Gibson has released a commemorative ES-355 reissue in honor of B.B. King’s appearance at the Zaire '74 music festival. The performance was part of the “Rumble in the Jungle” boxing event featuring Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Gibson Custom and Murphy Lab creation is a handcrafted limited-edition recreation of the guitar the blues maestro played that night, complete with its striking walnut finish.

The guitar it has worked tirelessly to recreate in great detail here was King's number one lady before he developed Lucille with Gibson six years later. Only 100 pieces will be made, each coming with a B.B. King “Zaire” hardshell case teeming with case candy commemorating the event.

Gibson has called Zaire '74 “a powerful moment in music history” that brought “the soul of the blues to unite a global audience” ahead of the groundbreaking bout between two towering heavyweight boxers.

Vassal Benford, CEO and Chairman of the B.B. King Music Company, extends that belief, saying that “B.B. King’s performance at the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ was not just a concert – it was a defining cultural moment,” and says the new build “captures the artistry and spirit of B.B. King’s legendary performance.”

Priced at $9,999, it comes brimming with premium appointments fit for a king, including Murphy Lab aging for its delectable finish, T-Type Custombucker Alnico 5 humbuckers, and a Maestro Vibrola tailpiece.

The construction of the guitar unites a laminated maple back, top, and centerblock with red spruce multi-ply binding, and single-ply binding for its fretboard and f-holes.

It boasts a three-piece mahogany neck with an ebony fretboard iced with reissue frets and Mother-of-Pearl block inlays. It's built to a 24.75" scale length with a 12" fretboard radius.

All hardware, including Kluson Waffleback tuners, True Historic pickup covers, a Tune-O-Matic bridge, and the aforementioned Maestro Vibrola, has been given an aged gold finish.

Benford extends his praise of the reissue, underscoring it as “a continuation of King’s enduring legacy, ensuring that future generations of musicians can connect with the heart and soul of the blues.”

The blues legend's daughter, Claudette, will front a new 10-piece band – which includes King's longtime drummer, Grady Champion – for a tour to celebrate his legacy later this year. An extra “flavor of funk” promises to breathe a unique new life into King's music.

The B.B. King “Rumble in the Jungle” 1974 ES-355 is available now and costs $9,999.

Head to Gibson to learn more

On his new solo EP, Starry Nights & Campfire Lights, Foo Fighters’ Chris Shiflett has ditched tube amps for a Quad Cortex. But he had some very specific guitars in mind to help achieve his desired tones. 

That included a Gibson Murphy Lab ‘59 Les Paul reissue, an instrument he tried – and subsequently failed – to fool avid gear collector Joe Bonamassa into thinking it was the real deal. 

“It was a half-hearted effort,” he admits during a new Total Guitar interview. “I had no illusion there, I knew he would clock it, of course.”

The rouse was attempted while Bonamassa guested on his Shred With Shifty podcast. But Bonamassa – as the second Reverb documentary filmed at his home-turned-museum Nerdville details – knows his onions. 

The new EP features two covers: a country version of Thin Lizzy’s Cowboy Song, and an Americana reimagining of Hanoi Rocks’ Don’t You Ever Leave Me. For the former, Shiflett was eager to emulate Scott Gorham’s recording tricks. 

“Pretty much all the rhythm tracks were done on a Telecaster, and there’s some acoustic stuff,” he details. “That was the meat of it. I did one pass of the solo, all the way through, on my Tele, and then at the halfway point, I overdubbed a Les Paul on top, because I was copying what Scott Gorham did on the original.

“I felt like it needed that little extra something. On my last run of solo shows, I brought a Les Paul, Tele, and Strat. Between those three I could cover all the sounds I needed to. The Les Paul was brand new, I just got it a few months ago from Chicago Music Exchange. It’s a Murphy Lab pretend 1959.”

Of the Murphy Lab build, Shiflett told MusicRadar :“It's kind of a little bit of a darker burst – it's not the real pink ones. It's kind of dark, and it's really light. It's seven, or a little over seven pounds. So it's just light as a feather, and that thing just, wow. It sounds incredible and plays amazing.” 

The Les Paul isn’t seen by most as the best guitar for country music, but Shiflett says otherwise of his Murphy Lab model. He believes too that opting for a left-field guitar choice and breaking out of genre borders paid dividends on the final track.

“I love it for country,” he beams. “I went to go see Hank [Williams] Jr. a few months ago when he played in LA and [he was] playing an SG a lot of the time and [had] real crunchy tones. It was kind of inspiring in terms of guitar choices, amps, overdrives, and all that stuff.”

Shiflett’s new EP is a quickfire to his 2023 LP, Lost At Sea. Produced by Cadillac Three’s Jaron Johnston, in a wide-ranging Guitar Player interview, he said the pair got very experimental with the amps and pedals they used across the record.

Gibson has released a new 1959 Les Paul replica to commemorate the late Jeff Beck’s time in The Yardbirds, but only 130 will be made. 

Today, Jeff Beck is remembered as a formidable and highly influential electric guitar player, predominantly as a solo artist, but it was his time in The Yardbirds that helped launch his career. 

The band had a matchless production line of next-best-thing musicians, with Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page also cutting their teeth in the band.   

As such, the company's latest history-honoring release focuses on those early days of Beck’s career, with the ‘59 ‘Yardburst’ a faithful recreation of the guitar he plied his trade with in the Yardbirds. 

Mirroring the specs of its progenitor, it offers a one-piece lightweight mahogany body with its Murphy Lab-aged tops and Dark Cherry Sunburst finish aiming to replicate the appearance of the original as closely as possible.  

There’s also a '50s rounded C-profile mahogany neck, 22-fret Indian Rosewood fingerboard, Custombucker pickups complete with white bobbins – a key feature of Beck's guitar – and a black three-ply pickguard. 

Each of the 130 models in this limited run are handcrafted by the artisans at the Gibson Custom Shop in Nashville, Tennessee, offering a unique way for fans to celebrate Beck’s potent legacy.  

