Jake Kiszka confirms Gibson is making him an Epiphone signature model
The Greta Van Fleet man says the guitar is based on his ’61 Les Paul SG.
Credit: Scott Legato/Getty Images
Greta Van Fleet guitarist Jake Kiszka has confirmed that work is underway at Gibson to make him an Epiphone signature model.
In an exclusive new interview with Guitar.com, Kiszka says the guitar will be an affordable version of his number one axe, his ’61 Les Paul SG, which he affectionally calls his “Beloved”.
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“A little while ago, when Gibson came out with the reissued ’61 SG with the sideways tailpiece, they were like, ‘Well who do we go to for this?’ And I guess it was obvious that they were gonna come see me!” he laughs.
“So, I did some championing of that guitar, but now they’re actually coming out with a more basic model, which is really exciting for me to be involved in because kids can afford it! It’s an Epiphone, and it’s cool because I know people will play it and cherish it – it’s amazing.”
“There was some talk about doing a Murphy Lab version of my number one, the Beloved,” he continues, “but it was just really funny because that thing has seen the face of war! I don’t know if anyone would be willing to pay $10,000 for basically half of a guitar. They were talking about doing it. but they said they would have to invent a new scale of relic’ing – it’d be destroyed!”
Elsewhere in the interview, Kiszka recalls obtaining his Vibrola-equipped ’61 Les Paul SG. As he recounts, when he was around 20 years old, he and the GVF boys swung by Chicago Music Exchange while in Chicago on tour.
“The owner was taking us around and he was like, ‘If you see anything you like, let me know and we can pull it…’ he recalls. “And so I was walking around being like, ‘Well this is cool, this is cool, this is also cool…’ But then I stumbled on that guitar, and we took it back to his apartment, which was right down the street and plugged it in… and it was like divine intervention, because that was the sound that I’d been trying to find pretty much my whole life. Going all the way back to being that kid picking up a guitar at three years old, it was that sound – that was it.”
Further information surrounding the launch of such an Epiphone guitar is scarce at this time, but we’ll endeavour to keep you posted as we know more.
You can read the full Guitar.com interview with Jake Kiszka now.