Gibson has unveiled a new Custom Shop VOS edition of Jimmy Page’s iconic 1969 EDS-1275 Doubleneck.
Not to be confused with the $50,000 Murphy Lab Jimmy Page EDS-1275 Collector’s Edition, the limited edition signature guitar that was launched in March and is now sold out everywhere, this presents the Doubleneck just as it was when Page took it out of the guitar case.
In other words, it is box-fresh, with the VOS nitrocellulose lacquer offering a gently aged patina that suggests an alternate timeline in which Page decided not use it to perform Stairway To Heaven live with Led Zeppelin, or The Rain Song, Celebration Day and The Song Remains The Same, making rock history along the way.
“Here is your opportunity to own a clone of Jimmy Page’s famous EDS-1275, identical to how it appeared on the day that Jimmy first received the guitar,” says Gibson. Perhaps you could see this as an invitation for you to write your own bit of rock history.
Page also signed and played each one of the Collector’s Edition Murphy Lab replicas but besides that, this VOS Custom Shop electric guitar is exactly the same. Back when the Collector’s Edition was launched, Gibson CEO Cesar Gueikian described the process like “almost taking an MRI of the guitar” and that’s the same quasi-medical approach behind this latest model.
Gibson took 3D scans of the original guitar’s necks to ensure their profiles were 100 per cent accurate. Page was involved from the outset, and had “significant input” on the project.
The Jimmy Page EDS-1275 Custombuckers, with ‘Double Black’ bobbins and Alnico V magnets, are left just like the original, with the six-string neck served by a pair of uncovered pickups, with “True Historic” chrome coverings on the 12-string neck’s humbucker pairing.
All the components are off the top shelf; CTS pots, Switchcraft output jack and pickup selector switch, ceramic disc capacitors as per the original spec.
The build is period-correct, with both necks joining the body with a long neck tenon set and a joint set with hot hide glue. The body and necks are mahogany. That VOS nitro lacquer will age further still; ’69 Cherry is the name of the stain used here.
The fingerboards are Indian rosewood, have the customary 12” radius, 20 authentic medium jumbo frets, and are inlaid with aged cellulose nitrate parallelograms. Take a protractor to the neck and headstock and you’ll find with some satisfaction that this headstock is set at a 17-degree angle just like Page’s original model.
The Kluson double line, double ring tuners are, again, a chip off the old block. And of course this Gibson Doubleneck design means there are 18 of them, so you’d best have a good guitar tuner to hand.
The Jimmy Page EDS-1275 Doubleneck VOS in ’69 Cherry is available now and is priced £8,799/$9,999.
Inside the guitar case you’ll find a leather guitar strap and a COA featuring a Barrie Wentzell photography of Jimmy Page in his pomp. If you think you have what it takes to wield the Doubleneck with similar élan, head over to Gibson for more details.
As Page reminded us all when he honoured Link Wray with a performance of Rumble at the 2023 Rock And Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, he’s still got it. And that guitar remains the same. Super-cool. And yes, totally iconic.
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