Though its release comes 18 months after Beck’s passing at 78, his wife Sandra Beck has explained that he was involved with the project’s early steps. 

“Jeff was enormously proud to have owned the original of this guitar,” she says. “He was aware and fully supportive of the amazing job and love that Gibson Custom provided to create this instrument and would have hoped that this guitar would give hours of pleasure to those who play it.”

Each instrument ships in a specially aged Lifton hardshell case, with memorabilia celebrating Beck’s Yardbirds legacy and illustrious solo career.  

Beck would continue to play his beloved ‘59 Les Paul after parting ways with The Yardbirds in 1966. It played a key role in the early Jeff Beck Group albums before he transitioned to an Olympic White Fender Stratocaster. 

His 2014 Custom Shop Strat has recently been seen in the hands of John Mayer, playing it during Dead & Company’s ongoing Las Vegas residency at The Sphere. 

The Gibson Custom Jeff Beck ‘YardBurst’ 1959 Les Paul Standard is available now for $9,999.

Head to Gibson for more information. 

Eons ahead of its time when introduced in 1963, Gibson’s original Firebird has represented an iconic example of modernist electric guitar design ever since, remaining timeless and contemporary in equal measure.

And from the time Johnny Winter started setting stages ablaze with this revolutionary electric in the late ’60s, the blues guitar legend has served as the key reference point for what this radically angular and eclectically appointed instrument can do.

The Gibson Custom Shop has created the ultimate tribute to both the man and the instrument in the new Johnny Winter 1964 Firebird V, and it’s a doozy of a guitar for anyone who has ever appreciated the equally unique look and voice of this classic.

The Johnny Winter 1964 Firebird V isn’t merely a period-correct reissue of the original model; it’s also a pinpoint-perfect re-creation of Winter’s best-known ’64 Firebird V, a guitar used for countless gigs and sessions, and which appears in all its glory on the cover of the album Captured Live!

As such, the Gibson Custom Shop has fully replicated the holes in the body where the original Maestro vibrola was removed, the stop-bar tailpiece that replaced it, the missing reflector insert in the upper tone control knob, the faded Firebird logo on the pickguard, the splits in the wood where the original’s jack was once repaired and more.

The cosmetics are the skilled work of Gibson’s Murphy Lab, which has added a myriad of dings, scuffs and scrapes to the well-aged Polaris White finish to bring the authenticity home.

The original Firebird was created by Ray Dietrich, the automotive designer responsible for the Duesenberg and other classic cars.

Those built from 1963 to ’65 get their “reverse-body” nickname from the fact that the horns on the upper bout and treble-side protrusion on the lower bout appear the reverse of those found on a traditional guitar of the era (some note a resemblance to a flipped-over Jazzmaster).

The sleek lines continue in the six-to-a-side phoenix-head profile of the headstock, which used banjo tuners to avoid spoiling the esthetics.

Given the quirks of the original Firebird design, you can bet it’s no easy guitar to re-create accurately, and Gibson’s head of product development, Mat Koehler, concurs.

“I will say that in the great catalog of Gibsons made over the past 128 years, the original reverse-style Firebird is one of the most difficult to replicate,” Koehler tells GP.

“The nine-ply construction, the wings… It was clear that someone who was not a luthier designed that instrument. Ray Dietrich was a brilliant mind, but he did not make it easy on production,” he says with a laugh.

“That’s actually why Gibson moved to the non-reverse Firebird in 1965. At the Custom Shop, we are making them exactly how they were made in Kalamazoo in ’63, ’64, so this Johnny Winter has exactly the same woods, exactly the same construction, and it’s very, very true to his original.”

As vaunted as the Custom Shop’s reissue guitars have been for several years, Koehler tells us the step up to modern technology finally enabled Gibson to take the authenticity over the top, and it really shows here.

“For 2019, we totally revamped the entire range, including pickups and so forth, and that’s when we took a deep dive into the Firebird, so we corrected a lot of the little issues,” he reveals.

“We’ve now got a 3-D scanner, and were lucky enough to get access to the original Johnny Winter guitar, so in a couple of hours we had a 3-D map of the entire guitar.

“And then over the period of a couple weeks we cleaned that up and created programs out of it, for CNC and otherwise, so we were able to capture that and get the exact dimensions. So when you hold this Johnny Winter model, you’re holding the exact feel of the original, which is cool.”

Out of the case and into the hands, this thing certainly delivers on the vintage-Firebird experience. I’ve said this before about the Murphy Lab work, but if a pal came along and said, “Hey, check out the ’64 Firebird I just bought!” I would in no way doubt the veracity of the guitar upon popping open the gently aged rectangular case and lifting out this very instrument.

Not only does the aging look right, it also feels right: the softness of the body edges and angles, the palm-gracing curve of the medium-C ’64 neck profile and its comfortably rolled binding edges (another Murphy Lab “extra mile” detail that Koehler credits) – it all contributes to the time-machine experience this guitar delivers.

As Koehler indicated, the Firebird’s uniqueness goes far deeper than its looks and includes a complex “through neck” constructed from a nine-ply mahogany and walnut core that forms both the neck and the center of the body, with solid mahogany wings attached to its sides to complete the shape, all perfectly rendered here.

The neck is capped with a nicely dark Indian rosewood fingerboard edged in aged binding, with aged celluloid trapezoid inlays.

Equally significant to the original Firebird’s revolutionary design was the bespoke set of pickups Gibson created for it. Often mistaken for a fully covered rendition of the mini-humbucker that would end up on the Gibson Les Paul Deluxe at the dawn of the ’70s, it is in fact its own design, made with two hum-rejecting coils, each wound around its own Alnico bar magnet, which also takes the place of any pole pieces.

Many past Firebird reissues have carried hotter ceramic-magnet pickups, but Gibson has gone the whole nine yards here to re-create the vintage-style units with Alnico magnets and lower-output windings, resulting in pickups of 6.77k ohms in the neck position and 6.83k ohms in the bridge.

