France's Wild Customs has created a $10k special-edition guitar based on a 1934 Ford Coupe hot rod owned by legendary ZZ Top frontman Billy F Gibbons, and featuring the company's carousel pickup system rocking the bearded one's signature pickup set.
Billy F Gibbons has been churning out Texas boogie as the guitarist and vocalist for ZZ Top for over 50 years, but is also known for his love of hot-rodded classic cars – including a 1933 Ford Coupe named Eliminator that featured in a number of music videos in the mid-1980s, a 1948 Cadillac Series 62 dubbed CadZZilla, and the car that inspired the special-edition guitar from Wild Customs, a "go-kart on steroids" he calls Whiskey Runner.
The Impala-like guitar's chambered alder body has the look of an Explorer to the back and a kind of St Vincent signature feel to the front, and sports graphics based on the design of the Whiskey Runner hot rod, which was introduced to Jay Leno earlier in the year for his Jay Leno's Garage series on CNBC Prime. Bolted onto the body is a 25.5-inch scale maple neck with a pau ferro fingerboard that's home to 22 medium jumbo frets.
There's one volume knob and another for tone, but no pickup switch or toggle. Instead, the six pickups in the BFG signature set are mounted to the company's proprietary Gyrock rotating system near the Babicz bridge. Players are offered a Wild humbucker called "The Grizzly," a Wild P90 named "The Jalapeño," a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates BFG signature, a Seymour Duncan Red Devil BFG signature, a Seymour Duncan Lipstick Tube, and a Seymour Duncan Antiquity Strat Texas Hot. Expansion packs can be optioned in if that selection doesn't offer up all of the Texas tone you'll ever need.
The Bill F Gibbons Special comes with an "unbreakable" custom case from Nanuk, and is available now for US$9,999.
Product page: Billy F Gibbons Special
