2001
WARNING: Soft Shoulders, Dangerous Curves. Proceed At Your Own Risk
This bare naked beauty is one of only six guitars custom created for Playboy™ magazine’s April 2001 Girls of the Hard Rock Casino feature spread, and you’ll want to take this sexy bombshell to bed with you – no strings attached!
The story behind this uninhibited centerfold special was bared to us in an exclusive interview with Playboy Studio – West set designer, John Cranham:
“The original concept [by Playboy™ senior photographer Arny Freytag] was to recreate the scene of Robert Palmer’s classic ‘Addicted To Love’ video as the cover shot. I got a hold of a few Fender Squires, tore off the necks, pickups, knobs, and tailpieces and attached them to solid bodies of our bunny symbol that I personally made and painted black. It took me three days. I removed the Squire decal on the headstocks and substituted a Playboy™ decal I made in its place. At the shoot, we had six gorgeous girls from the Casino made up to look like Palmer’s back-up chicks in the video.
“As it turned out, Gibson was an advertiser in the magazine and we couldn’t use any shots of the girls holding the guitars made up from the Fenders on the cover. So I took one of the six, painted blueflake over the black, removed the Fender parts and attached a Les Paul Custom neck, tailpiece and a single humbucker that Gibson sent to me on short notice. Ultimately, the ‘Addicted to Love’ cover-concept was nixed by Hefner in favor of one featuring Playmate Irina Voronina provocatively holding the blueflake with the Les Paul neck.”
This particular guitar, as evidenced by the inked tape label on the back, was used during the photo session by Hard Rock Casino cocktail waitress Brandi Bagley, who can be seen parked au natural atop Axel Rose’s Harley in a double-page spread on pages 144-145 of the featured article. Brandi and the other “Robert Palmer girls,” however, are seen on pages 146-147 of the issue in a shot using other guitars, dual pickups exposed.
According to Cranham, after the shoot the blueflake specimen was sent to Playboy’s Chicago headquarters. Of the remaining five black examples, one now hangs at the Hefner mansion in the Holmby Hills section of Beverly Hills, California; rock legend Eddie Van Halen was gifted with one; Hefner’s ex-wife, Kimberly, has another; photographer Arny Freytag took one home; and this specific guitar was given as a Christmas present by Playboy Studio – West photo editor Marilyn Grabowski to Tom Nowlin, one of the assistants on the shoot, from whom we acquired it.
“I wish I’d kept one,” Cranham ruefully told us. “I have fond memories of that shoot. And those guitars, though not functional, were really cool art pieces.”
The vital statistics on the boldly designed body are 21 inches (533 mm) from tip to tip of rabbitt ears; 38.5 inches (978 mm) top to toe; 15 inches (381 mm) width of rabbitt face; with a depth of 15 inches (38 mm). The bunny eye has s a 2.5 inch (64 mm) diameter. The body is in two pieces joined with screws, and the neck is joined to the body with standard Fender neckplate and four screws.
This bare naked beauty is one of only six guitars custom created for Playboy™ magazine’s April 2001 Girls of the Hard Rock Casino feature spread, and you’ll want to take this sexy bombshell to bed with you – no strings attached!
The story behind this uninhibited centerfold special was bared to us in an exclusive interview with Playboy Studio – West set designer, John Cranham:
“The original concept [by Playboy™ senior photographer Arny Freytag] was to recreate the scene of Robert Palmer’s classic ‘Addicted To Love’ video as the cover shot. I got a hold of a few Fender Squires, tore off the necks, pickups, knobs, and tailpieces and attached them to solid bodies of our bunny symbol that I personally made and painted black. It took me three days. I removed the Squire decal on the headstocks and substituted a Playboy™ decal I made in its place. At the shoot, we had six gorgeous girls from the Casino made up to look like Palmer’s back-up chicks in the video.
“As it turned out, Gibson was an advertiser in the magazine and we couldn’t use any shots of the girls holding the guitars made up from the Fenders on the cover. So I took one of the six, painted blueflake over the black, removed the Fender parts and attached a Les Paul Custom neck, tailpiece and a single humbucker that Gibson sent to me on short notice. Ultimately, the ‘Addicted to Love’ cover-concept was nixed by Hefner in favor of one featuring Playmate Irina Voronina provocatively holding the blueflake with the Les Paul neck.”
This particular guitar, as evidenced by the inked tape label on the back, was used during the photo session by Hard Rock Casino cocktail waitress Brandi Bagley, who can be seen parked au natural atop Axel Rose’s Harley in a double-page spread on pages 144-145 of the featured article. Brandi and the other “Robert Palmer girls,” however, are seen on pages 146-147 of the issue in a shot using other guitars, dual pickups exposed.
According to Cranham, after the shoot the blueflake specimen was sent to Playboy’s Chicago headquarters. Of the remaining five black examples, one now hangs at the Hefner mansion in the Holmby Hills section of Beverly Hills, California; rock legend Eddie Van Halen was gifted with one; Hefner’s ex-wife, Kimberly, has another; photographer Arny Freytag took one home; and this specific guitar was given as a Christmas present by Playboy Studio – West photo editor Marilyn Grabowski to Tom Nowlin, one of the assistants on the shoot, from whom we acquired it.
“I wish I’d kept one,” Cranham ruefully told us. “I have fond memories of that shoot. And those guitars, though not functional, were really cool art pieces.”
The vital statistics on the boldly designed body are 21 inches (533 mm) from tip to tip of rabbitt ears; 38.5 inches (978 mm) top to toe; 15 inches (381 mm) width of rabbitt face; with a depth of 15 inches (38 mm). The bunny eye has s a 2.5 inch (64 mm) diameter. The body is in two pieces joined with screws, and the neck is joined to the body with standard Fender neckplate and four screws.
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