Controls are the traditional four-knob setup, with a three-way switch on the point of the lower horn.

In addition to the lightly aged rectangular hardshell case with “Johnny Winter” stenciled on the outside, the full package includes a certificate of authenticity, a print of legendary photographer Mick Rock’s iconic shot of Winter in action, a slide and a handful of Johnny Winter Dunlop guitar picks.

Played unplugged, the Johnny Winter 1964 Firebird V is impressively resonant and lively, thanks no doubt to the veracity of the overall build, but likely aided by that stop-bar tailpiece modification, too.

Amped up through a Friedman Dirty Shirley Mini with a 1x12 cab and a 1966 Fender Super Reverb 4x10 combo, and teamed up with a variety of overdrive pedals, the model’s full promise paid off in spades.

Firebirds are quirky beasts, for sure, and even when you love them, in theory you can still pick up a particular example and go, “Nah, not working for me!” This Johnny Winter homage, then, would be the polar opposite of that experience. Which is to say, yeah, very much working for me.

In fact, I’d say this yielded the most satisfying Firebird-playing experience I’ve had since testing out a particularly nice vintage example from among a noted Firebird collector’s favorites some 12 years ago or more.

I suspect the accurately re-created Alnico pickups are helping a lot here, but either way, the guitar is characteristically bright without being the least bit harsh, as well as surprisingly thick and rich, with a hair of compression in the attack to make the legendary bite and sting sweetly musical.

Getting the formula so right, as Gibson has here, also serves as a reminder of how versatile a great Firebird can be – diving smoothly into everything from hard rock to blues to indie to jangle and twang – and it could open the door to this kind of retro-modern style for countless players who never thought they’d get along with the design… or, to 124 of them at least, if we can find a way to forget to send back this limited-run sample.

Well done, Gibson Custom Shop, on a fitting tribute to the Firebird master.

By any measure, it’s an outstanding guitar.

The Johnny Winter 1964 Firebird V is available to order here.

As far as signature guitars go this one’s an unlikely, albeit no less important, candidate for Gibson’s exalted Murphy Lab. Guitar heroes and antiheroes alike, when it comes to ageing it seems nobody, or their guitar, is safe.

And this includes Mike Ness of Social Distortion – the multifarious Californian punk rock band that has, against the odds, survived a rollercoaster ride of highs and lows since its formation in the late ‘70s.

Because Ness – a much-lauded producer, songwriter, vocalist and guitarist – has just been honored for his valuable contribution to music and guitar culture with the Gibson Mike Ness 1976 Les Paul Deluxe.

So the first thing you’re probably thinking is, where’s the mini humbuckers? True: Les Paul Deluxes were fitted with mini hums as standard when they appeared in the late ‘60s. But as the body routing also accommodates P-90 single coils modding the Deluxe to ‘50s Goldtop-style specs is relatively easy and, evidently, that’s what Ness prefers.

The second thing you’re probably thinking is, how much is it? Well, at $8,999 you may not want to brave it on stage at your local dive bar lest some ‘authentic relicing’ instantly devalues your rare work of art.

Make no mistake, similar Custom Shop signature Les Pauls regarded as instantly collectible rocketed in value following their release and are now highly sought after electric guitars.

There’s a real market for these official replicas and owning a Gibson Mike Ness 1976 Les Paul Deluxe is as close as most will get to the real thing. For many, it’s like owning a piece of rock ‘n’ roll history.

Head on over to Gibson for more information.

Despite the ongoing pandemic 2021 was a fabulous year for gear. With many exciting and innovative products appearing over the last 12 months we guitar players have been spoilt for choice. 

Here are some of the top picks from team GP…

Gibson Custom Shop Murphy Lab Les Paul, ES-335 and ES-355 Guitars

A revitalized Gibson introduced its Murphy Lab extension of the Custom Shop early in 2021, and that thrillingly accurate backward glance proved one of the more exciting new developments from a big-name maker in quite some time.

Tom Murphy has long been recognized as a leading practitioner of the art of aging Gibson guitars, and if someone had told us the 1959 Les Paul Heavy Aged, 1959 ES-355 Light Aged, and 1961 ES-335 Ultra-Light Aged we were sent for testing were rare under-the-bed vintage finds we wouldn’t have thought twice.

And not only did they look great, but Custom Shop build quality ensure they also played superbly and sounded authentic. Stellar stuff. DH

Orange Acoustic Pedal

This is an ideal preamp and flexible D.I. for acoustic guitar rockers after an amp-like tone. It simply makes any acoustic-electric guitar sound bigger and bolder without having to fuss with a bunch of complicated controls.

The main event is the very sculptable midrange along with the requisite bass and treble controls. Tweak them a bit for different applications or instruments, but most players can probably pretty much set ’em and forget ’em.

I was miffed about no mute or bypass button at first but needed a mutable tuner in line anyway. Once the ample-sounding Orange Acoustic Pedal tone colors the signal chain, going without it sounds black and white. JL

Reverend Gristle 90

Guitarist Greg Koch went off-road when creating a follow-up to his signature Tele-centric Gristlemaste, and the result is the Gristle 90, a mashup of Fender and Gibson attributes that features a korina body that’s chambered under the pickguard and has a Firebird-style raised center section, and a three-piece korina set-neck topped with a 24 3/4-inch scale, 22-fret ebony fingerboard.

Steering things further into Gibson territory, the Gristle 90 has a Bigsby vibrato and a Tune-o-matic bridge, and it sports a pair of P-90 pickups – specifically, Fishman Fluence Gristle 90s, which were voiced by Koch and crew for this guitar. They feed volume and tone controls – the latter with a push-pull switch for a Peter Green-type out-of-phase sound – along with a pushbutton midrange boost and a three-way selector.

