[Seeing a faded Alpine White Les Paul] Now, I know Edge auctioned his '75 Les Paul a few years ago…What's this?

[Takes the guitar out of the rack] "Let me tell you a story, Joe. This is the most amazing thing. Yes, The Edge did auction his Les Paul off for Music Rising - it made a phenomenal amount of money. [Ed. Note: final price $288, 000] It was hard for him to part with it."

I can imagine. He used it on New Years Day, Love Comes To Town…

"So many classic songs. It's a crucial guitar for him. But it was a great cause, so he couldn't say no. Anyway, it was Christmas time, and I'm home in Colorado, and this huge UPS package arrives at my door. I open it up and it's a brand-new Gibson case. I'm like, 'OK, what's this?' I flipped the locks on the case and took a look inside and I thought I was seeing things…it was The Edge's '75 Les Paul!"

Wait…Gibson bought it back? I thought it was part of Guitar Center's Legends Collection.

"It is. The second I got this guitar, I started checking it out. Look at this [he flips it over, shows me belt scratches and dings]… it was eerie. I thought somebody made some sort of mistake at first. Did they send me the auctioned guitar to be authenticated or something?"

So I called Edge and said, 'Do you know anything about this?' And he was like, 'No. What are they doing sending it back to you?' Which wouldn't have made any sense: you wouldn't send a guitar like that by UPS; you'd hand deliver it. Edge didn't know what was happening.

"By now, my wheels are really turning. So I unscrewed the back plate…brand-new wiring. Brand-new pots, everything. I keep checking - a brand-new switcher. I take the pickups out…brand-new wood inside."

Gibson made a replica of the '75 Les Paul?

"Yep. They made an exact replica. Gibson wanted Edge to have the guitar even though he'd auctioned it off. I still remember when he plugged it in for the first time and played it; he was like, 'This is it! It's the same guitar.' We couldn't believe it.

[He admires the back of the instrument, runs his fingers over the "2" decal] "I mean, look at this. They even got the same decal and faded it just like the original. It's scary! The weight, everything. I mean, how can you get the same weight of the wood - new wood is going to be different than older wood. Totally amazing. Edge used this on No Line On The Horizon, he loved it that much."