Joe Perry is famed for non-monogamy when it comes to guitars - the Aerosmith legend has been spotted playing everything from Gretsch and BC Rich to Fender and Supro - but it appears the guitarist has finally settled down with a custom Gibson Les Paul.
In a post on Twitter, the guitarist shared a brief video from Gibson HQ and stated, “After several decades of playing many different guitars I think this one represents the nearly impossible task of bringing the best of all of them into this new signature model.”
After working on this guitar with @gibsonguitar for close to 3 years, it is finally here! After several decades of playing many different guitars I think this one represents the nearly impossible task of bringing the best of all of them into this new signature model. pic.twitter.com/fK6MpmsZVrFebruary 13, 2019
From what we can see, the guitar features a relic’d Goldtop finish and, unusually for a Les Paul, a Wilkinson floating tremolo system.
Perry claims it’s been three years in the making, but it’s more like four by our count, since he gave us an early preview of the instrument back in a wide-ranging interview from 2015.
“It’s the best of the Stratocaster and the best of the Les Paul,” he told us.
“Because I love the sound of the Les Paul and, ultimately, I love the way a Les Paul feels, but I love the ergonomics of a Strat. I love the whammy bar. So this new guitar I’m playing is a Les Paul from Gibson’s Custom Shop, with one pickup and a vibrato arm on it.
“It’s balanced and works great and stays in tune. And it’s got a [Chandler] Tone X for tone control - it has what looks like a tone knob, but actually when you pull it out it brings the Tone X into action [a 16dB boost with a midrange sweep - Ed]. So you can either set it to a cool tone or get a wah-wah thing out of it. Right now, that guitar gives me a lot of stuff to play with.”
As for when we’ll get to play with it, there’s no official word from Gibson just yet. But given its Custom Shop background, we’d wager it won’t be cheap. Epiphone version, please, Gibson?
