{"id":531994,"date":"2026-07-04T00:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T00:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/531994\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T00:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T00:56:13","slug":"kirk-hammett-offered-neal-schons-les-paul-back-to-him-after-buying-it-for-half-the-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/531994\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirk Hammett offered Neal Schon\u2019s Les Paul back to him after buying it for \u201chalf the price\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kirk Hammett<\/a> once copped a rare Les Paul owned by Journey<\/a>\u2019s Neal Schon<\/a> for an uber-low price at an auction, and felt so guilty that he offered it back to him.<\/p>\n

The guitar in question was sold via Heritage Auctions back in 2021 as part of a Neal Schon Collection. The model, which sold for $87,500 according to reports, is a 1957 Les Paul Standard fitted with P-90s, which had a rare factory black colour. Despite Hammett\u2019s offer to give it back, it remains in his collection today.<\/p>\n

Speaking at his live show in Dublin for Gibson\u2019s The Collection: Kirk Hammett book tour, Hammett recalls (via MusicRadar<\/a>), \u201cThis guitar used to belong to one of my all-time star heroes, a huge source of inspiration, Neal Schon. I got this in an auction, and I don\u2019t know what was up, but I got this for like half the price that it was worth!\u201d<\/p>\n

He continues, \u201cI felt kind of bad about it because I should have paid a fair price, but I paid a price that was lower than it should have been. So, I actually called Neal. I said, \u2018Neal, do you want the guitar back?\u2019 And he said, \u2018No, man, you keep it. You buy it; you keep it.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cNeal Schon, he\u2019s such a cool, cool guy. I mean, he\u2019s an amazing guitar player. He lives and breathes music. And to me, he\u2019s just such an inspiration. I see how he conducts his life and how he plays, and his commitment and dedication to music. I was just like, \u2018Yeah! That\u2019s what I want to do, too.\u2019 So I\u2019m doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch the full conversation from The Collection live in Dublin below:<\/p>\n

You can order The Collection: Kirk Hammett directly from the Gibson<\/a> website. Find out where to see Metallica<\/a> live on their M72 world tour.<\/p>\n

\"Rachel<\/p>\n

Rachel began writing for Guitar.com in 2021 while finishing up her degree. A proud DIY guitarist, she has been playing for over 10 years and has written for the likes of Kerrang!, The Forty-Five, and MusicTech. An enjoyer of all things heavy, you\u2019ll find her at a festival or downtuning her guitars when away from her desk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kirk Hammett once copped a rare Les Paul owned by Journey\u2019s Neal Schon for an uber-low price at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1484,93,61,60,278],"class_list":["post-531994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-artist","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}