When The National played an exclusive in-studio performance in the UBS Forum at Minnesota Public Radio, we asked Bryce Dessner about his guitar. Here's what he had to say:

What kind of guitar is it?

It's a 1965 non-reversed Gibson Firebird.

Where did you get it?

That's an interesting story. Ben Lanz, who plays trombone, he and I found it on eBay, covered in stickers and bad neon paint, and it was stripped of its electronics. A Gibson Firebird is a very sought-after vintage instrument. They're difficult to find for less than $6,000 or $7,000. This one, just the wood alone was worth a lot of money. Whoever had it didn't realize it was worth something, so they were selling it for $300. So we bought it because we could tell, based on the neck and a brass electronics plate in there, that it was vintage.

And then I stripped the paint off and found the serial number and it's a 1965, so that was a good return on my investment. It's worth at least 10 times what I paid for it.

We rebuilt it ourselves and put Lollar pickups — they're hand-wound pickups from California — in it. So it's now my main instrument. It's really fun.

How did you get the stickers and neon paint off of it?

Actually, I used really nasty paint remover — the kind you don't want to get on your skin. I tried some eco paint remover and it, like, didn't do anything, so I had to use real acid. And then it came right off! It was surprisingly easy to do.

Watch this site for future additions to The Current's Guitar Collection.

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