If you’re as excited as we are about what’s coming out of the Gibson HQ then you might want to keep an eye on Brand President Cesar Gueikian’s Instagram posts.
Last week, we reported that a new Gibson double-cutaway electric guitar featuring an Explorer-style headstock had been revealed.
Today, we’re wondering: has Gibson just unveiled a Noel Gallagher Epiphone Riviera?
Last year, Gibson launched the much-anticipated Noel Gallagher Gibson J-150 acoustic guitar – a replica of the High Flying Birds and former Oasis frontman’s choice flat-top that famously appeared in the Little By Little music video.
And back in May, both Gallagher and Gibson teased the guitar world about the release of a signature ES-355...
Now confirmed for release on 30 August, the Gibson Noel Gallagher ES-355 is based on the guitarist's cherished 1960 model. In the latest Gibson Instagram post showing Gallagher with the 355, in the background on the right there's an Epiphone Riviera, while on the left is what appears to be the the previous limited Gibson model based on Gallagher's J-150 acoustic guitar.
Unveiled in 1958, the Gibson ES-355 can be differentiated by its gold hardware, ebony fretboard, five-piece split-diamond headstock inlays (the hallmark of other top-of-the-line Gibsons including the Les Paul Custom and Super 400CES) and large block inlays.
As a memorable comparison, the 355’s semi hollow sibling, the 335, is identified by either dot markers or – from 1962 onwards – small blocks, while the 345 features double-parallelogram fingerboard inlays.
In a new Instagram post, Gueikian is spotted with what appears to be a Gibson Custom Shop Noel Gallagher ES-355.
Then, during the series of clips that immediately follows, he is seen playing an Epiphone Riviera – an instrument that features prominently in the Don’t Look Back In Anger Oasis music video
With the Noel Gallagher ES-355 poised for release, it begs the question: could a Noel Gallagher Epiphone Riviera signature guitar be on the way soon?
After all, along with Stevie Ray Vaughan and the Strokes' Nick Valensi, Gallagher is one of the most prominent players to embrace this classic Epi semi.
The Epiphone Riviera E360TD appeared in 1962 priced $325 but was discontinued by the end of the decade.
Priced $300, the Riviera’s Gibson equivalent model, the ES-335, was less expensive at the time.
Though vintage Epiphones are sometimes mistakenly presumed inferior to Gibsons, they were made to exacting standards in the same Kalamazoo factory and were not intended as inferior instruments in terms of quality.
Aside from the typical Epiphone specs of mini humbucker pickups, Frequensator or Tremotone tailpieces and single-parallelogram fretboard inlays, Rivieras share much in common with 335s (though they fetch considerably less on the vintage market).
