Bristol author Tony Bacon is on a mission to solve the tantalising mystery of the million-dollar guitar – the ultimate iconic piece of rock'n'roll history that, he says, people will "bow down to and worship".

Back in 1958, the famous American Gibson guitar company launched an electric guitar called the Les Paul Standard, priced at $280 and named after the famous guitarist who's still gigging today in New York City at the age of 93.

Less than 1,500 were made before production stopped in 1960 of what was, at that time, not a very successful model. But when guitar heroes such as Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck started to play it during the 1960s, the legend began.

These guitars became the most desirable ever made, and to buy one nowadays would set you back the cost of buying and furnishing a fair-sized family home – and put a car in the garage, too.

In other words, you'd be laying out a hefty, six-figure sum.

How did this happen? Who are the collectors who will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for these instruments? And could there actually be a guitar worth $1 million?

Tony, who lives in Westbury-on- Trym, thinks so, and has written a unique and fascinating book which combines investigative journalism, music history and a dash of guitar geekery in an almost mystical quest to penetrate a secret world where technology and superstition converge and a dusty case under a bed somewhere might contain the guitar equivalent of the Holy Grail.

Almost every time Tony asked people in the know what was the highest price a Les Paul had been sold for, the answer came back at a million dollars or more.

"But when I asked for more information, they'd go quiet," Tony laughed. "I'm absolutely certain one has sold for a million dollars, but if you ask me where it is and who owns it, well, that might be a bit tricky.

"I talk about all this in the book and it's quite a quest, really."

The top price paid for a Les Paul to date that Tony has been able to verify is $550,000 (£370,000) – and that instrument had no famous player associations. In fact, only two famous player Les Pauls – owned by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones and Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green – are known to have come on to the market, but the prices have been kept secret, adding to the mystery surrounding the instrument.

"Wherever I looked in this story there was more mystery piled upon mystery," said Tony. "A remarkable thing is that Gibson have ledger books going back to the year dot of the instruments made, complete lists.

"But the one missing book is – guess what? The 1959 Les Paul. I've been to Gibson and seen the gap on the shelf. Nobody knows for sure how many were made. Totals for the years 1958-60 exist at about 1,450. Probably 1,200-1,300 have survived. It really is the guitar that people will bow down to and worship."

Guitar historian Tony, one of the world's best-selling authors on guitars and guitar players, travels worldwide to photograph and research iconic guitars and guitarists and has spent more than two decades celebrating six-string legends in print.

His best-selling books about classic guitars – Fender, Gibson and Gretsch – have brought him into contact with many famous musicians including Les Paul, Paul McCartney, Duane Eddy, Chet Atkins, Jeff Beck and James Burton, who played for Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Ricky Nelson and many others.

With his friend Nigel Osborn, Tony founded publishing company Backbeat eight years ago which, together with the associated imprint Jawbone, has now published more than 100 music titles. Most successful among them have been a study of the equipment used by the Beatles, a day-by-day biography of the Beach Boys, and a guide to writing songs on the guitar.

Tony, a guitarist himself – "but not a great one", he confesses – wrote for musical instrument magazines in the 1970s and 1980s and then collaborated with Nigel on the Ultimate Guitar Book for publishers DK in 1991. After that, they struck out on their own.

Although Tony is an expert on guitar history, he doesn't own a classic "axe" himself.

● Million Dollar Les Paul: In Search Of The Most Valuable Guitar In The World is published by Jawbone, priced £14.99.