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Gibson launches signature ES-335 for My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, watch the psychedelic animated launch video
It’s a truly gorgeous way of revealing a guitar.
Image: Gibson
Gibson has teamed up with Jim James, frontman for My Morning Jacket, to launch a signature ES-335. The guitar’s launch comes alongside a psychedelic animated video,
The guitar itself is a standard ES-335 shape, with a number of tweaks to make it James’ own. The body’s top, back and sides are three-ply maple, poplar and maple, with a maple centreblock. There’s single-ply cream binding around the body’s top and back, as well as around the Indian rosewood fretboard.
Electronics consist of two Calibrated T-Type humbuckers, wired to individual volume and tone controls.
The mahogany neck has a SlimTaper profile, a specification James told us about when we spoke to him ahead of My Morning Jacket’s latest self-titled record. “I have a prototype [of the 335], it’s really beautiful. I’ve been having carpal tunnel issues, so it’s got a nice thin neck.”
He also added: “I just wanted it to feel classic, like something a tree gave you, so natural that it almost disappears, it becomes part of you. I’m pinching myself that I’m getting to do a signature guitar, it’s such a cool feeling.”
Fittingly, the animated launch video features James exploring a magical forest before discovering the guitar in the trunk of a tree. It was illustrated by Jess Rotter and animated by Andrew DeSelm. Take a look below.
James said of the video in a statement: “I wanted to reflect on how we are all equal in the eyes of nature and how nature speaks to us in so many wondrous ways-from all living beings, the breeze, and the dirt and especially the trees.
“A tree can sing a song in infinite ways, but one of my favourite musical gifts given to us by the trees is the gift of the guitar and other musical instruments made from their sacred wood. Each instrument is unique and contains the spirit of the wood it came from, and we are so fortunate to get to join forces with the trees, bringing our own spirits into harmony with the spirits of the trees at work and alive through beautiful musical instruments.”
The Jim James ES-335 lists for $3,499. Find out more at gibson.com.