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• Gibson Masterbuilt !!!

  Wednesday, May 27, 2009 5:32PM / Standard Entry / Members only
  18 comments

  A few weeks ago Gibson master luthier Ren Ferguson came to town and shared his experiences of being one of the driving forces behind the Gibson Montana factory.  Pretty much every Gibson acoustic is made by hand from their plant.  Ren spoke about getting to work with some of the best players while making special one-off guitars for their thousands of clients. He's even spent a lot of time flying around the world picking out special woods to create these works of art.  It was a treat to meet him again and to hear the stories behind the Super Doves and Super Humminbirds that he produced with Tom Lee this year. 

  
  
  
  
  
  This time around Ren brought 6 Super Hummingbirds, 6 Super Doves, and 3 Specially carved L5 acoustics from thier custom shop.  The wood used in each guitar was hand picked by Ren and he personally worked on the fretboard and pick guard designs. During his visit last year he brought thirteen SJ-200s (my favorites) each with a Chinese zodiac character.
  
  
  
  Joey Tang rockin' a couple of tunes.
  
  
  
  The new arrivals!  Each guitar was a one-off with some unique wood combinations.  Some the special woods included Zebra Wood, Palo Escrito, Ziricote, Movingui, Quilted Bubinga, Malaysian Blackwood, Macassar Ebony, Madagascar Rosewood, and Indian Rosewood.  
  
  
  
  Each "super" guitar had a lot of mother of peal detail and had a unique sound since each one had a different mix of backs and sides.  We were also allowed to play each one and compare!  
  
  
  
  Some of the guitars Ren has made in the past have had over 200 pieces of mother of pearl and abalone inlay.  He's even been know to spend more than 200 hours on a guitar and some went for as high as $100,000 usd!
  
  
  
  
  
  After the show Joey, Ren, Frank Lee, and the rest of the crew went out for some really good hot pot.  The fish heads were gone in no time...haha!