Nashville, TN (January 10, 2020) -- For the past 126 years, Gibson has been synonymous with creating and shaping sound. The new Gibson era celebrates the iconic models of the Gibson Golden Era while leaning into the future with instruments that nurture new players across generations, genders, and genres of music. In 2019, Gibson emerged as the legitimate leader again by offering new, relevant and award-winning guitars. Combined with a re-energized brand and renewed commitment from all Gibson artists, 2020 is set to take Gibson to the next level as they showcase the new line-up, launch history-making new collections and artist collaborations during Winter NAMM 2020 in Anaheim, CA (January 15-19).
The Gibson Original Collection brings classic design, innovation and authenticity back into the hands of Gibson fans. These include the legendary Les Paul Standard 50’s and 60’s. “Less than one year ago we launched the new Original Collection as a way of going back to the 50’s and 60’s, to pay tribute to our iconic Golden Era bringing those classic designs back into the hands of Gibson fans” says Cesar Gueikian, Chief Merchant Officer of Gibson.
“The Modern Collection reflects a new era of innovation, something Orville Gibson started in 1894 and Ted McCarty fueled in the 50’s and 60’s. It incorporates many contemporary updates that players have embraced, such as lighter-weight bodies, push-pull systems to switch between the Burst Bucker and P90 sounds, innovative slim-taper necks with asymmetrical profiles, shaved heels for effortless access to the highest frets,” adds Cesar.
Gibson is expanding the Original Collection with new 70s-style Flying V and Explorer. The iconic ‘70s Flying V has been redesigned with a bound rosewood fingerboard, slim taper neck, and a pair of uncovered ‘70s tribute burstbuckers all hand-wired with orange drop capacitors and available in classic white finish with matching headstock, silver reflector knobs and chrome hardware. The ‘70s Explorer has traveled stages the world over. Now featuring a pair of ‘70s tribute burstbuckers, hand-wired with orange drop capacitors, this new Gibson Explorer begs to be played loud. With its classic white finish, bound rosewood fingerboard, black speed knobs and chrome hardware, it looks as iconic as the generation of music it helped create.
Gibson is adding to the Modern Collection with a new Les Paul Special Tribute in two configurations of pickups (Humbucker and P-90) at an entry point of $999 and made in USA by the same hands that make the sister Original Collection Les Paul Special TV Yellow guitars.
“The Gibson Custom Shop is the pinnacle of craftsmanship, quality and sound excellence. Each instrument celebrates Gibson’s legacy through accuracy, authenticity and attention to detail,” says Cesar. “We recently created the Murphy Lab at the Gibson Custom Shop with Tom Murphy as Master Artisan. Together, we are re-imagining and implementing new ways of delivering the Gibson Custom Shop historic experience to our extended fan base of guitar enthusiasts.” Tom will bring his expertise, authentic style and his passion for building historically accurate guitars to Custom Shop to shape the future of the Murphy Lab and cement his legacy.
2020 will introduce new 60th Anniversary 1960 Les Paul Standards in three versions. Those made in the first third of the year (V1) share the same specs as their 1959 peers, while the middle third (V2) have thinner neck profiles, different knobs and brighter colors. The final third (V3) feature even thinner neck profiles. Each version inspires generations of players in different ways, making music history all the while.
The Gibson Custom Shop is launching a new Historic Reissue ES Collection -- with True Historic parts, authentic dimensions and contours scanned from priceless vintage originals.
The Custom Shop will also be showcasing a new and limited run of historic reissues in a rainbow of custom colors. These include iconic models such as 1963 and 1964 Firebird V, 1964 SG Standard, 1965 Non-Reverse Firebird V, 1967 Mahogany Flying V, all with w/Maestro Vibrola, 1963 SG Special with Lightning Bar and the modern Les Paul Special Double Cut. The custom colors include Pelham Blue, Candy Blue, Frost Blue, Olive Drab, Classic and Polaris White, Inverness Green, Heather Poly, Silver and Gold Mist Poly, Kerry Green, Cardinal Red, Ember Red, Sparkling Burgundy, Purple Metallic, Black, Pink and others.
2020 will also bring multiple, limited-edition artist collaborations including a Trini Lopez Standard as a Core Historic Reissue model and the iconic Tony Iommi “Monkey” SG. “Tony Iommi's iconic riffs, heavy tones and massively-influential albums created the blueprint for Heavy Metal and many other genres to follow,” explains Cesar. “Having the opportunity to work with Tony to recreate his original 1964 SG is the ultimate honor for all of us at Gibson.”
