NAMM 2021 isn't taking place in the physical realm this year, but you'll find all the hottest January gear launches in our guide to the biggest guitar, amp and pedal releases of 2021 so far.
Your average viewer of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on NBC might clock The Roots house band guitarist “Captain” Kirk Douglas for his red-hot chops and impeccable dress sense, but guitarists have been eagerly eyeing up that triple-humbucker SG Custom in his hands for quite some time. Thankfully, Gibson has taken note, and its Douglas signature guitar has returned for 2021.
Available in Inverness Green and Ebony finishes, the Kirk Douglas SG is naturally most notable for its trio of humbuckers – a Burstbucker 1, 2 and 3 – but there’s also a signature ‘Captain’ Lyre Tail Vibrola tailpiece taking up a healthy piece of real estate on the mahogany body, too.
Those humbuckers are controlled via a three-way toggle, which selects the bridge, neck or both, and each of those two pickups has its own volume control with a push/pull coil-split on each. So far, so twin-humbucker SG.
The plot thickens with a third volume control, which allows players to blend in the middle pickup with any other pickup combination – oh, and that’s got a coil-split, too.
A single master tone knob and new-for-this-model pickguard-mounted master volume round out the hugely versatile electronic spec.
Elsewhere, the guitar is packing Keystone tuners, a rosewood fingerboard on SlimTaper mahogany neck, Graph Tech nut, ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic bridge and black Top Hat knobs with metal inserts.
“What I love about the Gibson SG is I am able to get my Les Paul tones and I’m able to get the single coil pickup tones, this guitar is extremely versatile, and by utilizing the pull up feature on each volume knob you can get a lot of tones,” Douglas said. “I find with the SG you are able to get a lot of different musical colors, all out of this one guitar.”
The Limited Edition Kirk Douglas Signature USA SG is available later this year for $2,499. Head over to Gibson.com for more info.
