Gibson Unleashes Zakk Wylde Les Paul Custom Vertigo Guitar
Up until now, if you wanted to play a guitar with Zakk Wylde‘s signature bullseye graphic on it, your only choices were to either buy an Epiphone or paint the logo on your own instrument. If neither of those choices appeal to you, good news: Zakk has teamed up with Gibson to create the axe known as the Zakk Wylde Les Paul Custom Vertigo.
According to Gibson, the new guitar comes by its name honestly, thanks to the body’s “vertigo-inducing ‘twisted bullseye’ that creates an optical illusion that’s nearly as powerful as the music that you’ll make with it.” But that isn’t the only thing that makes it special — it’s crafted with a “solid Grade-A” maple top and a mahogany back, topped with a maple fingerboard (again, Grade-A) and overlaid with Zakk’s preferred custom fret wire.
The Vertigo also includes a handful of what Gibson’s calling “custom-style appointments,” including “7-ply top binding, 5-ply back binding, and multi-bound headstock with acrylic inlays.” And if that weren’t enough, each one is sequentially numbered — and the back of the headstock is stamped with a Zakk silhouette decal.
As far as power goes, the Vertigo runs on EMG humbuckers, with an EMG-85™ in the neck and an EMG-81™ in the bridge, each with independent volume and tone controls — equipment that Gibson says is “the first choice of many thrash, shred and metal players, and they yield unparalleled output and sustain for utterly demolishing neck pickup tones and incendiery bridge tones, yet with impressive clarity and a frequency response unmatched by any other pickup available.”
Of course, you get what you pay for, and all this quality doesn’t come cheap: this baby will run you $3,799 direct from the manufacturer. What do you think? Are you going to spring for the Zakk Wylde Les Paul Custom Vertigo? Check out the detailed specs on the guitar here.