Elliot Easton’s tiki guitar fetish broadens with Gibon signature model
It's been well established that Elliot Easton, guitarist for The Cars and now, The New Cars, has a thing for tiki. In the 1990s his post-Cars group was called "Elliot Easton's Tiki Gods" and last year saw him and other New Cars band members jamming onstage with Tiki King painted Fluke ukuleles. But it goes deeper.
According to gretschpages.com, Gretch guitars nearly came out with an Elliot Easton signature model in 2005 (pictured at left), but somehow the deal fell through and only one prototype was made.
Now in 2007, Gibson has finally come through with an "inspired by" Elliot Easton Custom Gibson SG (pictured on right). The guitar comes in two colors: white with gold hardware and blue with chrome hardware. Both feature a Maestro vibrato "that sports Easton's own Tiki-man engraving" according to the press release, but graphic design aficionados will recognize the illustration as one of the pieces of stock art in House Industries' Tiki Type collection.
