LIKE A FINE “WINO”

MEET GIBSON’S NEW JERRY CANTRELL “WINO” LES PAUL CUSTOM

AFTER TEASING A new signature guitar for Jerry Cantrell back in January — and revealing further details at Summer NAMM — Gibson has finally lifted the lid on the Alice in Chains guitarist’s new model. Having undergone the company’s Murphy Lab treatment to carefully recreate the aesthetic of Cantrell’s original Wine Red “Wino” Les Paul Custom, this fresh six-string — of which there are only 100 in the world — doesn’t come cheap, with a hefty price tag of $8,999.

Build-wise, the Murphy Lab Jerry Cantrell “Wino” Les Paul Custom features a weight-relieved mahogany body with a maple top, custom Cantrell mahogany neck with a hide-glued neck tenon, 12-inch-radius ebony fingerboard with MOP block inlays and aged gold hardware.

Electronics include a pair of 490R/498T humbuckers in the bridge and neck positions, respectively, plus a Fishman Powerbridge piezo pickup for on-the-fly acoustic tones. As per Cantrell’s original, the neck pickup features a gold cover, while the bridge pickup’s coils remain exposed.

As a result of the pickup configuration, the guitar boasts an unusual control layout, with a pair of volume pots controlling the neck and bridge humbuckers, respectively; a master tone knob and a third volume pot — in place of where an LP’s bridge tone knob usually sits — that controls the output of the piezo pickup. Other electronic appointments include 500K CTS Audio-Taper pots and ceramic capacitors, as well as a compartment on the rear for a 9V battery to power the Fishman Powerbridge piezo.

Rounding out the instrument’s spec sheet is multi-ply body binding, a black pickguard, 24.75-inch scale length and Grover kidney bean-style tuners. Each guitar comes with a certificate of authenticity and will be hand-signed on the back of the headstock by Cantrell himself.

“We have some really exciting things planned over the next four or five years,” Cantrell tells us. “The Wino is coming out first and then there will be a few other models after. Expect some really cool guitars either designed by the both of us or replicas of what I’ve played over the years with my own modifications.”

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