The Gristle 90 is a great playing and superb sounding guitar that combines classic and cutting-edge technologies to create a T-styler like no other. AT

Mesa Badlander

Derived from a long line of high-gain Mesa Rectifier amplifiers, this EL34-powered two-channel 100-watt head (also available in combo, rack-mount and 50-watt versions) delivers an astounding range of tones courtesy of Mesa’s 3 Mode Channel Cloning system that provides independent switching of the Clean, Crunch and Crush modes on each channel, each of which offers different gain and voicing options.

Dialing in righteous clean and overdriven tones is facilitated by the independent gain, master and EQ controls, and there’s a front-panel switch to select 100-, 50- or 20-watt operation (all class A/B), a tube-buffered series FX loop, a trio of speaker jacks and a bias switch to configure the amp for EL34 or 6L6 power tubes.

The features are extensive, but one of the most significant is the Cab Clone IR, a cab-simulator/reactive load with eight Mesa miked-cabinet IRs that can also be loaded with IRs of your choice. It adds up to a magnificently well-endowed amp that’s also an amazing deal. AT

Epiphone USA Casino

This updated and revitalized USA Casino – the first built in the U.S. since 1971 – absolutely nails what makes the iconic hollow-body Casino great: from big, bold British jangle and punch to sexy, syrupy P-90 jazz guitar and blues guitar tones.

The solid mahogany, 22-fret, rounded-C neck is topped with an Indian rosewood fingerboard, and with its three-ply maple/poplar/maple top, Gibson ABR-1 Tune-o-matic bridge and thinline trapeze tailpiece, it’s a contoured classic in either Royal Tan or Vintage Sunburst nitro finishes.

While it may cost a pretty penny compared to the Asia-made Epiphone Casinos of even a few years ago, the USA Casino is worth the investment, bringing the model back to the premium U.S.-made dream machine it was always meant to be. JVR

Boss OC-5 Octave

The OC-5 builds on the legacy of the OC-2, introduced 40 years ago, with a spot-on re-creation of the original monophonic pedal as well as a Poly mode that delivers the OC-3’s chord-loving goodness.

It ups the ante with a +1 octave control that adds definition and chime to guitar lines, and a -2 octave that in Poly mode becomes a range control for the -1 octave, allowing you to place the sub on just the root of the chord or over all the notes being played.

Boss’s latest tracking technology delivers lightning-fast, glitch-free performance, producing a natural sound and feel even on bends and vibrato. Better still, its suboctave sounds more natural than that of its predecessors. CS

Eventide Micropitch Delay

The MicroPitch Delay is a stereo delay with controls to independently adjust pitch for the left and right channels, as well as pitch-modulation capabilities courtesy of an LFO, and an envelope that responds dynamically to your playing.

The little red box is awesome for delay, chorus and doubling effects, but that is just the tip of this iceberg. The secondary mod parameter lets you choose from three types of pitch modulation: via LFO, via envelope to raise pitch, and via envelope to lower pitch. These last two methods are great for creating dynamically responsive pitch shifts.

It’s also terrific for creating syrupy chorus and ascending and descending delays via picking dynamics. I found that, at its core, the MicroPitch Delay is a fantastic “always-on” sonic enhancer in my signal chain. CS

Fender American Professional Jazzmaster II

If you’re like us, you’ve wanted a Jazzmaster for years. What held you back was those notoriously wonky vibrato tailpieces and the humpy 7.5-inch neck radius. Well, the American Professional II is for you, with a redesigned Panorama tremolo system that gives you all the bending room of a Strat, updated V-Mod II pickups, and – finally! – a more comfortable rounded-C neck shape, with a modern 9.5-inch neck radius. Hallelujah!

The V-Mod II single-coil pickups kick indie ass, too: clear, punchy and articulate, with a coil-tap option for a beefier sound out of that previously thin bridge pup in most Jazzers. With the American Professional II, Fender has given us all the Jazzmaster’s cool character, with absolutely zero trade-offs. JVR

Epiphone “Inspired by Gibson” Hummingbird

Comparable in nearly every detail to its much-pricier U.S.-made Gibson counterpart, the new made-in-China Epiphone Hummingbird features that classic square-shouldered dreadnought shape, a solid Sitka Spruce top, solid-mahogany back and sides, Indian Laurel reverse-belly bridge with bone saddle, tortoise shell pickguard with Hummingbird and floral graphics, a glued-in, tapered dovetail neck joint, quarter-sawn spruce bracing, ivory-and-black six- and four-ply binding and an Aged Gloss finish.

Specs aside, it just plays and sounds great, with a 24.72-inch-scale mahogany neck with rounded-C profile, a 12-inch radius, and a lovely Indian laurel fingerboard. Finally, a Hummingbird for the rest of us. JVR

ESP MH-1000 Deluxe Evertune

An Editors’ Pick Award mysteriously went missing from this review when it appeared in the November 2021 issue, but the MH-1000 Deluxe Evertune certainly earned one.

This beautifully made guitar offers righteous playability thanks to its three-piece set-thru maple neck with a thin U shape and a 25.5-inch-scale Macassar ebony fingerboard carrying 24 mirror-polished, stainless-steel frets. The guitar swings a pair of active EMG pickups – a 60T W-R in the neck position and an 81 in the bridge slot – and the tone knob pulls for split-coil action.

As the name denotes, this version of the MH-1000 Deluxe features an Evertune bridge that provides rock-solid tuning stability and unprecedented intonation accuracy, and can be easily adjusted for the desired string-bending response. The Evertune is a game changer and the MH-1000 Deluxe an ideal platform to showcase its abilities. AT

Orange Terror Stamp

Perfect for mounting on a pedalboard, this potent little amplifier is a hybrid design that uses a 12AX7 tube in the preamp driving a 20-watt solid-state power section. A single foot-switch toggles between volume 1 and volume 2 controls, and there’s a Shape knob for EQ-ing sounds and a master gain control. The speaker output can handle 8- and 16-ohm loads, and there’s an FX loop and a cab-simulated output for recording, headphones or feeding a FOH mixer.

