Some guitars aren’t just instruments, they’re intersections of legacy. Metallica’s Kirk Hammett wielded one such artifact earlier this year when he stepped onstage at the Back to the Beginning festival, performing Black Sabbath’s “Hole in the Sky” in honour of Ozzy Osbourne’s final performance with his original bandmates. That same guitar, a one-of-one Gibson SG dubbed CEO#4, is now up for auction, and it’s already attracting the attention of collectors who understand its weight.
The instrument was custom-designed and hand-built by Gibson CEO and president Cesar Gueikian, a craftsman increasingly known for merging corporate stewardship with creative homage. “CEO#4 is a unique maple-top SG that combines elements of the Gibson SG, Super 400 and Supreme, and Les Paul Custom, finished in a Ghost Burst, a name coined by my friend Adam Jones of Tool,” Gueikian explained. “I created it as a tribute to Tony Iommi, the father of heavy metal, who defined the genre with a Gibson SG. After the show, Kirk signed the guitar, and it has remained untouched since, strings included.”
That statement alone captures what the piece represents: an unbroken chain linking generations of metal history. From Iommi’s thunderous riffs in the late ’60s, to Hammett’s shredding precision that helped define modern metal, to Gueikian’s craftsmanship in the present, CEO#4 is both tribute and time capsule.
The auction is part of Played, Worn & Torn, a charity event hosted by Gibson Gives and Julien’s Auctions, featuring 15 stage-played and hand-signed instruments from a roster that reads like a rock radio dream lineup: Cheap Trick, Pat Benatar, Lzzy Hale, Rise Against, the All-American Rejects, and Imagine Dragons among them. Bidding runs until November 20, with all proceeds going toward music education and wellness initiatives for musicians worldwide.
But while guitars from across genres will go under the hammer, CEO#4 is different. It’s the sound of one icon saluting another, a tangible echo of that night when Metallica paid tribute to the band that made their very existence possible.
Even the details feel sacred: the Ghost Burst finish, the still-tuned strings, the backstage pass Gueikian wore that night, all included, all unaltered. For fans of either band, it isn’t just memorabilia. It’s myth solidified in maple.
