Guitar aficionados everywhere are anxiously awaiting the release of the new Epiphone Paul McCartney Texans! The limited run of 40 hand-built Epiphones will be produced in the United States by Gibson under the supervision and direction of Sir Paul McCartney himself and will be hand-aged to replicate the playing wear on McCartney’s Texan. The second run of Texans will be limited to 250 guitars, which will be mirror-images of McCartney’s guitar. His is a right-handed instrument that he plays left-handed, reversing the strings; the new guitars will be lefty guitars set up for right-handed players. A third run of 1,964 Texans will be hand-crafted in Japan.

Epiphone has been a part of the Gibson family of brands since 1957, and McCartney’s original guitar was made in the Gibson factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1964. He played it in the recording studio and on his famous performance of the Beatles hit “Yesterday” on the Ed Sullivan TV show on August 14, 1965. The guitar, serial number 194959, was officially a model FT-79N (N for natural finish), that had left the Gibson factory on May 23, 1964. McCartney bought it in New York in 1965. List price at the time was $175, and the case was extra.

It's exciting to have my old guitar reproduced by Gibson,” said McCartney. “It’s exact and what’s more it sounds great.”