“I’m sure there are players that don’t have an interest in playing dynamically and just want to be on or off… that’s cool, and there’s a lot of pickups that do that. But not mine”: How Mark Morton and Gibson reinvented the Les Paul for modern metal

Mark Morton with his signature Les Paul Modern.

Mark Morton’s signature Les Paul was years in the making, and then when it finally arrived it sold out in a flash, all 350 units gone. The Gibson R&D team and the Lamb Of God guitarist had cooked up a winner.

They had had also played the long game. As far as marketing campaigns go – accidental or otherwise – this one went all the way back to 2022, when Morton, hitherto a Jackson artist, was first announced as joining Gibson, and everyone wondered what kind of guitar they would develop together.