The Terror Stamp has a wide gain range and its British-flavored distortion is killer for everything from blues guitar to hard rock. It’s a great pedal to keep in the gig-bag in case your main amp goes down, or as a full-time amplifier for players who want to reduce the amount of gear they carry to the gig. AT

Neural DSP Quad Cortex Floor Modeler

When it comes to the industry-leading amp modelers, guitarists have stopped debating whether they sound like the real thing and just started using them. In doing so, many have developed strong loyalties to their DSP delivery unit of choice, which led to some ruffled feathers and muddied waters when plug-in designer Neural DSP unveiled this Quad Cortex floor unit.

Boasting an extremely intuitive interface with touch screen and combination rotary-knob-foot-switch gizmos and the ability to capture and reproduce any amp, drive pedal or cab you throw at it, the main takeaway is that the Quad Cortex simply sounds astoundingly good, immediately establishing it as a serious contender for anything out there. DH

Origin Effects RevivalDrive Compact

When you notice that your pals have the same new overdrive pedal on their boards, you know something is up. With its amp-like circuit design and chewy, touch-responsive sag and bloom, the original RevivalDrive caused a massive stir a few years back, but it’s a big pedal. The RevivalDrive Compact packs that same spongy saturation into a fly-rig-approved form factor, and does it sound good.

Is it the “tube amp-style signal path with Class A preamp”? Or maybe the “long-tail pair phase inverter” or the “reactive overdrive design”? It’s those things, plus EQ options for single-coil or double-coil pickups and a wet/dry control so you can blend your amp’s preamp gain with the RevivalDrive’s tailored gain structure.

Put away your ideas about what an overdrive pedal sounds like, and pull out your wallet. JVR

EarthQuaker Devices Astral Destiny Reverb

EarthQuaker’s line of out-of-this-world ambience pedals grew this year with Astral Destiny, a mind-blowing box that serves up eight types of ambience with and some without octave effects. These huge-sounding reverbs include chorus modulation that makes them sound ethereal or haunting, shimmer effects for upper and lower octaves, and high and low octave effects.

All this, plus a regenerating tail for creating reverbs of extended length at pitch or fifth above, as well as upward and downward pitch bending. Astral Destiny is a welcome new tone enhancer and an inspiring effect for guitarists who seek uncommon reverbs. CS

K-Line Springfield

Just when you concluded that everyone and his or her second cousin is making reproduction S-style, bolt-neck, 25.5-inch-scale guitars, along comes one to remind you how magical this 67-year-old recipe can still be when cooked up very, very well.

Chris Kroenlein’s Springfield model wowed us for its superb playability, authentically played-in feel, resonant and lightweight woods, lusciously aged nitro Lake Placid Blue finish (non-aged available), and trenchant tones.

From the archetypally Stratty mix of bright, glassy, snappy, and quacky, to muscular, rich, and multi-dimensional, it’s the compelling and inspiring performer many players believe they’ll find only in a vintage example costing much, much more. DH

L.R. Baggs Voiceprint Acoustic D.I.

Released in fall 2020 with a significant firmware update in 2021, the Voiceprint D.I. is one of the most innovative products released during the pandemic era. Using Impulse Response signal processing and harnessing the power of an iPhone or Apple Watch via the AcousticLive app, Voiceprint conjures a custom filter designed to augment/replace the pickup signal based on a quick demo performance, essentially creating the best version of your favorite instrument for amplification.

That “Voiceprint” then lives in the pedal and can be further sculpted using the app to adjust EQ or volume, reduce feedback or vary the blend. Store up to 99 Voiceprints for an entire acoustic guitar arsenal. JL

Fender Acoustic Junior GO

This little bugger sounds surprisingly toneful and does pretty much anything a troubadour might imagine. The GO’s got a bevy of effects including a built-in looper, plus Bluetooth connectivity that comes in handy for pumping backing tracks or simply rocking out to tunes sent over from a phone.

Dual guitar/vocal channels with identical setups are easy to understand and operate. A perfectly portable compact brown box housing a powerful rechargeable lithium-ion battery is the GO’s coup de grace.

Robust enough to turn any patch of nature into a stage, it was even the main amplifier for all of the acoustic instruments and even some of the electric ones at our Burning Man camp! JL

Epiphone Alex Lifeson Les Paul Standard Access

Here’s an all-around axe if there ever was one, and it’s attainable to practically anyone serious about acquiring a total tone machine. First, it’s a gorgeous, utterly playable and ergonomically excellent Les Paul with push/pull coil-tap capability on both humbuckers. Second, it’s got a piezo pickup in the Floyd Rose-style, whammy-friendly locking Graph Tech Ghost Tremolo Bridge, and that signal can either be separated via a second output jack, or summed with the magnetic signal in the primary output.

Remarkably, Epiphone and Lifeson realized this dream machine for under a grand. AT

Matchless Laurel Canyon Reverb 1x12

California amp maker Matchless has been at the forefront of the boutique scene since 1989, but the Laurel Canyon and its sibling Coldwater Canyon are the first production models it has released with 6V6 output tubes – to which we say it’s about time!

Announced prior to this past year but put on hold review-wise due to pandemic-related constraints, the Laurel Canyon quickly proved that the high-quality, point-to-point Matchless formula applies equally well to American-voiced designs, while also establishing a new 20-watt club combo to beat.

 From lush blooming chime, to biting mid-rich twang to snarling lead tones, all with outstanding reverb slathered over, it’s impressively versatile and a real joy to play. DH

Way Huge Atreides Analog Weirding Module

Atreides is a stellar reimagination of the short-lived but influential 1980 Electro-Harmonix Mini Synthesizer that Eddie Van Halen used to great effect on Fair Warning tracks like “Sunday Afternoon in the Park” and “One Foot Out the Door.”

