Gibson Randy Rhoads Les Paul Custom
By Blogger - Friday, November 19, 2010
It features a pair of brand new pickups, a pair of Gibson Custom's new Super '74 humbuckers that reside beneath two worn covers. The units are based around Alnico III magnets for added authenticity and sound very cool indeed.
The pickups are selected by a standard Switchcraft three-way toggle that, here, also beards a brass tip and plate, just like Randy’s. The quartet of controls are classified as CTS 500k audio-taper potentiometers, and work perfectly.
The Gibson logo is bereft of the dot over the eye, just as the original mid-seventies Customs were, and the headstock is pitched at 17 degrees. The neck is fashioned from three pieces of mahogany and the very smooth ebony board features 22 medium jumbo frets. Model is numbered RR127 and the rear of the headstock also bears tuner holes to recreate the aperture left when Randy switched out the originals.Each guitar comes with its own Custom Shop hard case that bears the man’s squiggle. Is there anything as cool as an aged Alpine White Les Paul Custom? Tone down the yellow of the finish and be sold.
With an impressive two songs in Gibson.com’s Top 50 Guitar Solos of All Time (“Crazy Train” and “Mr. Crowley”) and a legion of fans still worshiping his unparalleled shredding abilities 28 years after his blazing career was cut short, Randy Rhoads is firmly established as one of the brightest stars in the metal-guitar heavens. After forming Quiet Riot while still in his teens, Rhoads stepped up his game when Ozzy Osbourne asked him to audition for his own band in 1979. Along came Rhoads, a practice amp in one hand, and his beloved 1974 Les Paul Custom in the other – and before the young guitarist had even finished his warm-up licks, Osbourne told him “you’ve got the gig.” What followed was an amazing ascent, but a too-swift ending, which earned Randy Rhoads a unique place in rock history.
To honor this achievement, Gibson Custom is releasing the Randy Rhoads 1974 Les Paul Custom, an instrument crafted in the image of Rhoads’s own much-loved, much-played instrument, and limited to only 100 hand-aged and 200 VOS guitars. Don’t be fooled by the light yellow color in the live shot. Gibson artisans have worked closely with the Rhoads family to perfectly reproduce the exact rich amber color of the original guitar. Rendered in period detail, the Randy Rhoads 1974 Les Paul Custom captures all the fire and aggression of this hard-rock favorite of the early ’70s, including numerous details that were particular to the model’s production for a relatively short period of time. Specific woods, pickups and dimensions have been painstakingly recreated by Gibson Custom, and the precise look of Rhoads’s own guitar also has been captured. One hundred examples of the Randy Rhoads 1974 Les Paul Custom will be hand-aged by Gibson Custom to match the playing wear and road abuse experienced by the star’s guitar, while another 200 will be treated to Gibson Custom’s VOS process to present the look of a gently aged instrument. All in all, this is the closest any fan, player or collector can get to owning Rhoads’s own guitar… without owning Rhoads’s own guitar.
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