Signature Sound

Among Gibson Memphis’s Releases So Far This Year Are These Three Artist Beauties: One Historic Replica and Two Different Takes on Gibson Semis, Old and New

- Dave Burrluck

GIBSON MEMPHIS

FREDDIE KING 1960 ES-345, TAMIO OKUDA SIGNATURE 1959 ES-330 & ALEX LIFESON ES-LES PAUL £3,999, £3,549 & £3,299

Contact Gibson Phone 00+800-444-2766-1 Web www.gibson.com

Aside from being a trio of signature limited editions for 2017, in terms of construction, our review models also book-end Gibson’s ES ‘thin line’ models from the original classic, the ES-335, which spawned the ES-355 and ES-345, up to the latest, the ES Les Paul.

The Freddie King 1960 ES-345 is based on the hugely influential bluesman’s own guitar, Alex Lifeson’s latest signature uses the iconography of the Les Paul Custom but in semi-hollow ES LP style, while the lesser known Tamio Okuda is clearly a man of taste, mixing the hollow 1959 spec ES-330 with P-90s and a Bigsby. Both King and Lifeson models are limited runs of 200 pieces; the Okuda of 150. All three are what you see is what you get – there no options.