A guitar synth, envelope filter, fuzz circuit, phaser, and sub-octave device all in one, pimped out with seven satisfying sliders for sensitivity, brightness, phaser rate, and more, it’s sure to help evoke the hallucinogenic “spice” that brings visions and messianic dreams to its Dune namesake, Paul Atreides. JVR

Carr Super Bee

Dressed in natty two-tone covering and designed to deliver three different flavors of blackface-Fender tone, the Super Bee has a rotary Sting switch that selects “64” (based on Steve Carr’s personal ’64 Deluxe Reverb), “68” (a classic Super Reverb) and “72” (a blackface circuit modded for extra overdrive).

Powering this point-to-point wired amp is a pair of 6BM8 tubes that combine a high-gain triode and a power pentode in one glass package. The pair produce 10 watts, which can be throttled down to two watts via the attenuator switch or all the way down to a whisper with the attenuator knob. Two 12AX7s and a 12AT7 handle the EQ (treble, bass, middle) and drive/recovery duties for the lush and enveloping reverb.

The Super Bee offers a cool selection of sounds that range from rich Deluxe Reverb flavors to midrange-forward Super Reverb clean and overdriven tones to gnarly distortion from the 72 setting that’s so dynamic and touch responsive you could play an entire gig on this mode alone. AT

Taylor Grand Theater 811E & K21E

Depending on your perspective, these are either two of the best little big guitars or big little guitars of 2021. Taylor notched out a nice niche between a short scale travel-sized axe and a full scale small-bodied instrument, then made it super playable by lowering the string tension for a remarkably relaxed feel that’s perfect for the beach, the boat or the back porch. C-Class cantilevered bracing helps the Grand Theater’s tone belie its diminutive box, and onboard ES2 electronics make it truly gig-worthy. JL

Damian Probett SG-Teor Guitar

With a diverse background in carpentry and joinery, aircraft tool making and the building of engines for racing motorcycles, London-based luthier Damian Probett shouldn’t have much trouble pulling off a meticulously well-crafted electric guitar – and he most definitely did not on evidence of the SG-Teor that graced GP’s New & Cool pages early in 2021.

Partly inspired by a “what if?” wish list from American guitarist Matte Henderson, Probett captured the spirit and overall sound of a vintage SG in a single-cutaway design that improved balance, eliminated neck-dive and “rubber neck” tuning-wobble issues, and enhanced sonic stability and sustain in the process. The result is a stunning performance tool that’s all the more versatile thanks to stealthy split-coil pickup switching. DH

Blues guitar hero Johnny Winter is synonymous with the Gibson Firebird. Well renowned for his dazzling display of slide licks and lightening fast fretboard work Winter began his recording career at the age of 15 and rose to prominence in the late ‘60s after releasing his debut album The Progressive Blues Experiment in 1968.

Paying tribute to the inimitable bluesman the Gibson Custom Shop has released the Johnny Winter 1964 Firebird V. Sporting a Murphy Lab custom-aged Polaris White finish this replica electric guitar is a finely detailed recreation of Winters’ own iconic axe. From the faded Firebird pickguard emblem to the vibrato hole plugs this collectible work of art is the closest any fan will get to the real thing.

Reflecting the sleek, angular geometry of classic cars the Gibson Firebird line was released in 1963 comprising four models, all sporting a through-neck construction and bespoke mini humbuckers. This included the single pickup/dot inlay Firebird I; the double pickup/dot inlay Firebird III; the double pickup/trapezoid inlay Firebird V; and the triple pickup/block inlay Firebird VII.

Originally appearing in the ‘reverse’ style (meaning the treble horn extends further than the bass horn, while the lower bass bout extends beyond the lower treble bout) Gibson reworked the design in 1965. This later ‘mirror image’ incarnation of the Firebird became known as the ‘non-reverse’ style and features a glued-in neck, making it far easier and less costly to manufacture.

A little over 500 Firebird V models were shipped during 1964 making it a rare vintage guitar. Similarly, this limited run of 125 instruments makes the Gibson Johnny Winter 1964 Firebird V an even rarer bird. Allocated “JWFB”-prefixed serial numbers each guitar is supplied with a corresponding certificate of authenticity.

A bespoke case stenciled “J. Winter Firebird” contains some interesting candy, including an 8x10 photograph signed by the late, great photographer Mick Rock, a signature Dunlop slide and Johnny Winter/Gibson Custom Dunlop picks.

For more information head on over to Gibson.

You can currently order an instrument from this limited run of 125 Murphy Lab replica guitars from Guitar Center here.

Grab a copy of Johnny Winter's Captured Live! here.

For several decades, Tom Murphy has hand-aged Gibson Custom Shop guitars as an independent contractor, and has long been acknowledged as the leader in that field. 

Now Gibson has embraced Murphy’s talents by creating a flagship collection in the form of the Murphy Lab, a department designed, trained, and headed by the man himself. 

As the Gibson exec who pulled the “Let’s do it!” lever on the Murphy Lab, brand president Cesar Gueikian sees it as a crucial part of returning the company to what players are really seeking in a Gibson guitar. 

“That’s why I thought the Murphy Lab was so important,” Gueikian tells us. “It started with the Custom Shop and redoing those collections, and having a collection that was a true representation of cloned, original instruments by year. 

"As for re-creating how those original vintage instruments from the golden era have gracefully aged, we wanted to take it up to the next level. And who could be better to lead that effort than Tom Murphy himself?”

In this way, Gueikian says, Gibson is paying tribute to Murphy as one of the pioneers – from Orville Gibson to Lloyd Loar, Ted McCarty, and Seth Lover – who helped establish and retain the maker’s reputation for innovation.

“It came out of Tom having to put a new neck on an original guitar made back in the ’50s,” he says. “He realized, ‘It plays great with a new neck, but it doesn’t look good.’ So he aged it. That’s where it all started, almost 30 years ago.”

The current project got underway about two years ago, when Murphy brought a guitar to Gueikian’s office.

