With more than 150,000 attendees and over 2,500 exhibitors, the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) set plenty of new records. But for guitarists, it was Gibson’s Custom Shop that made the biggest splash with the launch of its new “Inspired By” guitar series and its debut offering, the Jimi Hendrix Psychedelic Flying V. It’s well known that Hendrix used a Flying V, most notably on tour in Europe in 1967 and 1968, and this guitar features exacting reproductions of Jimi’s own hand-painted designs, painstakingly rendered by artist Bruce Kunkel. The end result is more than just a phenomenally accurate duplicate of the guitar, but also an original work of art. The Custom Shop will soon debut other guitars in the series, including the Peter Frampton Les Paul Special.
