During Gibson’s recent major all-star event in London, England, it was revealed that the legendary guitar company and Led Zeppelin guitar maestro Jimmy Page will be releasing a multi-guitar series.
Jimmy Page is almost synonymous with Gibson. Sure, there was that one Fender Telecaster on Led Zeppelin’s debut album. But everything he did after that was almost entirely with Gibson guitars, with an occasional Fender or Danelectro.
Folks over at Guitar World were attending a special opening event in London in honor of Gibson Garage London. Called The Ultimate Guitar Experience, this ceremony featured an all-star lineup, including Queen’s Sir Brian May and Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi. One of the guests, of course, was Jimmy Page.
As the source reports, Page and Gibson have announced a partnership that’s supposed to include multiple signature instruments. So far, they’ve only announced one, and it will be a recreation of Jimmy’s legendary 1971 Gibson EDS-1275, the famous double-neck guitar featuring 12-string and 6-string sections.
This was a custom-made recreation of Gibson’s 1960s run of the double-neck model and Page was easily the most responsible musician for bringing the model back in the company’s standard lineup during the 1970s.
The announcement was kind of expected. In his own signature style, the new Gibson CEO Cesar Gueikian did some casual cryptic teasing through his Instagram. The post, where he was testing one of the new Les Pauls, featured one half of an EDS-1275, very similar to Page’s 1972 model. And his position in the video frame was a little odd, probably to give more room for the double-neck.
Gibson also shared their official announcement via social media, saying:
“As part of the celebrations of the new Gibson Garage London, we are excited to announce that Gibson has entered a collaborative partnership with one of the most influential musicians in history, Jimmy Page.”
“An icon across all genres of music, art, and culture, and as co-founder of one of the biggest bands of all time, Led Zeppelin, Jimmy leveraged his blues and folk inspirations, and artistry to develop the pioneering rock sound that became the signature of the band.”
“Being the main music writer in Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page has forever impacted the sound of music, and pioneered the sound of rock across all its variations.”
Going back to the event — with Page by his side on the stage, the Cesar Gueikian addressed the audience, offering:
“Jimmy deserves a very important part in the history books of Gibson. Because without what he did. I don’t think that Gibson – well, it may have been around right now today – but it would be a different Gibson.
“And so it’s very important for us,” he added. “We are going to do everything we can to pay tribute to Jimmy and everything that he’s done.”
The source further adds that Page’s new guitar will be a full-on Custom Shop replica, all with 3D scanning and weighing the pickups to figure out the exact materials used. Cesar went into more detail about how he and the guys from Gibson came over to Jimmy Page’s home to take the guitar for detailed analysis. He said:
“I remember vividly,” he recalled. “As we walked into your house, you had the case on the floor, and you handed it to me – and then later you said, ‘No Stairway to Heaven!'”
Jimmy Page then added:
“I really wanted to have something that was exactly the same as my one. Because I’ve changed the controls but also the color of it. From my point of view, it had to be absolutely as close to the bones as possible. They took a lot of trouble and time to get everything absolutely right.”
“It wasn’t a case of OK, ‘I’m Jimmy Page, make my double neck. That looks shit, now go and make it!’ It wasn’t like that… The Murphy Lab, the distressing – that looks like mine.”
Guitar World then also added that there’ll be other models coming in the foreseeable future. There’s no indication as to what exactly they’ll do next, but the source speculates that it’ll be Jimmy Page’s No. 1 and No. 2 Gibson Les Pauls.
Photo: Andrew Smith (Jimmy Page – A.R.M.S. 2), Public domain (Gibson Guitar logo)