“Tom came to me and said, ‘I want to show you something,’” he recalls. “I opened the case and said, ‘Tom, wow! What a beautiful ’Burst!’ I thought it was a ’59, and he said, ‘This is a new guitar I just made.’ I told him I wanted to build a lab for him to do this and for him to run the effort. It took a year to build and test it, making prototypes, and now it’s up and running.”

Ultimately, it was an insightful move. It was also a way for Gibson to wrest back production of the finest vintage-spec guitars from the sheds and small shops, where independent, often one-person operations have been creating reproduction ’59 ’Bursts that some players have been willing to pay upward of $10,000 to obtain.

The Murphy Lab test samples Gibson sent to us include a 1959 Les Paul Golden Poppy Burst Heavy Aged, a 1959 ES-355 Watermelon Red Light Aged, and a 1961 ES-335 Sixties Cherry Ultra Light Aged.

Since the aging process requires a lot of handwork, pricing increases per model according to the level of wear applied. To avoid the potential bottleneck inevitable in the effort to match a customer’s model desires to bespoke levels of aging, Gibson has defined a specific menu of desirable Custom Shop models that will consistently be making their way through the Murphy Lab.

“We have a Murphy Lab collection of the greatest hits, so that you can grab any other guitar that’s not in there and apply the Murphy Lab treatment,” Gueikian says. “But 90 percent of the guitars people want are already in that collection, in the different aging treatments, so you don’t have to wait.”

The guitars passing through the Murphy Lab are also the most vintage-correct examples Gibson has produced, thanks to the Custom Shop’s application of true historic specifications devised over recent years. Accurate neck and top carves are based on meticulous digital scanning of originals, and it’s all put together with hot-hide glue, the way it was back in the day. 

Period-correct plastics include Royalite binding; pickup rings, pickguards, and other bits made from cellulose acetate butyrate; and butyrate knobs and cellulose-nitrate inlays. Authentic ’50s tubeless truss rods are used for enhanced resonance and sustain, and pickups and electronics made true to late-’50s and early ’60s specs are standard for these guitars.

Of course, the paint matters too, and correctly formulated thin, hard-curing nitrocellulose lacquer with no plasticizers – a finish that ages the way it did after being sprayed on Gibsons in the late ’50s – is also a must.

1959 Les Paul Golden Poppy Burst Heavy Aged

As I opened the aged, brown Lifton case containing the Murphy Lab’s 1959 Les Paul, I thought, 'This must be what it was like for Gueikian when he checked out Tom Murphy’s ’59 Les Paul re-creation.' If I didn’t know of Murphy’s existence and Gibson’s whole-hearted plunge into the Lab, I’d fully believe that someone mistakenly shipped a $350,000 vintage Les Paul ’Burst to me. 

This example displays the Lab’s Heavy Aged wear level, with dings, scuffing, checking, and edge rubs, in a Poppy Burst finish, a shade from which the red has vanished on its way toward dirty lemon. Not only do the finish quality and accuracy of the heavy wear compare to late-’50s ’Bursts that I’ve had the pleasure of playing but the guitar feels like the real thing, too. 

It’s all there: the hardness and texture of the finish, the discernible texture of the wood beneath it, the rounded D-meets-C neck profile with just enough heft to really sink into the palm, and the angle and carve of the top arch. More importantly, when played unplugged, this Les Paul has the ring and snap of an old guitar (a flawless setup right out of the case certainly doesn’t hurt, either). 

It exudes the dry, lively, resonance that’s so difficult to get in a new instrument, of any quality, and that’s what really kicks it over the goal line for me. Tested through a Friedman Small Box (Marshall 2204-style) 50-watt head and 2x12 combo, a custom tweed Deluxe-style 1x12 combo, and a Neural DSP Quad Cortex modeler into my studio monitors, this Murphy Lab 1959 Les Paul ably continued its heady trip through the time machine.

The guitar’s period-correct construction, light eight-pound, six-ounce weight and Custom Bucker pickups work together to exude those seemingly contradictory blends of bite and compression and snappy brightness alongside the lower-midrange grunt that a great vintage Les Paul with PAFs delivers, all couched in that indefinable something that just makes you want to play and play. The experience was irreproachable.  

Gibson has concluded that the majority of late ’50s and early ’60s PAFs were made with Alnico 3 magnets, and that’s what they’re using behind the unpotted, mismatched coils in these humbuckers, which measure 7.86k-ohms DC resistance in the neck and 7.72k-ohms in the bridge.

They sound very good, and if they miss a tad of the high-end sting in the pick attack that my ears expect from genuine vintage PAFs, the creamier, more compressed response is very pleasing, has plenty of clarity, and makes for expressive and addictive playing.  

1959 ES-355 Watermelon Red Light Aged

This example of the upmarket 1959 ES-355 wears a late-’50s red that characteristically faded to a watermelon hue, and which is extremely appealing in person. The Light Aged treatment suits the example well. 

Subtle finish checking and fade marry beautifully with the amber multi-ply body and headstock binding, the split-diamond headstock, the gold hardware with a lightly aged patina, and an ebony fingerboard with ’50s-pattern mother-of-pearl block inlays. 

Together, they conjure up an instrument that your musical uncle tucked under the bed 60 years ago after hanging up his career. While many late-’50s ES-355s came equipped with Bigsby vibratos, the stop-tail used here is a spec that many guitarists would prefer.

For those crying out, “What, no VariTone? No stereo wiring?” it’s worth noting that a surprisingly high proportion of originals were ordered as “factory mono,” and without the rotary tone switch.

This one has a full ’59 neck profile that’s perhaps a hair slimmer than that of the Les Paul, with nicely rolled fingerboard edges that help it feel utterly scrumptious, and it plays superbly thanks to another great factory setup. 

It’s a rich, detailed semi when played unplugged. Into the test amp and modeler selection, it revealed a heady blend of elegance and a subtle rawness that the slightly edgy response of the laminated-maple body lends to the formula, with just a little extra top-end “snick” in the attack, too, thanks in part to the ebony fingerboard.

