Jan Akkerman has said
"I bought the Gibson Personal back in the seventies. I didn't like the pickups. I met Paul Hamer and I asked him to get the bloody pick-ups off and make me a maple top and put my old humbuckers back on there so I would have my old sound. Because the body is a little wider and longer it has even more sustain than the black Les Paul Custom, and it was lighter as well. So Paul refurbished it for me and the thing arrived in the studio in New York at the moment I was starting to record Tabernakel with Les Paul's son Gene behind the desk
"I used it on most pieces on Tabernakel and, of course, Hamburger Concerto. After the Personal I also used a gold top Gibson."