Blues guitar sensation Eric Gales has released his first signature guitar with Kiesel after months of speculation.
The left-pawed virtuoso – who plays a right-handed guitar flipped upside-down – raised a few eyebrows when he made the switch to Kiesel last year.
He left a long-standing relationship with Magneto Guitars to join a signature artist roster that also includes the likes of Devin Townsend, Stephen Carpenter, and Paul Masvidal.
That led to the obvious question about a signature guitar, and that’s now been confirmed. In a shock to no one, the Eric Gales Signature Series EG61 takes the Stratocaster silhouette and decks it out with some tasty specs.
Founded upon a swamp ash body and bolt-on tung-oiled roasted maple neck, the 25.5" build gets a GT-Style reverse headstock, a Gotoh 510 Tremolo, and a 14" radius rosewood fingerboard.
There's also a trio of Mounted Mark single-coil pickups with master volume and tone controls, and a five-way pickup switch for plenty of versatility. See also its 22 Stainless Jumbo frets, Luminlay side dots, and signature black acrylic inlay at the 12th fret.
It is, then, for all intents and purposes, a highly souped-up Strat, with an emphasis on “bringing it forward,” according to Gales. It’s also the only current Kiesel Signature Series guitar made for a left-handed artist.
“It's kind of been a long time coming,” he says of his Kiesel collaboration. “There's nothing assembly-line-oriented about Kiesel's headquarters at all. Every guitar is made with human heart, sweat, and tears. I'm fortunate to have a broad collection of guitars, and this one sets itself apart from the others.
“Everything involving the wood and the pickups has been outrageous. I'm hard-pressed to see things I've never seen before, but in the past 48 hours, touring the Kiesel headquarters, I've seen things I've never seen before in my 51 years of living that can be done in terms of guitar builds. I’ve been like a kid in a candy store.”
Beyond the high-end hardware is a guitar that Gales can call home.
“The comfort of it is what means the most to me,” he says. “It's easily playable all day. That’s well over half the battle won.”
The Kiesel Eric Gales Signature Series EG61 is available today starting from $2,499.
See Kiesel for more.
In related news, Gales recently sat down with Guitar World to discuss his all-star tribute album to his brother, the man who started his love affair with the electric guitar.
