{"id":5717,"date":"2022-12-20T18:18:02","date_gmt":"2022-12-20T17:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thestoryinst.com\/2022\/12\/20\/art13-zakk-wyldes-most-famous-gibsons\/"},"modified":"2023-01-04T13:30:34","modified_gmt":"2023-01-04T12:30:34","slug":"art13-zakk-wyldes-most-famous-gibsons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thestoryinst.com\/en\/2022\/12\/20\/art13-zakk-wyldes-most-famous-gibsons\/","title":{"rendered":"Zakk Wylde’s most famous Gibson Guitars"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Zakk Wylde<\/strong> is best known as the former guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne<\/strong>, founder of the heavy metal band Black Label Society<\/strong>, and as a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and occasional actor. He was also the lead guitarist and singer of Pride & Glory<\/strong>, which released a self-titled album in 1994 before disbanding. As a solo artist he released an album called Book of Shadows in 1996.<\/p>\n

As for guitars, Zakk<\/strong> is best known for his Les Paul Customs<\/strong> with bullseye<\/strong> finish. He mostly prefers to play on a shaved maple neck with an ebony fingerboard. Almost all of these guitars mount EMG 81\/85<\/strong> humbuckers and feature some sort of custom paint job. Zakk<\/strong> even designed a couple of guitars, including the Gibson \/ Epiphone ZV<\/strong> and the Graveyard Disciple<\/strong> model. More recently he founded his own company called Wylde Audio<\/strong>, and plans to make and eventually use those instruments himself.<\/p>\n

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1981 Gibson Les Paul Custom “The Grail”<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Zakk<\/strong> acquired this guitar when he joined Ozzy Osbourne<\/strong> ‘s band in 1987. He traded this guitar to Scott Quinn<\/strong>, who in return received a Gibson SG<\/strong> double-neck.
\nWhen Zakk<\/strong> received the guitar, it was equipped with standard humbuckers<\/strong>, but Zakk<\/strong> very soon replaced them with an EMG 81\/85<\/strong> set after trying them out on one of his student’s guitars. Originally the guitar was finished in a white\/cream color (still visible on the sides and back of the body). but Zakk<\/strong> felt that this was the defining characteristic of Randy Rhoads<\/strong>, and he wanted something different-so he decided to send the guitar to a luthier for a paint job. The initial idea was to paint the Hitchcock Vertigo<\/strong> design on it, but the guitar came back with bull’s eye decals. Zakk<\/strong> ended up liking it and decided to keep it that way.<\/p>\n

Zakk<\/strong> lost his 81 \u2032 Les Paul<\/strong> at some point in the 1990s, allegedly falling off a truck carrying the band’s equipment. The guitar randomly appeared in a local pawn shop in Texas a couple of years later, and a guy named Jerry Weisinger<\/strong> ended up buying it for $250-at first thinking it was a Gibson Zakk Wylde Les Paul Custom<\/strong> retail. Did you read somewhere that Zakk<\/strong> lost his original 81 \u2032 Custom, so he pulled the pickups out of the guitar he had just purchased and saw “Z.W.<\/strong>” below them. After comparing the serial number with the “The Grail<\/strong>” available on the website of Zakk<\/strong>, it became clear that he owned the original guitar of Zakk<\/strong>. Fortunately for Zakk<\/strong>, he was contacted by Jerry and received his guitar back.<\/p>\n

Regarding the specifications, as mentioned above the guitar was equipped with EMG<\/strong> pickups, and has a shaved maple neck with an ebony fingerboard.<\/p>\n

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1989 Gibson Les Paul Custom “The Rebel”<\/h3>\n

\"\"This guitar originally started out as a black Les Paul Custom<\/strong>, but inspired by Allman Brothers Band<\/strong> and Lynyrd Skynyrd,<\/strong> Zakk<\/strong> then decided to decorate the body with the Southern Rebel flag design. Very soon, however, I discovered that Bret Michaels<\/strong> of Poison<\/strong> already had the same design on his guitar. Because he wanted his guitar to be unique, one day while drinking beer at his house, Zakk<\/strong> began sanding the finish and started nailing bottle caps on the body, which eventually became the guitar’s trademark.<\/p>\n

\n

<< I saw Bret Michaels<\/strong> in a Poison<\/strong> video and he had a Southern Rebel flag on one of his guitars. I’m his friend now, but at the time I thought, “I can’t go around with a Rebel guitar. Bret Michaels<\/strong> has a fucking Rebel guitar!” Everyone might yell, “Hey Zakk<\/strong>, I love your Bret Michaels<\/strong> model guitar.”>><\/em><\/p>\n

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Ozzy Osbourne<\/strong> himself was not a fan of Southern rock, so one day, while he was teasing Zakk<\/strong> about his musical preferences, Zakk<\/strong> realized that his guitar was nowhere to be found. He came out and saw one of the boys with a guitar wrapped in paper, and trying to set it on fire. A few seconds later, the huge flame enveloped the guitar as Zakk<\/strong> was trying to put out the fire. Fortunately for him, the fire mostly burned only paper and the Les Paul<\/strong> itself was not damaged too much.<\/p>\n

Zakk Les Paul<\/strong> was damaged once again in an accident caused by his young daughter, who bumped into one of Zakk<\/strong> ‘s guitars while they were standing next to each other, causing them to fall like dominoes. The Rebel<\/strong> ended up with a broken headstock, but it was quickly repaired by Gibson<\/strong> luthiers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zakk Wylde is best known as the former guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne, founder of the heavy metal band Black Label Society, and as a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and occasional actor. He was also the lead guitarist and singer of Pride & Glory, which released a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559,620,575,621,574],"tags":[309,307,310,319,727],"class_list":["post-5717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-gibson-en","category-guitar","category-les-paul-en","category-metal-en","tag-gibson-en","tag-guitar","tag-les-paul-en","tag-metal-en","tag-zakk-wylde-en"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t