Gibson has officially introduced a new Zakk Wylde signature-model guitar—the Zakk Wylde Les Paul Custom Vertigo.
The model, which Wylde has been talking about since the Winter NAMM show in January, recently made its first appearance on Gibson's website, and you can read more about it here. (Be sure to click on SPECS for all the details.)
The model is significant because it's closer to what Wylde had in mind when he initially planned what turned out to be his famous Bullseye design.
"When I first got to LA, I had that cream Les Paul, which is an amazing-sounding fiddle," Wylde told Guitar World. "So I had the blond hair and the cream Les Paul—and it was gonna look like a Randy Rhoads tribute band when I get up there with Ozzy.
"So I wanted to get something painted on it. Eddie Van Halen had the stripes and Randy had the polka dots.
"I saw the poster from Vertigo, the Alfred Hitchcock movie, and thought that would be fucking awesome. So I explained it to my buddy Max, who ended up doing Slash's guitar, but when I went down there for the photo shoot, I opened up the case and saw the Bullseye logo. I said, 'Dude, what the fuck?' I had drawn it on a piece of paper and everything, but it was too late anyway. So we did the photo shoot, and the rest is history.
"So then I saw the Vertigo logo again just recently, and I said, "You know, I'm just gonna get this fucking thing done.' It came out cool. So there's the Buzzsaw, the Bullseye and the Vertigo—which is like a Bullseye, but 21st-century-style."
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The new guitar features a mahogany body, maple LP custom binding on top and back and a Fifties maple neck in natural satin, topped with a maple, acrylic block inlays and white binding fingerboard. It has EMG-85/EMG-81 pickups, chrome hardware with Grover kidney keys, multi-ply binding and a split-diamond-inlays headstock.
Damian is Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine. In past lives, he was GW’s managing editor and online managing editor. He's written liner notes for major-label releases, including Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'The Complete Epic Recordings Collection' (Sony Legacy) and has interviewed everyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to Kevin Bacon (with a few memorable Eric Clapton chats thrown into the mix). Damian, a former member of Brooklyn's The Gas House Gorillas, was the sole guitarist in Mister Neutron, a trio that toured the U.S. and released three albums. He now plays in two NYC-area bands.
