Gibson's epic 2021 launch schedule has just dropped one of its biggest-ticket items yet, a Jerry Cantrell signature guitar that's been aged by the Murphy Lab to meticulously replicate the Alice In Chains guitarist's Wine Red 'Wino' Les Paul Custom.
This is no ordinary Les Paul Custom. Setting aside the eye-watering price tag – the services of Tom Murphy's team do not come cheap! – Cantrell has some very interesting specs on his guitar, from the fundamental to the radical.
We'll take the fundamental first. Cantrell's 'Wino' Les Paul Custom has a plain maple topped mahogany body with nine-hole weight relief to show your lower back a little mercy, a Custom Cantrell mahogany neck that joins the body with the hide-glued long neck tenon, aged gold hardware, and a pair of 490R/498T humbuckers at the bridge and neck.
Now, here's where it gets radical. The Cantrell signature model comes equipped with a Fishman Powerbridge piezo for on-the-fly acoustic guitar tones, and a stereo output jack for routing the signal separately.
As you might expect, the control setup is a little different, with the three-way pickup selector joined by a pair of volume controls for each of the humbuckers, a master tone control, and a third volume control positioned in the bridge tone knob's place that controls the output of the piezo.
Elsewhere, there are all the touches you'd expect on a Les Paul Custom, from the 12" radius ebony fingerboard with MOP block inlays, Black speed control knobs, multi-ply binding and a matching 'guard, a bound neck and headstock.
Cantrell's Les Paul is fitted with a set of Grover kidney bean-style tuners, has a Corian nut, 22 medium jumbo frets and a regular Gibson scale of 24.75". Under the hood, Gibson has used 500K CTS Audio-Taper pots and ceramic capacitors, and on the rear of the guitar there is a compartment for a 9V batter to power the piezo.
Inside the case you'll find a certificate of authenticity reassuring you that you are one of 100 players lucky enough to own this guitar, which has a street price of £7,899.
Jerry Cantrell has just announced the release of his forthcoming solo album, Brighten, which was coproduced by Cantrell with film composer Tyler Bates, and arrives on 29 October via Warner Music and is available to preorder now.
Check out new single Atone below.
