GEAR 2021: A new Gibson SG Custom signature model has been revealed for The Roots guitarist 'The Captain' Kirk Douglas, his second SG collaboration with the company following a 2013 model.
It's a stunner, available in two finishes – Inverness Green and Ebony – with three pickups. One of Douglas's primary requests for this new production model was a modification to place a master volume control closer to the bridge for easier swells. But that's just one of a number of features that makes this electric guitar especially versatile.
- • NAMM 2021 is cancelled, but we'll be covering all the big January gear announcements right here on MusicRadar.
The neck profile is based on Douglas's 1961 Epiphone Crestwood that Prince rather carelessly damaged after borrowing it from Kirk for a performance on the Late Night With Jimmy Fallon Show (The Roots are the house band for the show).
Following a rendition of his song Bambi, Prince threw the guitar up in the air… but nobody caught it. The neck snapped. Ouch!
"When I have this guitar in my hands and I close my eyes, it almost feels that I have that Crestwood," says Douglas.
All the Burstbucker pickups have a coil-split via a push/pull control on each volume knob for single-coil sounds, but there's more…
The guitar has a single master tone knob in the position where second tone control is usually found on an SG there's an additional volume control. This controls the middle pickup, and can be used to blend its signal in with the other pickups regardless of how the three-way pickup selector switch is positioned.
Players can use the neck and/or bridge pickups alone or together, the neck and middle, bridge and middle, or all three pickups simultaneously, and at any relative volume amounts desired. And you can adjust the overall output level of the entire guitar with the pickguard-mounted master volume.
Other features include non-locking Keystone tuners, a mahogany neck and body, rosewood fretboard with 22 medium jumbo frets and large block acrylic inlays, a Graph Tech nut, ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic bridge and Kirk Douglas signature 'Captain' Lyre Tail Vibrola tailpiece, black Top Hat knobs with metal inserts.
The Kirk Douglas Signature SG Custom is $2,499 / £2,199. More info at Gibson.
