Luke Mulholland is currently attending Berklee Music College in Boston and reforming his band Mulholland Drive with Boston-area players. The Canadian guitarist then plans to do some Eastern U.S. dates -- school permitting. Mulholland gentlemanly agreed to talk with Gearwire about his 2003 Les Paul Classic 1960 Reissue.

A guitar that has taken a few licks in its short history.

"My ex-girlfriend stepped on the head stock and it snapped off. After that it broke three times in the same place. I almost had to replace the neck." he says.

And that would have been a shame because that is what he liked most about his Les Paul.

He also says that this incident is not what converted "girlfriend" into "ex-girlfriend." We will take him at his word.

Eventually a more extensive repair -- bolting the neck -- has done the trick.

But why the Les Paul in the first place? Everyone has variations on the theme as to why they choose a particular instrument.

"My favorite bands were Led Zeppelin, The Who . . . Pretty much my biggest hero, Jimmy Page, had a Les Paul," says Mulholland. "It has been 'my precious' since I have had it."

And presumably he did not need to bite anyone's fingers off to get it.

But back to the neck of this Les Paul -- why is it so special?

"With a lot of Les Pauls -- studios, standards -- the necks are round; they have a fat, stubby neck. Some Classics are that way too. On this one, the neck is really thin and flat. That is my favorite feature," he says. "I also like the heavy sounds you can get. [With] Fender you can get the same thing too -- don't get me wrong -- but the Les Paul is a tank."

This guitar has a maple top and a mahogany back. It is a tobacco burst.

"It looks like Slash's guitar but a little more orange." says Mulholland.

When it comes to the amps he has used with his Les Paul -- he started out one way then moved in a different direction.

The first amp he used was a Peavey 5150 Tube head with a Marshall 4 x 12. But when he moved to the East (to attend the Berklee School of Music in Boston) he couldn't bring the stack with him. He now uses a Fender Deluxe. He went into a local music shop and asked what they had that was a tube amp. And the one that he could afford was the Deluxe.

"Gibsons usually go hand in hand with Marshall," he says but the introduction of the Fender was a happy coincidence. "This Gibson through a Fender thing has reshaped my tone entirely."

But what is his new Fender amp meets Gibson guitar tone?

"It is hard to explain tone. When I picture my tone, I picture crystal, but it still has heavy distortion." he says.

Aside from the breaking of the headstock (and that was hardly the result of a design flaw!) Mulholland had only one other problem with the guitar.

"I left the tone switch upright in the case and the tone knob broke. On a Fender it wouldn't happen that way." he says.

There is an aesthetic complaint too.

"On the pick guard it says '1960' in 'old' writing -- so that was kind of lame, telling everyone it was a 1960 reissue." he says.

Fortunately that faded away. And despite all the nicks and bumps, Mulholland loves it.

"It is my pride and joy." he says.