Gibson Guitar of the Month: 2008

Gibson Guitar of the Month May: Les Paul Push Tone

Gibson USA's May Guitar of the Month—the groundbreaking Les Paul Push Tone—is coming to the end of its reign, but not without leaving heads spinning over this massive and extremely practical innovation for guitarists. There's only one week left to take home one of these limited edition instruments, equipped with a Gibson-designed system that allows you to swap pickups by simply pushing them out of the guitar, disconnecting the wire clips, and plugging in a new set of pickups, all in a matter of minutes. The new Les Paul Push Tone comes with two sets of pickups—a set of Burstbucker Pros and a set of P-94s. Go from the vintage tone of Gibson's legendary Burstbuckers, to the punchy and sweet tone of the humbucker-size, single-coil P-94s—or mix and match the two for a broad selection of tonal combinations.

Gibson Guitar of the Month April: The Les Paul 295 GoldTop

Gibson Guitar has announced April's Guitar of the Month, the Les Paul 295 Gold Top guitar model. Gibson USA continues its legacy with new models every month with the exclusive Guitar of the Month program. Each model is limited to 1,000 units worldwide and a new model launches on the first Friday of every month. April's Guitar of the Month, the Les Paul 295 Goldtop features the wider Florentine cutaway normally found on such legendary Gibson models as the Byrdland and the ES-175. The guitar also features hand-painted, cream colored pickguard with gold flowers and split parallelogram inlays along with a chrome Bigsby tailpiece. The body is solid mahogany with a maple top and single-ply binding,smoothed with Gibson's classic Goldtop finish. The headstock is also bound in single-ply cream binding and sports Gibson's traditional holly symbol. The neck is the standard Les Paul mahogany neck with a '50s rounded profile and rosewood fingerboard. In the neck position, Gibson's '57 Classic pickup delivers warm, full tone with a balanced response, packing that classic Gibson PAF humbucker crunch. The new Les Paul 295 comes with a custom Guitar of the Month case and is versatile enough for all styles of music and playing. MSRP is $4,399 and in limited quantity.

Gibson Guitar of the Month March: 50-Year Commemorative Flying V

Over the weekend Gibson officially unveiled the latest addition to their 2008 Guitar Of The Month series–– the 50-year Commemorative Flying V. Marking a full half-century since the first batch of Flying V’s left Gibson’s Kalamazoo, Michigan facilities in 1958 (and immediately tanked in the marketplace,) this 50th Anniversary Flying V is fully decked out in a custom ‘Brimstone Burst’ finish, gold hardware, and mother-of-pearl split block inlays. The guitar eschews its early predecessor’s Korina wood body for solid mahogany, and is topped-off with a beveled-edge AA maple top. A new art deco-styled Gibson logo graces the headstock (apparently culled from the drawings of Ted McCarty,) and the 22-fret ebony fretboard is dressed with gold fretwire. Other standout features include a set of Steinberger Gearless Tuners––with a 40:1 tuning ratio––a ‘57 Classic humbucker at the neck, ‘57 Classic Plus humbucker at the bridge, single Volume & Tone controls, and a “50-Year Commemorative neck profile”––basically a hybrid of Gibson’s ’60s Slim-Taper and ’50s Rounded Contour profiles. The guitar will ship with a custom Guitar of the Month case, and will be produced in a limited run of just 1,000 instruments.

Gibson Guitar of the Month February: SG Diablo

Gibson USA is proud to introduce the 2008 Guitar of the Month series, and to kick things off in style, we're offering you the chance to win a smokin' hot SG Diablo in Metallic Red. Following the success of last year's Guitar of the Week series, Gibson's Guitar of the Month will debut an original, limited edition electric each month. There will be only 1,000 of each model made, and if this year's anything like last year, they'll go on to become instant Gibson classics. The Diablo is leading the way.

The first in the Guitar of the Month series, the SG Diablo has the beloved features of the original SG, a carved top and rosewood fingerboard, but gets a modern update with two extra frets, a pair of Burstbucker pickups, and a gleaming Metallic Red finish with a headstock to match. Also helping to meet the demands of the modern performer, the tone and volume controls have been streamlined so that there is just one of each, and moved closer to the bridge pickup for easy access.