Gibson and Kirk Hammett have expanded their signature guitar lineup with a seasonal update on the classic Hummingbird acoustic guitar that channels Edgar Allan Poe at his most morbid.
It’s called the Raven, and it is really rare bird. They are only making 100 of these, and they come hot out of the Gibson Custom Shop at Bozeman, Montana, in a custom black guitar case with a raven skull inlay, foreshadowing the necro mother of pearl headstock inlay on the guitar itself.
Fundamentally this is a Hummingbird and we won’t be told any differently. It has the solid Sitka spruce top, mahogany on the back and sides.
Scramble around for it in the dark and you will feel something – a shape in the gloom – quite familiar, square shoulders, a dreadnought-sized body. But it if is a Hummingbird, well, this one was found some way down the Left Hand Path.
It’s like the Hummingbird only evil. Of course, rosewood would have been too bright for a guitar like this. Hammett’s Raven swaps that out for ebony, and we have star inlays here. There is also a double pickguard and tailpiece accent that’s just too cool. The mahogany neck has a rounded profile – happy days for chord work.
The Metallica lead guitarist is reported to have been heavily involved in its design, and it shows. As we all know, Hammett is a horror movie fanatic. His number one ESP signature model features graphics from The Mummy (not the Brendan Fraser one, the original from 1932 featuring Boris Karloff). Pre-code horror is a theme on his electric guitars.
He also has ESP signature models with White Zombie and Bride Of Frankenstein graphics. This approach would not have worked on an guitar like the Raven.
Again, we’re working with Hummingbird DNA. But the aesthetic is very on brand with Roger Corman’s The Raven, Boris Karloff and Vincent Price and all that. Play some spooky chords on it.
Or lean into the considerable lung power from its build – that scalloped advanced X-bracing under the spruce top – and hit an open G chord with gusto. When you do you’ll appreciate some more of Hammett’s custom appointments.
This has a flatter fingerboard radius than your common or garden variety Hummingbird, 16” as opposed to the Gibson standard 12”. It’ll be a good player. Like the Hummingbird it has a 24.75” scale length.
Other details worth noting include the 43.82mm nut width (Graph Tech TUSQ), the nickel Rotomatic tuners with kidney bean-style buttons, the compound radius dovetail neck joint, and the LR Baggs Element VTC +4 acoustic guitar pickup and preamp system, with its controls nested in the soundhole. Lovely.
Priced £4,399/$4,999, the Kirk Hammett Raven is available now. See Gibson for more details.
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