I saw this photo over at Paul Gilbert’s site today and I thought, what kind of investigative guitar journalist would I be if I didn’t try to find out some info about that cool new custom Ibanez Fireman? So I asked Paul if he’d contribute a few words about the guitar for I Heart Guitar, and here’s what he said:

I was thinking about Michael Anthony’s Jack Daniels bass guitar, and I thought, “Why don’t I have a guitar with MY favorite drink?”

My favorite Japanese sake is Kikusui Ginjo Junmai:

http://www.kikusui-sake.com/home/english_9.html

I took the color of the bottle and the designs on the label and designed a guitar around it. The knobs for the volume and tone are two bottle caps from the sake!

The guitar is STUNNING in-person. Ibanez did such a beautiful job making my idea into reality. And it sounds and plays great too. Of course, I played it on the MR. BIG reunion tour of Japan.

UPDATE: When I had a lesson with Paul in January 2010, I got to check out this guitar in person. See?