August 2001 Issue - The Ultimate MTV Inspired Gibson Gold-Sparkle Guitars
By Larry Meiners
Guitar Collector Magazine uncovered an amazing Gibson guitar collection in Belgium, at the crossroads of Western Europe. For those of you who are geographically challenged, Belgium is bordered by the North Sea, between France and the Netherlands. The country is about the size of Maryland and twice as populated. Belgium is one of the founding members of the European Community, and its capital, Brussels, is also the capital of the European Union. So how does the world's coolest Gold-Sparkle Gibson guitar collection end up in a city 4500 miles from Gibson's factory in Nashville?
One night, a gentleman named Erik (from Belgium) was watching the MTV Music Awards television show and saw Joe Perry of Aerosmith playing a Gold-Sparkle Les Paul Custom guitar. He loves Gibson guitars and Gold-Sparkle finishes. So he custom-ordered a Gold-Sparkle Les Paul, which was not that easy in Belgium. His persistence paid off and it finally arrived. Erik says, "It was such an incredible instrument that I wanted the most significant models in all Gold-Sparkle finish".
Erik's version of 2001: A Guitar Odyssey continues with his latest Gibson Custom Shop addition, a custom-order '58-style Flying V finished in Gold-Sparkle, with gold hardware, PAF reissue pickups and a black pickguard (serial number CS 0420). That brings the total of Gold-Sparkle Gibson guitars to five: Les Paul - 1995, Explorer - 1998, Firebird V - 1999, EDS-1275 (Doubleneck) - 2000, Flying V - 2000.
Erik started playing in 1976 and has 26 Gibson, Fender and PRS guitars. He doesn't play professionally (he has a day job), just for fun. Erik just loves guitars.
Copyright © 2001 Larry Meiners All Rights Reserved