 | Bob Welch's Les Paul synth guitar |
Pop star Bob Welch started his career as Fleetwood Mac's guitarist, playing on five albums from 1971-74, including Future Games, Bare Trees, Penguin, Mystery to Me and Heroes are Hard to Find. He established himself as a solo artist with the album French Kiss in 1977, which sold platinum (over 1 million copies) and yielded two huge pop hits in 1978 - "Sentimental Lady" (which he had previously recorded with Fleetwood Mac on Bare Trees) and "Ebony Eyes." His followup album, Three Hearts, went gold and included the Top 40 single "Precious Love."In the 1980s, looking for new guitar sounds, Welch bought a Gibson Les Paul Studio Standard (an upscale version of the Studio) with a factory installed Roland synth controller. He also added a Kahler vibrola and Seymour Duncan pickups. He used this guitar extensively in the late 1980s with his own band Avenue M and also when he sat in with Fleetwood Mac. It's featured on the cover of his latest CD (shown above).
The guitar is still fully functional as a conventional guitar and as a synth guitar. It comes with Welch's Roland GR-700 floor unit (which powers up but does not function - probably needs cleaning) and the original Roland programming box and cord. The package also includes images of Bob playing the guitar, a "Best of..." CD with the track "Don't Stop" featuring the guitar, and sales receipts for the guitar (bought from ABC Music Center), gear (from Guitar Center) and pickup installation (from Valley Arts).
This unique rock memorabilia collection is offered at the reduced price of $4,500.
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