“I put the headstock on the buffing wheel. It threw it out of my hands. That day I learned how to fix a broken headstock”: Cesar Gueikian on building the SG Kirk Hammett played to honour Black Sabbath and how his designs might shape future Gibson releases

(L-R): Fher Olvera (Mana), Cesar Gueikian (Gibson CEO) playing the Gibson Flying V Custom CEO#8, and Sergio Vallin (Mana), performing onstage with Mana at Bridgestone Arena. .

What Cesar Gueikian is doing is highly unusual. It is not unheard of for a guitar maker to migrate to the boardroom and take on an executive role. But the Gibson CEO is moving in the opposite direction.

Every week, typically on a Friday morning, he clears some precious calendar time, puts on a pair of safety glasses, and gets hands on in the Gibson factory, and with a little help from his team, he builds an electric guitar that he designed to his one-of-one custom specs – and he has been doing this for nigh-on four years now.