Gibson unveils the new Zakk Wylde Moderne of Doom Signature guitar, featuring a unique asymmetrical shape.
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The guitar’s odd shape is based on a never released third member of Gibson’s Modernist Series in the late ’50s.
Gibson says that this guitar complements the Flying V and Explorer design, however to my eyes it looks like a partly melted Flying V wearing pajamas!
I guess there was a reason why this guitar shape went unreleased for more than 50 years, unfortunately the cage of aesthetic taste that has been keeping this monster at bay have broken down.
Moving past the awkward shape and bending stripes, the guitar follows traditional Gibson builds. It has a solid mahogany body with maple top that is paired to a glued-in mahogany neck.
The neck profile follows Zakk’s specification of 0.818″ at the 1st fret and 0.963″ at the 12th fret. It is topped by a dark colored Richlite fingerboard that features 22 jumbo frets and custom-style block inlays. .
As for pickups, the good old EMG 81 in the bridge and EMG 85 in the neck still satisfy Wylde. Controls are kept simplistic, having a three way pickup selector, a master volume knob and a master tone knob. My bet is that this guitar would sound close to the Flying V, so the question is why fix what isn’t broken? To be fair Gibson should still get some appreciation for boldy trying out a new design.
The guitar is fitted with a genuine Floyd Rose vibrato partnered by a lucking nut at the headstock. Grover tuners keep the strings tight and intonated and a unique white plastic bell-shaped truss-rod cover wraps up the guitar’s features.
The MSRP for the Gibson Zakk Wylde Moderne of Doom guitar is $2,082. More information is available at Gibson.
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