Sweetwater and Gibson Report Theft of Limited-Edition Gibson Adam Jones 1979 Les Paul Custom Silverburst Guitars

A pallet of new Gibson Adam Jones 1979 Les Paul Custom Silverburst guitars has been stolen from a Sweetwater Music truck at the Flying J Travel Center in Whiteland, IN on October 30, 2020. The truck was en route to Fort Wayne, IN, the headquarters of Sweetwater Sound.

“Somehow out of a truck full of guitars, this ONE pallet was singled out and stolen at a truck stop,” says Sweetwater Chief Supply Chain and Merchandising Officer Phil Rich. “Totaling close to $95,000 in guitars, we feel this person/s knew exactly what to look for and when.”

“These guitars were the dream guitars of 13 Gibson and Adam Jones fans, who had been patiently waiting for them to be delivered,” says Cesar Gueikian of Gibson. “We have decided to publish the serial numbers of the 13 stolen guitars and are appealing to all of Gibson’s fans to keep an eye out for them and let us know if they surface. Our fans should ask any third-party sellers for a serial number before purchasing to be sure they are not being sold one of the stolen guitars.”

Anyone with information regarding the guitars should contact Detective Kenny Polley of the Whiteland Police Department at KPolley@whitelandpd.us or (317) 535-8100.

“Our loyal customers have been waiting a long time to receive these guitars and will be devastated,” says David Fuhr, SVP of The Sweetwater Experience. “We hope Gibson and Sweetwater’s tight-knit community of guitarists will be able to help us recover the stolen items and that the people responsible for the theft are caught.”

As announced last week, Gibson and Adam Jones of the band Tool launched a multi-year partnership and collaboration which premiered on Wednesday (Oct. 27) with the new Adam Jones 1979 Les Paul Custom guitar, a limited-edition guitar from Gibson Custom Shop Murphy Lab that exactly recreates Adam’s #1 guitar, his prized original Silverburst 1979 Gibson Les Paul. Upon release, all of the guitars immediately sold out worldwide.

The Adam Jones 1979 Les Paul Custom guitar comes in a limited offering of 79 replicas which have been precisely aged by the expert luthiers and craftspeople of the Gibson Custom Shop Murphy Lab–led by Tom Murphy–and are signed and numbered by Adam himself. An additional 179 Adam Jones Les Paul Custom guitars for 2020 feature exclusive silkscreen artwork on the back of the headstock, created by Joyce Su and Adam. The two also collaborated on the design for the custom hardshell guitar cases housing each instrument.

One of rock’s most talented artists, Adam Jones is renowned as the guitarist for the multiplatinum and multiple GRAMMY Award® winning band Tool, as well as his work as a visual artist, sculptor, videographer, producer, and special effects designer. For the world premiere of the new Adam Jones Les Paul Custom, Adam created and scored the animated short film, The Witness. Composed and performed by Adam, the song “The Witness” also features Adam’s Tool bandmates Danny Carey on percussion and Justin Chancellor on bass, and was mixed by Joe Barresi. Watch and share The Witness, streaming on Gibson TV, Here.

Above:Adam Jones 1979 Les Paul Custom in Silverburst, Aged and Signed version.

All photos, credit Gibson: Here.

Adam Jones 1979 Les Paul Custom Aged and Signed, spec sheet: Here.

Adam Jones 1979 Les Paul Custom VOS, spec sheet: Here.

Following below are the serial numbers for the Adam Jones 1979 Les Paul Custom guitars affected:

Click on the photo above to play “The Witness” a short film by Adam Jones which was created for the release of and features the Adam Jones 1979 Les Paul Custom guitar.