Mark Morton has long been churning out Lamb of God’s grinding groove metal riffs on Jackson electric guitars – most notably from the fretboard of his offset signature guitar, the Dominion.
Morton's long-standing partnership with Jackson made news of his signing with Gibson in 2022 something of a surprise. Now an Instagram post from the Grammy-nominated guitarist has seemingly revealed a first glimpse at his upcoming signature Les Paul.
The post gives very little away, leading with the minimalist caption of “Big show tonight”, with an eye-catching guitar and Mesa monitor snapped in an empty Bell Center arena in Montreal.
However, it looks like Morton’s signature is scrawled on the headstock, meaning the quilted maple-topped six-string could very well be a prototype of his personalized LP.
It's hard to make out any other key, headline-worthy details, save for a pair of chrome-covered humbuckers, four top hat control knobs, and block inlays, with a traditional-style fixed bridge.
Of course, those chrome pickup covers obscure any telltale signs regarding what pickups they are – are they Gibson PAF-style 'buckers, or Seymour Duncan 59s like in his Dominion?
One thing is for certain: it's a beauty, striking a fine balance between honoring the vintage glory of the Les Paul and a modern, beastly edge for a guitar that, despite its silhouette, looks like it was designed for metal, and metal alone.
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One commenter was quick to praise Morton for the elusive instrument, gushing: “You’ve got a lot of great guitars but this one might take the cake.”
A post shared by Mark Morton (@mark.duane.morton)
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Connecting with Guitar World last year, the vintage guitar lover explained why the move to Gibson was so important to him.
“The thing is Gibson was always there for me,” he said. “The first guitar that I really fell in love with was a Les Paul and I still have it.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a particularly valuable or sought-after Gibson, but it’s a 1975 Deluxe that was hacked up for humbuckers, because obviously it was originally made for mini humbuckers…
“Somebody hacked it up before I got it, almost like they’d used a chisel or hammer,” he continues. “It was a husk when I got it and I had it all put back together. It was the guitar I first really bonded with.”
He added that moving away from Jackson didn't mean “anything was lacking at Jackson”, but rather the Les Paul had provided a clear template for his previous signature models. And so the opportunity to take that a step further with Gibson was too good to resist.
“A lot of the specs, particularly the handmade ones I was playing, were based on that ’75 Les Paul. It was the same kind of slim neck. When we spec’d out the Dominion, we went fret-by-fret and measured my Les Paul, using it as the platform for the whole design.
“And then of course you’ve got the dual volumes and tones, the pickup selector on the top horn and two humbuckers… it was basically a neck-thru Les Paul! Okay, there were a few differences like the scale length, but it was very close.”
Morton’s Instagram post, unfortunately, doesn’t give any indication as to whether or not the prototype is a neck-thru design like his Jacksons, or if he’s stuck closely to the traditional Les Paul template. But with the guitar out on the road being beaten into shape, further details shouldn’t be too far off.
Keep your eyes on Guitar World for more details.
