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So Gibson has made Jan Akkerman a M2M '54 Black Beauty for his 75th birthday and deceided to keep it from us... 10 pieces available only in the Netherlands and France.
My fav Black Beauty's! lucky i have one already otherwise it's such a struggle to get it... (and this version is tbh not that special vs a normal reissue only if u like the 60's neck imo)
Only France and the Netherlands to get it is a bit strange... i live in Belgium it's between those countries.
Gibson better made some limited version with some special case candy with it, a real sig then a M2M to honor him.
What happened to his Framus? There was a “Framus Jan Ackerman” model in the 70’s. I went to Framus about 7 or 8 years ago. What an amazing guitar factory. They also have a showroom with every model they make and rooms that you can test them out. I almost bought one….. I’ve had a few. Mine were from the Sixties when they were still made in Bubenreuth.
bubeneruth is an interesting place, They had Framus, Hofner and Pyramid Strings. Now only Pyramid Strings are there. Hofner moved about 20 minutes away, but Framus is up near Berlin in Markneukirchen. Their whole factory is solar powered and you could actually eat off the floors It’s that clean.
great player, but not a model I would associate with him. If my memory serves me right, I recall him with a CSB L5S or better yet a Ramirez classical.
But as always, people will pay big bucks for an artist model, when they could simply order that model through the M2M program , have it built to spec and pay (most likely) way less
I've heard Jan talk about the '54 BB as his favorite guitar before. We've met a couple of times and told stories about his '54 Goldtop and how he wished it was a Black Beauty Custom but couldn't find one at the time.
The '58 Les Paul Custom he talks about, being played by the Tielman brothers, ended up in George Kooymans collection (Golden Earring). In his Focus days he found a two pickup '50s Custom and replaced the neck pickup with a Grestch Filtertron, so I guess Gibson wasn't going to build him one like that
Maybe with this success Gibson will consider making a replica of the most famous Burst in the Netherlands, Eelco Gelling's 1960!
Maybe you can confirm or deny a hazy memory I have of his BB getting stolen fairly early in the 70's, and maybe that's why some people don't think of Customs when they hear Jan, since he played other guitars after that?
I absolutely associate him with Customs, in interviews he has stated multiple times how he likes them