Richie Sambora’s The King Of Swing Rod Schoepfer Custom

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Richie Sambora’s The King Of Swing Rod Schoepfer Custom. This guitar was named “The King Of Swing” after Richie Sambora’s nickname. After the success and pleasure Richie had with his Schoepfer Les Paul (which we also sold), Richie Sambora commissioned a second custom guitar from Rod Schoepfer, “The King of Swing Guitar”. After 400+ man-hours of work this guitar was completed in 1987.

Richie used this guitar on the “Slippery When Wet” tour in 1987. Richie would often play this guitar when performing the Bon Jovi song “Let It Rock” as the lyrics reference the phrase “The King Of Swing“.

When the “The King Of Swing” guitar was sent back to the United States from the Japan leg of the tour, it and 4 other guitars where exposed to salt water and were seriously damaged. This guitar was rushed to Rod’s shop where Rod repaired it. The body, hardware, tremelo and electronics remained 100% original but unfortunately, the original neck was damaged beyond repair.

Rod replaced the original neck with a Kramer neck that he had in the shop so he could quickly return it to Richie so it could be used to finish out the tour. Rod installed the “Lefty” Kramer neck in a “righty” reversed head stock position and used the original Schaller tuning keys, REAL 14K Gold “RICHIE” truss rod cover and Schoepfer neck plate.

This comes with 32 original photos of the guitar being built in Rod’s shop, photos of Gail Schoepfer inspecting the guitar, and a certified letter from Gail describing the guitar and history in detail. It also comes with 2 live photos of Richie using this guitar on the Slippery When Wet Tour. It comes with a Kramer case, but we do not know if it’s the original. Please call for price.