I expected this one to want to be admired from afar more than played, but it’s a total ripping monster of a guitar for a surprisingly wide range of styles. This ES-335 carries an Alnico 3 Custom Bucker set that measures 7.89k-ohms in both positions.

The bridge position can be sweet and clear into clean settings, yet it really snarls and wails when shown a little overdrive, while the neck position excels at singing vocal blues leads and rich, throaty jazz, sounding huge in the process and never muddying out like so many do. Meanwhile, the middle position pulls off all the jangle and chime you’d expect a single-coil guitar to achieve. In short, I’m smitten.

1961 ES-335 Sixties Cherry Ultra Light Aged

Dying for a vintage last-year, dot-neck ES-335 but can’t afford the premium? Here you go!

The cherry finish on this one is just the right hue for an early ’60s example, and while I can’t see much difference between the Ultra Light Aged results here and the Light Aged on the ES-355, so be it. They both look and feel great. The specs on this one don’t vary from traditional, so they really need little introduction.

It has the thinner early ’60s neck profile, but it still feels great in the hand of a guy that generally goes for fatter necks, and it plays beautifully up and down the dark-brown rosewood board. Unplugged, the 1961 ES-335 is resonant and clear, with an appealingly loose feel in the playability.

Amped up, that translates to a fun and lively guitar that offers, perhaps surprisingly, a little more snarl and bite than the ES-355 (given a similar set of pickups that read 7.82k-ohms bridge, 7.68k-ohms neck), but without digging into tube-amp breakup quite as quickly. It’s great stuff, and totally on point for vintage-inspired ES-335 goodness.

Verdict

While you might expect these Murphy Lab guitars to be all about the window dressing, each proves to be beautifully and extremely well built once you delve below the surface. 

In short, they’re the best new Gibsons I’ve played in a long time. It’s great to see a historic guitar brand firing on all cylinders again and turning out guitars that stand proudly alongside so many legends from the golden era. More power to ’em, and please send another three soon!

• PRICES: 1959 Les Paul Golden Poppy Burst Heavy Aged, $8,999; 1959 ES-355 Watermelon Red Light Aged, $7,499; 1961 ES-335 Sixties Cherry Ultra Light Aged, $5,799
• CONTACT: Gibson

Almost a year and a half after the collection was initially announced, and just over a month and a half since our first concrete preview of the instruments, the Gibson Custom Shop Murphy Lab collection of guitars has finally been revealed.

Featuring a total of 50 instruments with four distinct levels of aging – Ultra Heavy-Aged, Heavy-Aged, Light Aged, and Ultra-Light Aged – the collection features Les Pauls, SGs, Firebirds, ES-335s and more.

Led by Gibson Master Artisan and guitar aging pioneer Tom Murphy, the Murphy Lab was created to be a division of the Gibson Custom Shop focused entirely on building historical guitars with clone-like accuracy.

Murphy and Gibson managed to scientifically reverse-engineer the original Nitrocellulose lacquer Gibson used on guitars in the 1950s and 1960s, for instance, in light of the original lacquer's propensity to crack over time. The Murphy Lab guitars' dimensions were also laser-scanned to match their original counterparts, while even plastics found on the original instruments were chemically recreated.

“I am incredibly humbled and honored to have an opportunity to bring these instruments to the market; to have my name on them is a tremendous responsibility,” Murphy said in a press release. “This work has been my passion for decades and what we have achieved in The Murphy Lab in terms of the different styles of aging and the consistency of the process is truly groundbreaking.

"I always stack my work up against real deal vintage Gibson guitars, and the effect that we are now able to achieve, well, there's just nothing else out there like it. This is a game changer. This is the future of aging guitars.”

Prices for the Gibson Custom Shop Murphy Lab guitars range from $4,299 at the low end to $10,499 at the high end.

For specs and more info on the collection, stop by gibson.com.

Back in 2019, Gibson announced the launch of the Murphy Lab, a new division of the company's Custom Shop that would devote itself to building historically accurate guitars.

Led by Tom Murphy – a veteran builder who's also one of the original pioneers of guitar aging – the Murphy Lab's creations were first previewed last summer, but now Gibson has given us a much more complete look at the work of Murphy's team.

In tandem with the announcement of a number of new acoustic, semi-hollow electric, and signature electric models, Gibson released dozens of gorgeous, high-definition photos of the first batch of Custom Shop Murphy Lab guitars. 

“The Gibson Custom Shop is the pinnacle of craftsmanship, quality, and sound excellence. Each instrument celebrates Gibson’s legacy,” Cesar Gueikian, Gibson's Chief Merchant Officer, said in a statement. 

“The Murphy Lab, one of our Gibson Labs, is where we re-imagine and implement new ways of delivering the Gibson Custom Shop historic experience. Master artisan Tom Murphy brings his expertise, authentic style, and his passion for building historically accurate guitars to the Murphy Lab Collection.”

You can check out a few of the photos – displaying relic'd Les Pauls, SGs, and more – below. 

For more on all of Gibson's new models, stop by gibson.com.

Late last year, Gibson announced the launch of the Murphy Lab, a new division of the company's Custom Shop that would devote itself to building historically accurate guitars.

The Murphy Lab is headed up by Tom Murphy, a veteran builder who also happens to be one of the original pioneers of guitar aging. Now, we've been given a tantalizing preview of some of his first Gibson Murphy Lab builds.

“We’re working on some #epic stuff #prototype at the Murphy Lab - Gibson Custom Shop Historic Collection," said Gibson CMO Cesar Gueikian in an Instagram post, featuring shots of three new aged Les Pauls.

You can get a closer look at the goldtop and two 'bursts, each of which have been given comprehensive checking and finish wear, in the shot below. 

There's been no word on the release date or prices of any Gibson Murphy Lab models, but, as always, we'll be sure to keep you posted on any developments.