“The new Dark Walnut finishes let the beauty of the natural wood grain shine through”: Gibson gives its greatest hits a limited edition ‘70s inspired makeover

Gibson has unveiled the Dark Walnut Collection, a limited edition run available exclusively from the brand direct that refinishes five of its most-popular electric guitars in a ‘70s inspired finish.

Those who were fans of the Nashville-based brand’s superlative signature guitar for My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, will surely love these. The Dark Walnut Collection comprises a Les Paul Junior Double Cut, a ‘60s Les Paul Standard, a late ‘60s-style SG, a ‘70s Flying V and an ES-345 that is quite possibly the pick of the litter, with that bling gold hardware looking the part against the deep brown finish.

We should say: no walnut has been harmed in the making of these instruments. The Dark Walnut is a stain finish to bring out all of the details of each guitar’s wood grain, with a high-gloss lick of nitro finishing things off nicely.

That means the Les Paul Junior Double Cut is pretty much as simple as an electric guitar can get. It’s also the cheapest in the lineup, at $1,699. It has the slab mahogany body, a vintage profile mahogany neck that’s glued to the body, and a single dog-ear P-90 electric guitar pickup at the bridge.

 Volume and tone knobs are on hand to help you dial in a sound, and there’s enough range between them that you will not want for a neck pickup – just roll the tone back instead.

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It has a wraparound bridge, Gibson Vintage Deluxe tuners with white buttons making it look super old-school. You’ve got dot inlays on a rosewood ‘board and a minimum of fuss. Plug in and crank that tube amp.

A lot of these models share some specs. All have the 12” fretboard radius, the 24.75” scale length, and all ship in a hard-shell guitar case. If the Junior is a little rudimentary the Les Paul Standard presents a more luxurious alternative. 

This hues close to the classic recipe, which means you’ve got a plain maple cap on a solid mahogany body, a glued-in mahogany neck with a SlimTaper ‘60s profile, and a pair of ‘60s BurstBucker pickups at the neck and bridge. Gibson has given this gold ‘Top Hat’ tone and volume dials with silver inserts. A cream pickguard is a classy touch, complementing the single-ply binding on the body.

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The hardware is a classic Gibson spec of Grover Rotomatics with kidney bean buttons, an ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic bridge with an aluminium stop bar tailpiece. The fretboard has acrylic trapezoid inlays. It is priced $2,599.

You’ll get a similar looking fingerboard with the SG. This is all-mahogany, neck and body alike, with a pair of 490R and 490T Alnico II humbuckers. 

There should be plenty to hold onto when fretting a chord, with a fuller rounded profile on this model. It has a five-ply full-face pickguard, the same hardware as the Les Paul only this time with black ‘Top Hat’ control knobs with silver reflectors. It is priced $1,799.

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The ‘70s Flying V is ridiculously cool with that white three-ply pickguard and the uncovered 70s Tribute humbuckers. Said humbuckers are hand-wired with Orange Drop capacitors to a control setup comprising individual volume knobs and a master tone. It has an aluminium Nashville Tune-O-Matic bridge and aluminium stop bar tailpiece.

Rounding out this special run is the ES-345, a semi-hollow with a maple/poplar-maple three-ply body, with solid maple centreblock to kill feedback in high-volume, high-gain scenarios.

It might have a certain regal bearing (not far off a Live At The Regal bearing, if you catch our drift), but its Calibrated T-Type humbucker pairing will have plenty of bite and bark; think clear, dynamic, with a distinctive retro tone. 

The T-Type humbuckers are a blast from the past. Inspired by the T-Top pickups that were wound by Gibson between 1966 and ’79, they have an Alnico V magnet and use polysol wire in the design. We mentioned the Jim James ES-335 at the top of the page – it should be noted that the Calibrated T-Types are what he has installed.

Other features on this classic include the acrylic split parallelogram inlays on the Indian rosewood fingerboard. It has a set of Vintage Deluxe tuners with Keystone-style buttons, and an ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic and aluminium stop bar tailpiece. It is priced $3,899… A premium for the gold? No question, it's a high-end electric guitar. 

Get these direct from Gibson, online or in person at the Gibson Garages in Nashville and London. Hat-tip to the Gibson Gazette for the product reveal – that’s a site well worth bookmarking for Gibson news.