Gibson introduces the Kirk Douglas SG, featuring a 3-way pickup selector that lets you blend in the middle pickup sound.
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The Late Night with Jimmy Fallon house band guitarist is well known for using mostly Gibson guitars. Now his loyalty and the air-time he gives Gibson is rewarded in the form of a cool signature instrument.
As part of The Roots, “Captain” Kirk Douglas is expected to professionally play the show’s theme, impromptu jams and back up big-name artists of varying musical styles. To deliver this night after night, Kirk needs a versatile instrument, and so he applied the same expectations to the design of his signature guitar.
The resulting signature instrument is a hot-rodded take on a classic design, a fine looking SG with a vibrola and three humbucker pickups. I just hope this guitar won’t end up being broken in the hands of Prince, like Kirk’s 1961 Epiphone Crestwood, which Prince threw on stage when he last performed on the NBC show.
Gibson describes the Kirk Douglas SG as “versatile as its namesake, primed to tap every tone you might need to rock out with today’s demanding music.” Aside from the PAF tones of the humbucker, the guitar comes equipped with push-pull tone pots for getting single-coil sounds. Instead of having a 5-way pickup selector, the “Captain” and Gibson installed a stealth blender ring into the “TogPot” 3-way pickup selector, which allows you to dial in the amount of middle pickup sound that you prefer.
Wrapping up the guitar’s distinctive features is a vibrola tailpiece with the word “Captain” engraved, and a signature decal on the back of the headstock.
Everything else about the guitar is based on ’60s era SG Custom guitars, featuring a mahogany body with a thin dimension and beveled edges. The neck is also made of mahogany and is carved to a slim profile as preferred by Kirk Douglas. The neck is topped by a rosewood fingerboard with acrylic pearloid block markers that help give this modern guitar a classic appeal. The guitar’s hardware come in gold finish including the Grover keystone 14:1 tuners and the tune-o-matic bridge.
The Gibson Kirk Douglas SG comes in vintage cherry finish and has an MSRP of $2,498, which is relatively affordable for a Gibson branded signature model. You can visit Gibson for more information.
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