Gibson has stealth-revived its cult Marauder electric guitar with the launch of the Les Paul Music City Special – which also pays tribute to another unsung build from the firm’s history books.
A special-edition release that celebrates Gibson’s 50th year of handcrafting guitars in Nashville, Tennessee (otherwise known as Music City), the six-string is a Marauder reboot in all but name, pairing a contoured single-cut body with the Flying V-style headstock that made the original so distinguishable.
It’s been officially minted a ‘Les Paul’, but it is much closer to the OG Marauder blueprint than it is to any Les Paul currently out there. Sure, it has a dual humbucker configuration – as opposed to the obscure HS combo found on the original – but it otherwise takes most of its aesthetic and functional cues from the 1970s build.
It also draws on the equally obscure Music City Junior, a far more recent development that launched (then quietly left the scene shortly after) in 2013.
Although the original found favor among some big names, like Adam Jones and Paul Stanley, the Marauder is by no means considered a Gibson icon. Nevertheless, the firm is on a hot streak of archival revivals – Victory and Theodore among them – so the return of this certainly is a welcome one.
“Marking 50 years of Gibson in Nashville, the limited-edition Music City Special model is a tribute to the spirit of creativity and individuality that defines this city,” notes Mat Koehler, Vice President of Product at Gibson.
“It draws on everything we’ve learned since opening our Gibson USA craftory and channels it into something new and inspiring to play.”
Like the Marauder, the Les Paul Music City features a contoured single-cut body interestingly built from poplar – an intriguing choice for a Gibson solidbody – as well as a SlimTaper profile maple neck, striped ebony fingerboard and 70s Tribute humbucker pickups.
A five-ply pickguard honors the original from the Marauder, and houses a streamlined control circuit that offers master volume and tone parameters, and a three-way selector switch.
And, of course, it features that distinct Flying V-style headstock, which comes equipped with a celebratory 50th anniversary truss rod cover.
Available in Tobacco Burst, Ebony and Wine Red, the Les Paul Music City Special will be limited to 650 units per colorway, at $1,799 apiece.
Head over to Gibson to find out more.
