Gibson announced a new partnership with Australian-born guitarist Orianthi Panagaris, known in the music industry as Orianthi. The new Gibson Orianthi SJ-200 Custom in Cherry will be available worldwide this May.
“Creating a signature acoustic with the amazing Gibson team was truly an honor! I couldn’t be happier!” said Orianthi. “It’s the same full SJ-200 sound, but it plays much faster with a 345 neck on it, and with the modified unique LR Baggs custom pickup, it’s a balanced guitar and cuts through. I can’t wait for you all to be able to pick it up and shred away on it in May.”
“We are thrilled to welcome Orianthi to the Gibson family,” Elizabeth Heidt, global head of entertainment relations at Gibson, added. “We have been fans of her artistry from the start and it is a win for Gibson to have this incredibly talented woman join us.”
Orianthi has been playing for more than a decade and has collaborated with Michael Jackson, Alice Cooper, Carrie Underwood and Richie Sambora, among many others.
In late 2019, Orianthi visited the Gibson Acoustic factory in Bozeman, Mont., and a creative collaboration was born. Orianthi worked with the luthiers in the Gibson Acoustic Custom Shop to create her perfect signature guitar with a special neck modeled after a Gibson ES 345, a redesigned pickguard with Lotus Flowers, as well as mother-of-pearl dot inlays in the neck. More features include a AAA Sitka spruce top and maple back, gold Grover Keystone tuners, a distinctive Cherry nitrocellulose lacquer finish and an LR Baggs Orianthi System, with under-saddle piezo pickup and sound hole mounted preamp and controls.
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