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Gibson Unveils the Billy Gibbons Ultimate SG

Gibson Unveils the Billy Gibbons Ultimate SG

The instrument is part of an exclusive arrangement with Neiman Marcus.

Nashville, TN (October 20, 2015) -- As beautiful as the sun rising over the Texas desert, the new Gibson BGSG designed by none-other than the legendary Billy Gibbons sets a new “gold” standard for premium guitars. The instrument is part of an exclusive arrangement with Neiman Marcus, which will include the BGSG in its winter holiday catalog. So far only two of these BGSG beauties have been hand-built by the Gibson Custom Shop. The platform for the BGSG – shorthand for “Billy Gibbons SG” — is a classic 1961 SG, but there are radical differences. The most obvious is the guitar’s top, which is raised on its upper two-thirds with a curve just below the whammy bar that recalls the smooth lines of the classic cars that Gibbons is so found of — very much like the swell of a vintage Cadillac’s elegant tail fin. The golden lacquer is a classic auto paint shade and if you remove the vibrato arm’s cover to expose the heavy duty spring-works, it looks simply fantastic. The lacquer is applied to the guitar’s hollowed mahogany in the traditional way while the plating is done using the PVD (physical vapor deposition) method ensuring a scratch resistant finish and less tarnishing. The neck is mahogany, for excellent resonance, with a rosewood fingerboard and a rounded Gibson Flying V style headstock. It’s all decked with matching gold hardware, including the sideways vibrato arm.

Under the hood, the BGSG is powered by a pair of Gibbon’s signature Seymour Pearly Gates humbucking pickups, of course. And the tone and volume controls are also distinctly Gibbons arrayed — lean to the bone. Two speed dials control the volume of each pickup, and there’s a third dial for tone. The elegant appointments don’t end with the guitar. Each hardshell case has been hand-painted by Nashville-based artist James Willis, a former artist-in-residence at the Gibson Custom Shop. His Texas themed work atop the cases includes the Alamo, the “yellow rose of Texas,” armadillos, a cow skull and a rendering of the guitar inside. And each BGSG comes with a certificate of authenticity that’s a brass plate with white etching in a leather binder. Like the man himself, the BGSG is first class all the way!

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