“Recently I was invited to Nashville by Cesar and JC who I must tell you are so enthusiastic and passionate,” explains Tony Iommi. “I had the opportunity to go to the factories, meet the people that work there, and I saw how dedicated they all are. Gibson guitars have lifted a million times, with the new team being totally involved and that’s what’s been missing in Gibson for a long time now. There’s no stopping them, which is great for all of us guitar players,” adds Iommi.
Tony Iommi’s career, like the man himself, is universally loved and revered. And while his innovative tuning and playing styles were a major part of his monstrous tones, a Gibson SG named "Monkey" was at the center of it all. This heavily-modified 1964 SG Special was used extensively with the original lineup of Black Sabbath and heard on every album and tour of the 1970s. Thanks to the meticulous reverse-engineering and painstaking attention to detail employed by Gibson Custom Shop, 50 exact replicas have been created, 25 right-handed and 25 left-handed like the original, each signed and numbered by Tony Iommi himself. No detail was overlooked in the construction and aging, telling the complete story of the “Monkey” from the zero fret to the stop tailpiece bushings to the legendary pickups, which were hand-made in the U.K. by the apprentice of the late John Birch. Each guitar will even include an exclusive replica of Tony's silver cross necklace with a coffin case, a replica of Tony's leather touring guitar strap and a 1960s replica case.
The Gibson Custom Shop is also working with legendary and multi-talented Tool guitarist artist, sculptor, special effects designer, videographer and producer Adam Jones on recreating his original 1979 Les Paul Custom Silverburst that can been seen live on stage with Adam today in support of their world tour and blockbuster new album Fear Inoculum. More details to come on this project later in 2020.
“2020 brings a renewed focus on our acoustic guitars, just like we did with our electric guitar portfolio, applying the same principles of craftmanship. We are recalibrating our acoustic portfolio into Original and Modern Collections and launching an Acoustic Custom Shop with Historic and Modern Collections,” explains Cesar. “Our acoustic guitars have defined sound for 126 years and we intend to leverage that heritage and bring new iconic instruments to the hands of new generations of players.”
Gibson is pleased to announce the newly created Gibson Acoustic Custom Shop based in Bozeman, Montana. “With the Acoustic Custom Shop, we are bringing back all the acoustic icons in their true historic form with the Historic Collection and leaning into the future with our ornamented Modern Collection,” says Cesar. The Acoustic Custom Shop Historic Collection includes a 1942 Banner J-45, 1942 Banner Southern Jumbo, 1934 Jumbo, 1936 Advanced Jumbo, 1939 J-55, 1952 J-185, 1957 SJ 200, 1960 Hummingbird, Pre-war SJ 200 Rosewood and more.
The Acoustic Custom Shop Modern Collection will explore the push and pull between classic designs and modern materials with bodies designed for comfort and modern voice, easy-playing slim-taper necks and a flatter fingerboard radius for enhanced feel. It includes a J-45 Deluxe Rosewood, Songwriter Chroma with Quilted Maple, Hummingbird with Custom Koa and many more.
The Acoustic Custom Shop recently launched the most highly customized Country Western in Gibson’s history. Created for Sheryl Crow and based off her own Country Western, the features of this signature model are designed to deliver the sweet voice of our classic Country Western with the added punch created from our 1930's Advanced bracing pattern. The Thermally Aged Sitka spruce top and hide glue provide additional projection and increased expression with a wider dynamic range.
Gibson Acoustics continues the success of the new G line of acoustics--high-quality, USA-made guitars built by the same hands that make the J-200 and J-45’s with a price point for younger, or newer, “generations” of players. The new Gibson Generation line’s offerings, the G-45 Studio and G-45 Standard, priced at $999 and $1299 respectively, feature solid Sitka spruce tops and walnut back and sides and exquisite finishes. “We are energized by the success of the Gibson Generation G-45 guitars, we can’t make enough of them!” says Cesar.
Adding to the new artist collaborations, Gibson worked closely with Frank Hannon guitarist, songwriter and co-founder of the multi-platinum band Tesla, to bring fans a new “Love” Dove in celebration of the 30th Anniversary of “Love Song,” and Kazuyoshi Saito on a signature J-45.
“Teaming up with Gibson to create the timeless Love Dove acoustic guitar has been a joy because of the love that the Gibson team has for music, and the artists who make it,” says Frank Hannon of Tesla. “I recorded many of Tesla’s classic acoustic driven songs with an original 1970s Gibson Dove, and now we have together created the Love Dove acoustic guitar in its glory to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Tesla’s ‘Love Song’.”
