Within the pantheon of guitars and guitar music, sure names bear an unmistakable weight. Michael Bloomfield is a primary instance. Any fan of guitar-driven blues music is aware of of the unimaginable draw of Bloomfield’s tone and method.

Identified primarily for taking part in a Fender Telecaster and a Gibson Les Paul Customary, he was not loyal or beholden to any explicit instrument. The truth is, different musicians with whom he related inform tales about how little regard he had for his guitars; it’s considerably ironic that one of many key gamers usually credited for making the Les Paul Customary so worthwhile right this moment really abused his personal guitars in jaw-dropping methods.

It has been 45 years since Bloomfield handed away. Born July 28, 1943, in Chicago, he grew up in a privileged suburban family. His father labored within the restaurant provide enterprise and held a number of associated patents, together with one for the ever-present glass sugar canister with the chrome steel trap-door prime. He additionally invented the traditional diner-tyle espresso maker that may nonetheless be seen in eating places in all places. Within the mid ’60s, he bought the rights to these and different patents to Beatrice Meals, an organization that made food-processing tools, and walked away with thousands and thousands.

Regardless of his upbringing and entry to wealth, Michael Bloomfield adopted a musical calling. After discovering the sounds of Elvis Presley and Scotty Moore, then the electrified blues created by Chicago artists, at age 13 Bloomfield acquired a guitar and have become immersed within the metropolis’s music. At 14, he started to frequent South Facet golf equipment to observe Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, Howling Wolf, Magic Sam, and others. He earned a repute for leaping onstage to jam – even when he wasn’t at all times invited! To the audiences and performers in these golf equipment, although, what began as one thing of a novelty – this white child who wasn’t in the least shy about jamming with these blues heavyweights – shortly advanced into acceptance. His expertise quickly had him incomes accolades from the likes of B.B. King, Buddy Man, Waters, and extra. Alongside the way in which, he found a bunch of younger gamers who, like himself, paid little thoughts to their pores and skin shade as they established themselves as followers who might maintain their very own on a stage – guys like Paul Butterfield, Nick Gravenites, Charlie Musselwhite, and Elvin Bishop.

When he died in 1981, Bloomfield left a wealthy musical legacy. Simply 37 on the time, he had recorded and toured with the Butterfield Blues Band, and co-founded The Electrical Flag. As a session guitarist, he performed on Dylan’s Freeway 61 Revisited, which incorporates “Like a Rolling Stone,” and was onstage at Newport in ’65, when Dylan first “went electrical.” Dylan as soon as known as him “…one of the best guitar participant I’d ever heard.” 

Whereas he performed completely different guitars by the course of his profession, he’s finest recognized for the 1959 Gibson Les Paul Customary he acquired within the spring of 1967 from Dan Erlewine by buying and selling a ’54 Les Paul goldtop and $100. 

That iconic ’59 ’Burst, which was featured on the duvet of Tremendous Session and on the July ’97 cowl of VG, disappeared in Vancouver, British Columbia,  in 1974 or ’75; it’s troublesome to find out an actual date, as numerous witnesses keep in mind occasions otherwise. 

The story behind the guitar’s disappearance begins with Bloomfield being booked at The Cave, a nightclub in Vancouver, for a five-night run. However after one night time, Bloomfield left the gig, certain for his residence in San Francisco and forsaking his band and his gear. The proprietor of the membership, Stan Grozina, stored the Les Paul Customary and a blue Fender Telecaster additionally belonging to Bloomfield.

What occurred subsequent is a narrative untold for greater than 50 years!

Though the precise time line is unclear, sooner or later – in all probability the week after Bloomfield’s departure – a person named Chris Okey went to The Cave to see one other San Francisco band, Butch Whacks and the Glass Packs. Okey was speaking with members of the band when one instructed him Grozina had the guitars left behind by Bloomfield. Okey had seen Bloomfield carry out earlier at one other Vancouver membership and, as a guitar participant himself, remembered each devices. He recalled how throughout that efficiency, whereas enjoying the Les Paul, Bloomfield, ”Simply launched the strap from the highest button and let the guitar fall to the stage for the sound it made.” 

, Okey met with Grozina, who talked about that Bloomfield was “…at all times performing like a bit child.”

Then, Grozina introduced out a black Fender case which opened to disclose a blue Telecaster. Okey acknowledged it instantly and requested the value. Grozina instructed him, “$1,000.” Okey then requested if there was one other guitar and out got here one other black case and in it was a tiger striped Les Paul, which though beat up was clearly Bloomfield’s ’59. “How a lot for that one?” he requested. “Additionally $1,000,” got here the reply. Okey didn’t have the cash for each, so he negotiated the value for the Les Paul to $980. “I needed to get the value beneath 4 figures,” Okey stated.

For 2 years afterward, Okey used the guitar to play membership dates round British Columbia and the Toronto space – the one musician after Bloomfield to gig with it. 

