Details & History
My great thanks go to Rob who is the mastermind behind
the Paul Samson website for his
help in locating details on these guitars owned by a guitar God sadly no
longer with us, and greatly missed.
Paul, this is for you.
From 1988 until his untimely death in 2002, Paul played guitars that were built by Ibanez to his own design. Paul needed a guitar that would give him the neck access and raw power of the Gibson SG's that he was known for using, plus the pure sound and Whammy bar of the Strat. The guitars were based on the 540 radius, with through necks, 2 volume knobs and 5 way selector switches. The Reflex pick-ups were developed by John Oram (The Grandfather of British EQ), and were used by both Paul and Uli Jon Roth. Paul used Superwound Starfire strings, 0.008-0.40. Paul had 3 of these Guitars. The Red Sunburst (serial F740514) seen here, was nicknamed Martin, and was Paul's main guitar for live work and recording throughout, although there was a spell in about 1996 where he favoured the Plain White one, namely for a British tour with Ric Lee's Breakers, and an American tour with the Richard Black Project. The Blue/Grey sunburst guitar (F762595) had a slightly cleaner sound still, and was mainly used as a back-up.