By leveraging its iconic past and leaning into the innovative future, Gibson has set the stage for the next era of shaping sound for present and future generations.
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Bruce Springsteen: the last man standing.
Maybe these aren’t the first thoughts you’d expect to have after a rock ’n’ roll show, but rock ’n’ roll is getting old, and one of its most prolific stars has been telling us for the past few years that he’s getting his affairs in order. His current tour, which continues his 2023 world tour celebrated in the recent documentary Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, follows his latest LP of original music, 2020’s Letter To You. That record was explicitly and thematically an exploration of the Boss’ mortality, and this year’s jubilant roadshow continues that chapter with shows across the U.S. and Canada.
“The older you get, the more you realize that, unless you’re über-wealthy, you probably have a lot in common with the characters in Springsteen songs.”
I was at the Montreal show on Halloween night, where Bruce, the E Street Band—Steven Van Zandt, Nils Lofgren, Garry Tallent, Max Weinberg, and Roy Bittan, along with Soozie Tyrell, Charles Giordano, and Jake Clemons—and a brilliant backing ensemble of singers and musicians performed for roughly three hours straight. The show rewired my brain. For days after, I was in a feverish state, hatching delusional schemes to get to his other Canadian shows, unconsciously singing the melody of “Dancing in the Dark” on a loop until my partner asked me to stop, listening to every Springsteen album front to back.
“The stakes implicit in most of these stories are that our time is always running out.”
Photo by Rob DeMartin
I had seen Bruce and the E Street Band in 2012, but something about this time was different, more urgent and powerful. Maybe it’s that the older you get, the more you realize that, unless you’re über-wealthy, you probably have a lot in common with the characters in Springsteen songs. When you’re young, they’re just great songs with abstract stories. Maybe some time around your late 20s, you realize that you aren’t one of the lucky ones anointed to escape the pressures of wage work and monthly rent, and suddenly the plight of the narrator of “Racing in the Street” isn’t so alien. The song’s wistful organ melody takes on a different weight, and the now-signature extended coda that the band played in Montreal, led by that organ, Bittan’s piano, and Weinberg’s tense snare rim snaps, washed across the arena over and again, like years slipping away.
The stakes implicit in most of these stories are that our time is always running out. The decades that we spend just keeping our heads above water foreclose a lot of possibility, the kind promised in the brash harmonica whine and piano strokes that open “Thunder Road” like an outstretched hand, or in the wild, determined sprint of “Born to Run.” If we could live forever, there’d be no urgency to our toils. But we don’t.
Springsteen has long has the ability to turn a sold-out arena into a space as intimate as a small rock club.
Photo by Rob DeMartin
Bruce has never shied away from these realities. Take “Atlantic City,” with its unambiguous chorus: “Everything dies, baby, that’s a fact.” (Then, of course, an inkling of hope: “Maybe everything that dies someday comes back.”) Springsteen used those phrases on Nebraska to tell the story of a working person twisted and cornered into despair and desperation, but on All Hallows Eve, as the band rocked through their electrified arrangement of the track, it was hard not to hear them outside of their context, too, as some of the plainest yet most potent words in rock ’n’ roll.
In Montreal, like on the rest of this tour, Bruce guided us through a lifecycle of music and emotion, framed around signposts that underlined our impermanence. In “Letter to You,” he gestured forcefully, his face tight and rippled with passion, an old man recapping the past 50 years of his creative life and his relationship to listeners in one song. “Nightshift,” the well-placed Commodores tune featured on his 2022 covers record, and “Last Man Standing,” were opportunities to mourn Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici, his E Street comrades who went before him, but also his bandmates in his first group, the Castiles. It all came to a head in the night’s elegiac closer, “I’ll See You in My Dreams,” performed solo by Bruce with his acoustic guitar: “Go, and I’ll see you in my dreams,” he calls
I’m still trying to put my finger on exactly why the show felt so important. I’ve circled around it here, but I’m sure I haven’t quite hit on the heart of the matter. Perhaps it’s that, as we’re battered by worsening crises and cornered by impossible costs of living, songs about people trying desperately to feel alive and get free sound especially loud and helpful. Or it could be that having one of our favorite artists acknowledge his mortality, and ours, is like having a weight lifted: Now that it’s out in the open, we can live properly and honestly.
None of us know for sure what’s up around the bend, just out of sight. It could be something amazing; it could be nothing at all. Whatever it is, we’re in it together, and we’ll all get there in our time. Until then, no matter how bad things get, we’ll always have rock ’n’ roll.
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