Me with the Hotrod Les Paul in Berlin, Germany
The Hot Rod 58 is a limited edition Custom Shop Les Paul. Gibson only made 150 of these guitars and feature a carved two-piece flame maple top with cherry red finish underscored with ‘flame’ detailing, four gold bonnet volume/tone knobs, three-way selector, nickel-plated hardware, two BurstBucker pickups, bound mahogany body, bound rosewood fingerboard with trapezoid markers and Gibson Deluxe tuners.
My understanding is that this guitar is basically a R8 with a custom paint job. The guitar has a couple of cool features. For example, the guitar has a highly figured maple top, which shows much more flame than a regular R8. The reason is that this guitar actually has an R9 maple top (which can be seen stamped in the cavity).
This guitar was also formerly owned by Gary Moore. Gary bought this guitar in 2010 from a music store in Dublin, Ireland. Someone actually took a picture of him with the guitar inside the store on the day he bought it. As far as I know, he only used this guitar for one concert in Brighton, England shortly before his death. It’s a really unique looking Les Paul and sounds amazing.
Gary with the guitar on the day he bought it, in Dublin, Ireland in 2010