At this time, Okey remembers how the guitar’s neck “…had a crack right down to the fourth fret, and the bridge pickup was beginning to go microphonic. And there have been dents and chunks within the end on the again of the neck.” 

The truth is, Okey known as the guitar badly beat up. “The tailpiece had hardly any chrome left and the tailpiece studs have been rusty,” he stated. And opposite to well-liked perception, “The knobs weren’t mismatched; the chrome tops had popped off two of them, making them mirror mild otherwise.” The bobbins of each P.A.F. pickups have been mismatched, which is thought within the vernacular as “zebra coils.” 

Okey swapped out the chrome components and had the again of the neck refinished. He changed the Grover tuners with nickel-buttoned keys, and, as was his customized, carved his surname behind the guitar and within the cavity beneath the neck pickup. 

One night time, whereas nonetheless in Vancouver, Okey heard that the band Coronary heart was doing a membership date. A staple on the Vancouver bar scene within the ’70s, the band had began to make critical waves on the radio. Okey took the Les Paul to the present, the place each Howard Leese and Roger Fisher performed it that night time. At this time, Fisher has a imprecise recollection of the night time, and was influenced by Bloomfield, particularly the East-West album. 

“I do keep in mind enjoying the guitar in Vancouver, because it meant quite a bit to me,” stated Howard Leese. “I used to be an enormous Paul Butterfield Blues Band fan, and noticed them on the Golden Bear in Huntington Seashore with the traditional East-West lineup. Bloomfield was awe-inspiring – so fluent, such hearth. 

“Shortly after that, he put collectively the Electrical Flag, and all of us ditched highschool and hitchhiked as much as Royce Corridor at U.C.L.A. to see them play. In addition they performed at a love-in in a park, and their set ended out of the blue when police on horses moved by the group.  Bloomfield had two sunburst Les Pauls that day and performed by two Twin-Reverbs atop Twin Showman cupboards. His tone was clear and clear, not a lot distortion, so you might actually hear what he was enjoying. He’s one in every of my all-time guitars heroes.”

After returning to Toronto, Okey determined to promote the guitar and remembers that within the mid ’70s, he did simply that. The customer was Ken Goodwin, who remembers that Okey was asking $2,500, however they settled on $1,600. Goodwin was a part of the Toronto collector scene, and one level had 4 late-’50s Les Paul Requirements, together with the Bloomfield guitar, and two late-’50s Gibson Flying Vs. He owned the Bloomfield guitar for about 5 years, throughout which it was seen by many gamers within the space and was perpetually on the market. 

“When the Bloomfield guitar got here to my home within the ’70s together with one other ’Burst, I used to be provided each!” recalled Toronto-based guitarist Danny Marks. “And in a kind of moments of nice remorse, I turned them down. The Bloomfield guitar had the busted neck and stuff, and in these days, a number of thousand bucks was laborious to put one’s fingers on. It appeared like a lot cash!’

Goodwin bought the Bloomfield guitar circa 1980, and in 1986, the particular person believed to be the present proprietor took it to John Bride, a widely known Toronto-area guitarist/instrument repairman, for fret work. Bride declined, aiming to protect the integrity of the guitar. However whereas the guitar was in his store, he shot a number of photographs, one in every of which is proven right here.

At this time, the guitar lives a moderately incognito existence. Although there are individuals in Toronto who know who has it and the place it’s, none would touch upon its actual whereabouts for this function. 

So, what’s the Bloomfield ’Burst value right this moment? That’s, in fact, a matter of hypothesis. However definitely, if the guitar is, as famend supplier/guitar historian George Gruhn surmises, the rationale ’50s Les Paul Requirements are so collectible right this moment, then definitely, it’s the holy grail solidbody guitar. Not one in every of – the!

As for putting a worth on it, take into account that in 2004, Eric Clapton’s black Fender Stratocaster often called Blackie bought for $959,500 at public sale. Rumor suggests Microsoft’s Paul Allen paid over $2 million for the Stratocaster performed by Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock (and not too long ago seen within the fingers of Kenny Wayne Shepherd, VG, February ’11). ’50s Les Paul Requirements have lengthy been among the many costliest collectible electrical guitars; the Bigsby-equipped ’59 performed by Keith Richards through the Rolling Stones’ look on “The Ed Sullivan Present” reportedly fetched greater than $1 million. What would Mike Bloomfield’s Les Paul be value right this moment? Actually, greater than the $980 paid by Chris Okey! 

John Picard (a.okay.a. Mister Zero) is the guitarist for The Kings, which scored a Prime 100 hit in 1980 with “This Beat Goes On”/“Switchin’ to Glide” and continues to carry out right this moment.

This text initially appeared in VG’s June 2011 problem. All copyrights are by the creator and Classic Guitar journal. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.