Even though I've always been a Strat player, I always wanted to have a really nice Les Paul. Jeff Lockenvitz was one of my closest college friends and a gear-head stoner accounting major from northwest New Jersey. Although Jeff learned how to play guitar during his college years, he owned the most gorgeous Black Beauty Les Paul that he bought at Manny's on 48th Street in New York. I wanted that guitar. Plus I was starting to see pictures of my favorite guitar players at that time - Duane Allman, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Rick Derringer, Ronnie Montrose, Peter Frampton - holding this very guitar (remember the cover of "Blow by Blow"?) So when my music store client, Sides Family Music of Williamsport, PA, was having a sale on several of their Gibson guitars, I grabbed this guitar in honor of my friend Jeff. Oh by the way, stoner Jeff is now the "Information Technology Controller" of a small postal and courier company called United Parcel Service (aka "UPS"). Isn't that a kick in the (Marshall) head?