Marcus King has performed a stunning, stripped-down rendition of Wildflowers & Wine for Gibson TV. One of the standout tracks on his Grammy-nominated debut solo album, El Dorado, King performs it as a duet with keyboardist Dane Farnsworth.
The performance not only goes to prove how King's arrangements sound right at home in an intimate setting, but how sweet his new Gibson Marcus King 1962 ES-345 is sounding. His new signature guitar is a stunning reproduction of a family heirloom that has been passed down from his grandfather to his father, and was King's from the age of 18.
Speaking to MusicRadar in January, King described the storied ES-345 as his "guiding light," and hoped that his signature model would inspire others.
"My father give it to me as a symbol of support," he said, "a symbol of being able to take a little bit of my grandfather’s energy with me as I was embarking on what seemed to be a never-ending tour. That guitar was sort of my guiding light. It was my torch. It was my everything."
That guitar was sort of my guiding light. It was my torch. It was my everything
Marcus King
Finished in Sixties Cherry VOS, King's ES-345 is fitted with a pair of Custombucker pickups, the six-position mono Varitone switch that makes the 345s such a unique proposition, plus an ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic bridge and a Sideways Vibrola – which is an unusual piece of hardware on a 345.
That Vibrola design was made for SGs, and it can graze the finish on an arch-top such as this. Nonetheless, it sounds exception, and King's vibrato is all from his hands. Check it out in the clip above, and see Gibson for more details on the ES-345.
El Dorado is out now via Fantasy.
