Eric Church’s New Epiphone Hummingbird Comes With a Whiskey Aged in Gibson Offcuts

Epiphone has released a limited-edition signature acoustic for Eric Church, the Hummingbird Dark, based on a 2016 Gibson Custom Shop model Church played. Priced at £699/$799, it arrives with a hardshell case and a spec sheet that includes a solid European spruce top, layered mahogany back and sides, and a Fishman Sonicore pickup. The pickguard is a Carolina Blue version of the classic Hummingbird decoration.

But it’s the companion release that sets this apart: two whiskeys under Church’s Whiskey JYPSI brand. Tonewood Vol 1 is finished using toasted maple offcuts from the Gibson factory, giving a literal link to guitar manufacturing. Tonewood: The Collective, a lighter expression, will be available more widely, with a share of proceeds going to the Gibson Gives charitable fund.

This isn’t the first signature guitar to come with a lifestyle tie-in, but the use of actual wood waste from guitar production moves it beyond standard merchandise. The Hummingbird Dark itself—with its thick C-profile neck, 12-inch radius rosewood fingerboard, and Church’s signature on the back of the headstock—doesn’t reinvent the square-shouldered dreadnought. It does, however, place Church alongside artists who understand that a signature model works best when it echoes a specific, personal history with the instrument.

More details are on Epiphone’s site, and the whiskey is available from Whiskey JYPSI. No word on whether the guitar ships with a tasting note.