have suggested that the advertisement for that
pull that up you go from two humbuckers to
guitar that you would have to fight. And we did
guitar is, “If I can make this guitar sound like this
two single coil pickups, which gave him really
everything with the neck to not only maintain
. . . anybody can.” So we really approached it
great rhythm and lead range in that guitar. But
its intonation all the way past the twelfth fret,
like that. Then one of the things that was so
really I tried to make a guitar that I thought
but we did everything we could to just make
cool is that when the first line went out I know
looked cool. It was a really burnt out Gold Top
sure that G (string) stays in tune. So I was really
that Billy Joe from Green Day got one and plays
(frequently referred to by collectors as Kiefer
proud of that and grateful to Henry and Gibson
it, and John Mayer plays one too. John Mayer’s
Gold) where you could almost see the green
for giving us the opportunity to try and make
is different. I gave him the prototype and it has
primer coat coming through, and then just
a really functional, durable guitar for a newer
coil tap on the second tone knob, so if you
a really nice action on the neck it was not a
player. We did two runs with that model.
[CG] Do you see yourself doing any more
signature model gear in the future?
Kiefer: I would be honored. For the ’67
Hummingbird that I have, Gibson has made me
another one to take on tour, just in case I didn’t
want to take the ’67 out anymore because of its
value, and I would put it up against any guitar
on the planet. So they certainly don’t need me
to design a model, but I would certainly be
more than proud to say that this is a model
that I use and that it’s as well made a guitar as
I’ve ever had.
[CG] What guitars on your wish list?
Kiefer: Now this is going to sound really funny
given the guitars that we’ve been talking about,
but in my effort to unload some of my guitars I
sold about 15 guitars five years ago. I sold this
really old, beat up, faded red Charvel. It had
the flattest neck I’ve ever played in my life, and
you could be so much faster on that guitar than
something else. It was kind of a mid-80’s retro
rock thing, and I knew I would never play that
live, but that’s a guitar that I miss desperately
and I wish I had never sold it. So if whoever
bought that guitar is reading this article and
wants to sell it back to me, please find me. I
would buy it in a heartbeat! But again, there
isn’t a specific guitar that I’m actually looking
for. But then, all of a sudden, you’ll go into
Gruhn’s Guitar store in Nashville and you’ll
see something and you’ll play something, and
then all of a sudden that’s the one you’ve got
to have. So I’m past the point of looking for a
certain guitar, whereas fifteen years ago I was
looking to fill different slots in the racks, so I was
looking for Strats or I was looking for Teles, or
20
Nov Dec 2016
CollectibleGuitar.com