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Have Gibson and Adam Jones just released the best guitar launch video ever?

Seven-minute epic The Witness features new music from Tool band members

Adam Jones

Image: Gibson via YouTube

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Gibson and Adam Jones ripped up the rulebook last night with The Witness, a seven-minute animated short film accompanying the world premiere of Gibson Custom’s hotly-anticipated Adam Jones 1979 Les Paul Custom VOS. A recreation of the Tool guitarist’s number one stage guitar, the arrival of the Antique Silverburst LP Custom was no surprise, but the accompanying video sets a new standard in guitar launch filmmaking.

With Gibson CMO Cesar Gueikian and Adam Jones sharing executive production credits, the soundtrack was composed by Jones and mixed by ‘Evil’ Joe Baresi, and features cameos from Jones’ Tool bandmates bassist Justin Chancellor and drummer Danny Carey.

Adam Jones' Les Paul
Image: Gibson

What you don’t get from The Witness? A guy sat in a chair, cycling through the pickup settings while playing into a clean amp. Instead, a figure in a spacesuit falls through clouds into a forest clearing, there’s a leafy, Les Paul-shaped floating island and a terrifying insect tears its way out of a chrysalis. The guitar is eventually revealed via a series of extreme close-ups as the unmistakable sound of Tool reaches a crescendo in the background.

We should have expected nothing less from Jones, the man behind so many of Tool’s award-winning music videos and the mesmerising visuals that have accompanied the band’s stage performances over the years. He’s certainly set a very high bar for future signature guitar launches – we can’t remember anything nearly as impressive as this.

Find out more about the guitar here.

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