The Strange Case of THE MISSING BEANO
ERIC CLAPTON’S WORK on the 1966 John Mayall album Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton inspired an entire generation of would-be blues guitarists as he defined the tone and expression that a great guitarist can achieve. And this particular great player found a great instrument to make his music: an original Gibson Les Paul with a sunburst finish. The cover of the record showed Clapton reading the Beano comic, so it became known as the Beano album, and the instrument he used became known as the Beano guitar.
Many guitarists love Clapton’s playing on the Beano album. One such musician is Billy Gibbons, who was, at the time of its release, a budding young guitar player in Texas. “The sound was just so fierce and so attractive,” he says, “and the appeal drew everyone’s curiosity to attempt to suss out where this sound was coming from. The photograph of Eric on the back cover was a clue. We said, ‘Ah, look in the background. There’s a Marshall, but it’s not very big. And ah, look at that! They don’t make those any more — but it’s one of those Les Pauls!’”
The actual guitar Clapton used has since taken on an almost mythical quality, not least because it was stolen not long afterward and has never been seen since. It was the short-lived variant known today as the ’Burst, for its sunburst finish, produced by Gibson from 1958 until discontinued in 1960 and replaced by the new double-cutaway SG design. By the mid ’60s, the original single-cut Les Pauls were being called the “old model.”
The theft of the Beano ’Burst helped it pass into legend. And as with many legends, the stories surrounding it have been swollen with hearsay and half-truths ever since. Peter Green estimated the potential value of the lost Beano while talking to Neville Marten for Guitarist magazine in 1999. “Eric’s Les Paul would go for 50 million [pounds] now,” he said with admirable exaggeration. “It was a special one.”
THE STORIES SURROUNDING THE BEANO HAVE BEEN SWOLLEN WITH HEARSAY AND HALF-TRUTHS
STEPPIN’ OUT
Eric Clapton was 20 years old when he joined John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers in April 1965. At first he played a Telecaster, but soon he wanted something different. One of his favorite guitarists was Freddie King, who was pictured on the 1962 album , playing
