Special H-90 Pickup

Gibson’s H-90 stacked double coil pickup is the result of a close collaboration with Billie Joe Armstrong. It offers the snarl and punch of a classic, vintage P-90, but with none of the 60-cycle hum that usually plagues traditional singlecoil pickups. This was accomplished by simply taking two singlecoils and stacking them on top of each other, resulting in the hum cancellation effect that occurs in a regular humbucker. With a few adjustments, Gibson’s engineers were then able to secure the vintage sonic characteristics of the singlecoil, making the H-90 another example of Gibson’s drive to stay one step ahead.

Nitrocellulose Finish

Applying a satin nitrocellulose finish to any Gibson guitar—including the Billie Joe Armstrong Signature Les Paul Junior—is one of the most labor-intensive elements of the guitar-making process. A properly applied nitro finish requires extensive man hours, several evenly applied coats, and an exorbitant amount of drying time. But this fact has never swayed Gibson into changing this time-tested method, employed ever since the first guitar was swathed with lacquer back in 1894. Why? For starters, a nitro finish dries to a much thinner coat than a polyurethane finish, which means there is less interference with the natural vibration of the instrument, allowing for a purer tone. A nitro finish is also a softer finish, which makes it easily repairable. You can touch up a scratch or ding on a nitro finish, but you can’t do the same on a poly finish. In addition, a nitro finish is very porous in nature, and actually gets thinner over time. It does not “seal” wood in an airtight shell—as a poly finish does—and allows the wood to breathe and age properly.