Gibson Custom Shop Zakk Wylde Les Paul Custom

Hi there! Today we are looking at the coolest-looking guitar ever made. It is a black and white bullseye Gibson Les Paul Custom Zakk Wylde Model.

For those of you who have spent the last ten years listening to Matchbox 20 and crying at Twilight movies, Zakk Wylde is Ozzy Osborne’s former guitarist, and is the founder of the Black Label Society. He is a guitar hero of the highest order, and this guitar is a fitting tribute to him and his mad skills.

For starters, it is a Les Paul Custom, so it has the traditional body shape, multi-layer binding, pearl block inlays, and gold hardware. It has a one-piece mahogany body with a carved maple top. There is nothing really out of the ordinary with these parts. But, it does have some pretty major differences

The most significant difference is the electronics package. It comes with high-power EMG 81 and 85 pickups, with two volume controls, two tone controls and a 3-way (3-way!) pickup selector switch. So, it is going to have that EMG sound, love it or hate it.

Also, these guitars come with an unfinished 3-piece maple neck with an ebony fretboard.

Cosmetically, obviously there is the dizzying bullseye paint job, as well as the special Zakk Wylde graphic on the back of the neck and the gold truss rod cover.

The guitar we are looking at here is serial number is ZW 478, dating it to early 2001. I sold it a few years back, but it was a very fun to play guitar. It brought out my inner Fonzie.

It was in excellent condition, with no issues. It was unmodified, and never needed any repairs during the time that I owned it. I had it set up with Zakk Wylde GHS Boomers (.010). Not the world’s greatest strings, but it only seemed appropriate. Rawk!

It sounded incredible (I like EMG pickups), but my favorite part of it was the maple neck. It had a great feel, and I felt that the maple neck gave it an even more aggressive tone.

So, it is cool, but here is the deal-breaker. The list price on this guitar is now an eye-popping $6880.00. The cheapest you can get them online is at Musician’s Friend for $4699.99. That is a hard pill to swallow. Perhaps it would be better to build your own, and spend the $2500 you would save on lessons.