A couple of days ago, Gibson announced an expansion of its Slash Collection in the form of its new “Victoria” Les Paul Standard Goldtop.
While the guitar's specs were clear enough, one unknown about the guitar was the source of its name. Now, Slash has revealed the unusual, and somewhat amusing, reason why he dubbed his new signature Goldtop "Victoria."
“Back in the late ’90s, I had a bunch of guitars stolen out of my studio in my house,” the top-hatted Guns N' Roses guitarist told Consequence of Sound.
“I’ve actually managed to get [just about] all the guitars back, but I never knew exactly who was behind the theft. And one of the guitars I didn’t get back was a Goldtop that was stolen.
“So, I’ve been trying to find another Goldtop to replace it over the years. Then at some point I found out who was responsible for the theft, not long ago, and her name was Victoria, so I decided to name the guitar after her!”
The fifth Les Paul in the Slash collection, the “Victoria” features a maple top, a solid mahogany body with a dark finish on the back, a C-shape neck profile, and a rosewood fretboard with 22 medium jumbo frets.
It's outfitted with a pair of Gibson Custom BurstBucker Alnico 2 pickups – controlled by two sets of volume and tone knobs and a three-way toggle – and hand-wired electronics with Orange Drop capacitors.
Elsewhere, the guitar features an ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic bridge, color-coordinated hardware, Vintage Keystone tuners, and acrylic trapezoid fingerboard inlays.
Like its Slash Collection brethren, the "Victoria" also comes with Slash’s “Skully” signature drawing on the back of the headstock, Slash’s signature on the truss rod cover, Slash’s signature Ernie Ball strings, and four Slash Jim Dunlop Tortex picks.
The Gibson Slash Collection “Victoria” Les Paul Standard Goldtop is available now – with a vintage-style hardshell case that includes a blank truss rod cover, if buyers don't like the Slash-signed truss rod cover – for $2,999.
For more info on the guitar, stop by gibson.com.
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