Phil X is developing a signature guitar with Gibson and has shared some spec details that suggest this could be a one of the most intriguing artist builds to come out of Nashville in recent years.
Speaking to Guitarist, the Bon Jovi lead guitarist and frontman of the Drills said that he was in love with the prototype of what could be the ultimate SG for those players who want a solid-body electric guitar with a bit more meat on the bone.
“We made the body an eighth of an inch thicker for me because I’m a bigger guy,” he says. “And we put in a ’57 Goldtop neck profile on it. And you can’t beat that bargain!”
Certainly not if you are Phil X. The Les Paul Goldtop is one of the guitars we would associate with him. Back in his Fretted Americana days, he would like up when he had a vintage Goldtop to put through its paces – doubly so if it had P-90 pickups. All of which makes us think – has this new signature electric been hiding in plain sight all this time?
Phil X tells Guitarist that they are on the third prototype now, and if you have been following his manoeuvres in recent months, you will have seen him with an unidentified gold SG with a pair of P-90s with chrome housings. Is this a custom build, or could it be the prototype? [See Below]
Note the stripped-down set of controls, just two knobs, with the three-way pickup selector switch located in the middle. Those knobs look like they came off a vintage tube amp, which is pretty cool, too (also, what about that tone!?)
Time will tell. But right now, that’s the guitar we seem to be seeing him with, and he tells Guitarist that this prototype is his favourite.
I have that SG in rehearsals and I’ll pick it up and go, ‘Oh, my God… this guitar just feels like home’
“It’s funny – I’ve had endorsements for so long, and some of the best guitars I’ve owned have been free!” he says. “But, really, the truly special one is the one I’m working on with Gibson, which is a signature SG, so my favourite guitar right now is prototype number three. In Bon Jovi, I have to play, like, eight or 10 guitars because there’s different tunings and sounds. I have that SG in rehearsals and I’ll pick it up and go, ‘Oh, my God… this guitar just feels like home.’”
That might go some way to compensating him for one of the ones that got away. Speaking of gear regrets, he admits that the sale of his 1964 SG Junior still hurts. The motto of the story is that there’s no price you can put on a single-pickup rock ’n’ roll machine like that.
“A guy offered me way more than I paid for it and it was too hard to pass up the opportunity, so I let it go and then immediately regretted the whole thing,” he says.
You can read the full interview with Phil X in the new issue of Guitarist.
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