Hi, New here, just been doing a bit of work on one of my guitars. I saw on ebay that the Paisley Sambora's seem to be quite desireable & fetching quite a lot for a $@! guitar.
I seem to have a unique one of these guitars, I believe it was a one off made for Richie, and indeed made in the custom shop possibly.
It has the paisley body, and what appears the american neck, neckplate is stamped made in USA.
Another one off that I didnt realise until looking at pics of the $@! one up on ebay currently is that mine has the active circuit, whereas the $@! ones certainly didnt have this feature.
This guitar came to me through Rockstars guitars.com,and it has been well played. Funny story actually of which I fell really lucky....I previously had bought a few others of richies, and I decided I wanted the Paisley one too, when Richie came to dig out the paisley one he intended to sell me, ( it was one that he hadnt even played apparantly, just a gift one that was knocking about )he couldnt find it, so he sent along this guitar instead,a tour played & regularly photo'd one... not only that but he signed it on the back of the headstock & dated it for me, and sent along 3 pictures of him holding & signing the guitar..what a top guy.
Anyway now I am even more convinced that this guitar must be extremely rare, if not a one off, as yes there are a few of the $@! ones kicking about, but never seen another USA necked, active boost version anywhere. I think this one was used on 'something for the pain' video and I do have some tour footage of him using it...unless of course he had more than one with the active boost?...

wow

You're right about this guitar, it's a USA version of the famous Black Paisley Stratocaster hand-crafted by Todd Krause. It does have the push-push active/passive mode button between the two tone controls driving the onboard active mid-boost circuit.




There was also another variant of the USA Black Paisley featuring a deluxe locking bridge assembly ("Mini Floyd") with an LSR roller nut and a set of Sperzels.

These USA Black Paisleys did never came into general production.

I believe they were made exclusively for Richie himself.

Thanks Chromeface, just the answer I was hoping to get...I had a feeling that must be the case.
Guitar sounds fantastic, and I will indeed be keeping it, as I have done since 2002. Nice to know its a little unique too
Appreciate the info

Cool guitar. I'm not ashamed to admit that I love Richie Sambora and Bon Jovi. And yes I spent my teenage years in the 80's so that may explain it.

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2008 MIA Standard Strat 3-tone Sunburst
2007 Taylor 310 Acoustic
Fender Blues Junior NOS Amp
Digitech Bad Monkey OD pedal

chris - an absolute beauty! enjoy it in good health

Yes Im afraid me too Roadie...to be honest BJ present is, to me ok, lets say pleasant listening, but back in 84-87 Richie was on fire, just a riff machine, some stunning guitar work indeed. I appreciate where they are now, but its not the same as the 80's Richie was just a rock icon, him & eddie VH just so turned me onto guitar. Richie always had really cool looking guitars too which helped!
THere is a live bootleg of live in Japan in 1985....I recommend all to view that, the energy of the show is amazing.
Thanks for the comments chaps