Jason Isbell bought this legendary rocker's guitar and is releasing limited edition ones
Jason Isbell introduced a crowd gathered last week at the Gibson Garage in Nashville to his newest creation: His very own collector's edition guitar with a quirky attribute.
The event was for Isbell and Gibson Custom to show off the new Jason Isbell Red Eye 1959 Les Paul Standard Collector’s Edition guitar.
The inspiration behind the limited-edition collection of 59 guitars was Isbell's own 1959 Les Paul Standard, whose paint had faded while sitting in a store window — with the exception of a small patch below the guitar's toggle switch that was covered by a hangtag, leaving a darker red spot. The guitar was dubbed "Red Eye" by the its previous owner, Ed King of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd.
After King passed away in 2018, Isbell purchased the guitar at Nashville's Carter Vintage Guitars.
The owner of Carter Vintage at the time, Christie Carter, called Isbell after King's wife brought some of his guitars to the store, saying she wanted Isbell to make a video.
Isbell was in the studio with producer Dave Cobb at the time and he remembered telling Cobb about the video request.
"Dave Cobb goes, 'Those people are not your friends.' I was like, 'What do you mean, they are fantastic. I love them,' and he goes, 'I love them too, but you are not going in there to make a video.' I said, 'I am not buying one of those guitars.'"
Once in the store, Isbell spotted King's "Red Eye" and asked, "Is that really his guitar?" Carter replied, "Yeah, that's why we put it out there for you," Isbell said. "I remembered hearing Dave say 'Those people are not your friends.' They are my friends, but they did get a lot of my money that day."
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It wasn't until five years later that Isbell and Gibson decided to partner to create the custom replica.
“The project actually took just over five years to come together, but from when Jason loaned us the original, to now, it was about two years," said Mat Koehler, vice president of product at Gibson.
The limited-run of replica custom guitars was made using 3D scanning technology and aging techniques to aid in hand-crafting an effective clone of Red Eye. Every detail was recreated, from the exact playing wear to the sonic character and solid Brazilian rosewood fretboard. Isbell said the replication is so good, it's hard to tell them apart from the new ones.
The guitar retails for $21,999 and comes with a hangtag that dangles from the same toggle switch that created the red eye in the first place. The guitar is available at gibson.com.
Melonee Hurt covers music and music business at The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK — Tennessee. Reach Melonee at [email protected], on X @HurtMelonee or Instagram at @MelHurtWrites.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jason Isbell, Gibson Guitars collab on 'Red Eye' Lynyrd Skynyrd guitar
