Though less of a household name than Clapton, Page and Hendrix, Johnny Winter is one of the great blues guitar heroes of all time (not to mention the very first artist to ever appear on the cover of Guitar World).
As a tribute to Winter, Gibson has created a meticulous Custom Shop, Murphy Lab-aged replica of the guitarist's beloved Polaris White 1964 Firebird V, the details of which the company revealed today.
Every last idiosyncrasy of Winter's axe – the faded Firebird logo on the pickguard, the missing reflector on the rhythm tone knob, plugged holes and missing Maestro Vibrola – has been faithfully replicated on the new model, which boasts a fairly well-aged Polaris White finish.
Elsewhere, the guitar is built with a nine-ply mahogany/walnut neck-through-body with mahogany wings, and a bound Indian rosewood fretboard with trapezoid inlays.
A pair of Firebird Alnico 5 pickups – controlled by a pair of volume and tone knobs (one of which, as mentioned before, is missing its reflector) with CTS potentiometers, and a three-way pickup switch – give the guitar its sonic attack.
Classic 'banjo' tuners, meanwhile, round out the guitar's straight-from-a-time-machine looks.
Being a Gibson Custom Shop/Murphy Lab guitar, the Johnny Winter 1964 Firebird V certainly doesn't come cheap, ringing up at $8,999.
In addition to a Custom Shop hardshell case, a Jim Dunlop Johnny Winter slide and four Jim Dunlop Johnny Winter/Gibson Custom guitar picks though, each guitar comes with an 8 x 10 photo print of Winter autographed by legendary rock photographer Mick Rock, who passed away last month at the age of 72.
For more info on the guitar, stop by Gibson.
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