AN UNMATCHED AND COMPOSITE PAIR OF HUMBUCKING PICKUPS

Whilst the label to the bubble-wrapping of these two humbucking pickups notes that they were from one of Jeff Beck's two surviving Gibson Les Pauls, this is highly unlikely to be the case. The Yardburst, famed for having had its original pickups removed by a restorer following one of its fateful neck breaks, had double-whites initially, exposed when Beck removed the pick-up covers in late 1966, and subsequently double-blacks, which are still on the guitar to this day. The humbucking pickups of the 'Oxblood' were in fact later modifications done by a previous owner, having originally been P90s, so they cannot have come out of that guitar. A possible explanation for their existence in Jeff Beck's collection is that they closely resemble the distinctive 'zebra' and double-black combination of the 1959 Les Paul Sunburst, purchased from Rick Nielsen, which was stolen at a riotous gig in New York state in July 1969, and that they were acquired for or given to Beck with the intention of being put into one of his guitars.