“The original owner died while playing this very guitar”: Jared James Nichols resurrects another vintage Les Paul from a devastating storm – named Katrina, it has one heck of a story to tell

They say it is an ill wind that does not blow someone some good, and that could not be more true for Jared James Nichols, the blues-rock fingerstylist and affable Gibson brand ambassador who has just taken ownership of another storm-ravaged Les Paul with an incredible story to tell.

First it was Dorothy, a 1952 Gold Top, thought to be one of the very first Les Pauls ever made, that was tossed around in the hurly burly of a Kansas tornado to be found neckless in a heap before an epic restoration brought it back to life for Nichols. 

Now, meet Katrina, a 1975 Gibson Les Paul Custom that might be a few decades younger but has had some seriously hard living, making it through a Category 5 hurricane and surviving. 

Well, just about surviving. The overall scarring to the guitar that would require an entirely new category should the Murphy Lab ever try to recreate it on a new model. Hurricane Katrina did the damage, hence the name. 

But as Nichols reveals, introducing his latest electric guitar project restoration to the world on his Instagram account, surviving one of the most devastating storms in US history is just part of the story. Katrina has some dark history.

“The original owner died while playing this very guitar,” writes Nichols. “He was electrocuted by being barefoot and completing the circuit between an ungrounded amplifier and an electronic heat grate in an old farmhouse. The guitar was then placed in his sister’s storage shed for decades until 2005, when that shed was demolished by Hurricane Katrina. Against all odds, the guitar seemingly survived.”

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The word seemingly is doing a lot of heavy lifting here; this is the dictionary definition of a fixer-upper. Nichols describes Katrina as being ravaged by rust and grime, to the point of it being unplayable.

“Imagine the dirtiest LP on the planet, but even WORSE!!,” he wrote. “It wouldn’t even fret above the 12th fret.Rusty strings/frets/pots…it was ROUGH!”

But there was hope. A little TLC and he he has it at least playing, and the noise emitting from Nichols' guitar amp is encouraging that this will be a tone machine once he has finished the restoration.

“Listen to that sound…it’s STILL alive!!! I’ve been slowly cleaning and getting her tweaked up, it now plays on every fret and rings like a bell,” he continued. “It’s gonna be KILLER!!!”

Nichols says he is hopeful that Katrina will be tour-ready for his upcoming dates with Queensrÿche, which kicks off on 9 October, in Spartanburg, South Carolina. It will be hooked up an all-new Les Paul wiring harness from Ampurtco, suggesting that the original parts were unsalvageable. 

What is it about these storm-battered guitars and the towering presence of Jared James Nichols? Is there some sort of cosmic method at play here? 

After all, if a guitar has survived a tornado or a hurricane, the chances are it might be able to survive Nichols’ brutal playing style, which he has likened to “fighting a bear”. Either way, people keep sending them to him.

Nichols says he was alerted to Katrina by Joe Thompson, from Biloxi, Mississippi. Three years ago, Thompson showed him pictures of this lived-in Custom and the rest is history. And by the sounds of it, there’s a lot of history. In the comments, Thompson suggests that there’s more lore surrounding this guitar. The full story is yet to come out. If only guitars could talk…