The recently announced Peter Frampton signature guitar — based on the famous black 1954 Gibson Les Paul Custom VOS model that he played on his classic Frampton Comes Alive! album and which is now known as the "Phenix" — is now available worldwide via Gibson.com.
Frampton tells ABC Audio that he worked with the Gibson team to make sure that the new model was as close to his original "Phenix" as possible.
Peter notes that when he received the initial prototypes, they were "the best versions of anything that I've had my name on so far with Gibson," although he realized that the neck wasn't as thin as his original.
Frampton says that after the Gibson team tweaked the design, "they got it so that neck is as close as you're ever going to get…[I]t's just like mine, you know. It's phenomenal."
The Peter Frampton "Phenix" Les Paul Custom VOS features a body and neck made of mahogany wood, an ebony fingerboard and a special inlay at the 12th feet featuring a replica of Frampton's signature.
The guitar is being sold at a list price of $6,999.
During his early solo career, Frampton's 1954 Gibson Les Paul Custom VOS was his favorite guitar to play on stage, but he thought the instrument was destroyed in a 1980 cargo plane crash in Venezuela. Unknown to Peter, the guitar actually survived the crash, and it eventually was returned to him in 2012. After he restored the instrument, he named it the "Phenix."
Peter has continued to record with the guitar and play it in concert since it was returned to him.
Meanwhile, Frampton recently released a new instrumental studio album called Frampton Forgets the Words, featuring covers of 10 of his "favorite pieces of music" by other artists.
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