwork with his own and present it to him as a gift. Page was reportedly so upset that he stripped the guitar bare and tossed it in storage where it has been sitting for the last 50 years.
The reboot was inspired by a recently published 50th-anniversary book on Led Zeppelin, reports AP. After noticing that the guitar featured quite prominently throughout the book, Page decided it was time to finally put his bitterness about the instrument to bed.
Master builder Paul Weller worked side-by-side with Page to hand-make 50 spot-on matches of the guitar, which will now be made available to the public. Page painted at least one stroke on each of the replica guitars, according to AP.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin I, JP presents Sundragon, an amplifier that gives guitarists the opportunity to enjoy the sounds he created to shape the future of Rock and Roll.https://t.co/aq9AWyWrSm pic.twitter.com/f26VR8SMtJ
— Jimmy Page (@JimmyPage) January 22, 2019
