{"id":640802,"date":"2026-04-30T15:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T15:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/640802\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T15:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T15:21:08","slug":"how-jake-kiszka-found-his-beloved-gibson-sg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/640802\/","title":{"rendered":"How Jake Kiszka found his \u201cBeloved\u201d Gibson SG"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greta Van Fleet<\/a>\u2019s Jake Kiszka<\/a> has been reflecting on the first time he got his hands on his 1961 Gibson<\/a> Les Paul SG Standard, which he affectionately nicknamed \u201cBeloved\u201d.<\/p>\n

The guitar is the inspiration behind his new signature SG Standard with Gibson<\/a>, which launched just last week. Crafted in Nashville and available only in limited numbers, the model retains the essence of his \u201961 Les Paul SG through its contours, deep-edge bevelling, and double\u2010cutaway design.<\/p>\n

Speaking to MusicRadar<\/a>, Kiszka recalls how the band visited the Chicago Music Exchange while on tour, back when they were just getting started. Greta Van Fleet\u2019s manager was friends with the company\u2019s CEO, Andrew Yonke, and arranged for Kiszka to visit what CME calls \u2018The Vault\u2019, where it keeps treasures of interesting and vintage gear.<\/p>\n

Kiszka recalls, \u201cIt was maybe a decade ago now, about 10 years ago, Greta Van Fleet was leaving Michigan for the first time, where we\u2019d really played shows and gigged and done all sorts of work there. It was really the first time out in North America, nationally\u2026 Setting out into the infinite horizon, trying to find manifest destiny or something.\u201d<\/p>\n

On his visit to The Vault, he remembers, \u201cI was looking through all these guitars, and we were trying to pick up some gear if we could, some serious, good gear. I wasn\u2019t really that familiar with the early \u201860s SGs. I didn\u2019t know much about them. I stumbled upon this one,\u201d he shares of his Beloved.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just immediately mesmerised. Immediately, from the first strum, it was like a lightning bolt just hit me from above,\u201d he continues. \u201cI really did feel like this was sort of a divine intervention for me. It was everything that I was looking for in terms of the sound of something. I\u2019d been searching for that my whole life up to this point.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

However, back then Kiszka didn\u2019t have the money to afford this stunning vintage model that he\u2019d fallen head over heels for: \u201cThere was no question I yearned to take it on the road with me. The caveat was it was a $25,000 guitar. So of course I wasn\u2019t gonna be able to afford that being a poor kid coming out of Michigan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThankfully and gratefully I\u2019m humbled that the owner perhaps saw something in me, and us as a band, and allowed me to take it on the road. He said, \u2018Do you know what? Just pay me back for it later, when you can afford it.\u2019 And I did,\u201d he states.<\/p>\n

Kiszka spoke of this very story back in his episode of My Guitars & Me with Guitar.com<\/a>. Speaking of the wear and tear the guitar has earned since being in his ownership, he told us: \u201cThis is what happens when you start wearing rhinestones on suits with no jacket over them. And this is what my nipples have done,\u201d he joked. \u201cIt looks like a cutting board, doesn\u2019t it? It\u2019s a lot lighter than when I got it \u2013 I\u2019ve sanded it away!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll probably be buried with it!\u201d he added. \u201cThere\u2019s a piece of me in this guitar, but there\u2019s also a piece of this guitar in me. In reality, a lot of my playing, and the way that I\u2019ve developed playing have actually come from this very specific instrument.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greta Van Fleet\u2019s Jake Kiszka has been reflecting on the first time he got his hands on his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[4624,64,63,153780,134,136],"class_list":["post-640802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-artist","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-electric-guitars","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}