Check out the first in a four-part video series on the journey of Gibson electric guitars from forest to stage and the alchemy of Gibson tone, featuring narration from Pepper Keenan
Following the launch of the Handcrafted in Nashville, TN, campaign trailer in April, Gibson has launched the first chapter of a four-part series exploring the art, craftsmanship, and precision that goes into each and every Gibson electric guitar. The farm-to-table journey from forest to player inevitably begins with a tree, and chapter one sees Down and Corrosion of Conformity star Pepper Keenan talk through some of the essential elements of the Gibson recipe as we follow the wood from the mountains of Virginia to the Gibson and Gibson Custom craftories in Tennessee.
Figured maple—as unique as a fingerprint and featuring some of the most beautiful patterns in nature—has been a staple of Gibson instruments since the luxury archtop models of the 1930s. But it was the use of flamed maple tops in combination with mahogany on the sunburst Les Paul™ Standard from 1958-1960 which created not just the most iconic aesthetic in electric guitar history, but also contributed to a signature tone that’s still the holy grail for guitarists today.
Mahogany and figured maple is a time-honored Gibson tonewood combination
Today’s Gibson electric guitars are still made in the USA with same time-honored tonewood combinations and many of the same hand processes that made the original guitars so revered, transforming carefully chosen organic materials into living musical instruments, each with a personality and soul that’s all its own. Built to sustain—to sustain under your fingers and to sustain for generations to come—every Gibson electric guitar gives you the opportunity to tell your own unique story. And the next chapter of that story? Well, as Pepper Keenan says in the video, “That’s up to you.”
Shop Gibson electric guitars, handcrafted in Nashville, Tennessee. Read more about the tonewoods used on Gibson guitars.
