GIBSON CUSTOM ANNOUNCES NEAL SCHON SIGNATURE LES PAUL MODEL

Chart topping guitarist Schon adds own special touches to limited edition guitar

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE...Nashville, Tennessee…February 18, 2005…..

Rock guitar icon Neal Schon, best known as Journey’s lead guitarist and famous in his own right, has put his personal touches on the new Neal Schon Signature Les Paul guitar from Gibson Custom. The new model features such personal Schon touches as a Floyd Rose tremolo unit, a dramatically sculpted neck/body joint for easier upper fret access, and a Fernandes Sustainer pickup for the screaming lead parts he is famous for.

The Neal Schon Signature Les Paul model has a carved mahogany top, mahogany back, multi-ply black/white binding on top, chrome-plated hardware and a Floyd Rose tremolo.  The one-piece mahogany neck has a scarfed heel joint a “Schon custom” slim-taper neck profile. The 22-fret ebony fingerboard features pearl split-diamond inlays and single-ply white binding. The pickups are a DiMarzio Fast Track/Fernandes Sustainer in the neck position and a Gibson BurstBucker® Pro in the bridge position. In addition to the standard Les Paul electronics (individual pickup volume and tone controls, plus three-way selector switch), the Schon Signature features two mini-toggles – an on/off for the Sustainer and an octave effect – along with a push/pull pot for midrange cut.

Neal Schon and Les Paul performed at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show at the Gibson Guitar booth to standing-room-only audiences. The sounds of Les Paul combined with the music of the new Neal Schon Signature model made for a musical night to remember.  Photos of the new Neal Schon Signature Les Paul model are available at www.gibson.com/press.  The MSRP is $10,589.

Gibson is known worldwide for producing classic models in every major style of fretted instrument, including acoustic and electric guitars, mandolins and banjos. Gibson’s digital guitar represents the biggest advance in electric guitar design in over 70 years. Founded in 1894 in Kalamazoo, MI, and headquartered in Nashville since 1984, Gibson Guitar Corp.’s family of brands now includes Epiphone, Dobro, Valley Arts, Kramer, Steinberger, Tobias, Slingerland, Maestro, Baldwin, and Wurlitzer. Visit Gibson’s website at www.gibson.com.

CONTACTS: Caroline Galloway  GIBSON  caroline.galloway@gibson.com

                        Walter Carter GIBSON walter.carter@gibson.com

                        Jason Padgitt ROGERS & COWAN jpadgitt@rogersandcowan.com

QUALITY    PRESTIGE    INNOVATION