Tom DeLonge, frontman and guitarist for So-Cal punk band blink-182, is known as much for his potty mouth and wild stage antics as his music. There's a certain quirkiness to the new Tom DeLonge Signature model as well, but mostly DeLonge wanted the classic look of an old American rock and roll guitar and he chose Gibson to do his signature model.

"A few years into my career, I bought a Les Paul Standard model, and it didn't seem to fit me completely, but it sounded really good," DeLonge explains. "I didn't like the style of it as much, but when I started doing research on hollowbodies, I found a guitar that was just calling my name forever, and that's the one I play today. It's bigger and cooler and plays amazing. A lot more balls to it."

Though the guitar is based on a classic semi-hollowbody design of Gibson's ES-335 series, its pickup and colors take it to a new, "radic" dimension per DeLonge, who recently left his endorsement deal with Fender. It has a Gibson "Dirty Fingers" humbucker: a super-hot, overwound potted pickup that provides major distortion. "It's an old Gibson pickup from the '70s that was so loud and so obnoxious that they discontinued it because no one liked it back then," he said in the November issue of the UK guitar magazine Total Guitar. "But you try it now and it's crazy. It's awesome. It sounds so good."

Then there's the unusual color scheme - chocolate brown satin with three cream racing stripes down the middle. They're two of DeLonge's favorite colors but he says he wants to try other color schemes in the future. The single pickup with single control knob is unique in Gibson's electric line. Other DeLonge specs include a neck with no finish on the back and a removable back plate for easy accessibility. Single-ply cream body binding, a 1960 slim-taper mahogany neck, nickel-plated hardware and locking tuners round out the model's features. The guitar is also available in a left-handed model.

As a player, DeLonge says he's influenced by Stephan Egerton from the Descendents and Guy Picciotto from Fugazi, but that he wasn't trying to emulate anyone when he first picked up his ax. "When I started, I played fast and I liked a specific sound. Lots of melody but over a lot of energy and I always wanted it more riff-oriented, I wanted more guitar work in it. I didn't want it to be so boring, that's what I was trying to do," he says.

Blink-182 just released a new album in November on MCA Records, and it has already cracked the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 album chart. It was also recently named one of the Top 50 albums of 2003 by Rolling Stone. It's a more complex and dynamic approach, Tom says, and that's why they're self-titling it this late in their careers - the band has been together 12 years now and hit multi-platinum status with their 1999 album Enema of the State and 2001's Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (tongue planted firmly in cheek).

"I think it's just time for a change, it's time to challenge ourselves and challenge the music industry to make a record that has way more thought put into it," DeLonge explains. "So we self titled it for that reason. But a lot of bands do that, and I don't think bands really get good until later on in their careers. I think we're getting good now."

With so many bands playing pop punk music, they want to stand out from the crowd. The new album definitely has the blink-182 energy and irreverent subject matter (fear of girls and dating anxiety, though they're all married), but it's got a few . . . serious moments. The first track, "Anthem Part II" is downright anti-establishment: Everything has fallen to pieces / Earth is dying, help me Jesus / We need guidance, we've been misled / Young and hostile, but not stupid.

Don't get them wrong, though, they're not anti-government. The guys played two shows for the U.S. troops in August, on a military base in Bahrain and an aircraft carrier in Kuwait, and were awed by what they have to endure on a daily basis. DeLonge's older brother Shon Kitchen is in the U.S. Navy; he's just come home for a break but is going back to Iraq in a few months.

"I support the military pretty largely," he says. "It's kind of like the most enlightening, humbling experience you can ever have [to play for them]. You meet the most professional, dedicated kids, but you're in this wartime environment where you're seeing things you've never seen before, and you're getting kinda exposed to this whole way of sacrifice that people do that you've never been a part of. It's unreal."

All seriousness aside, DeLonge says he has the usual mishaps onstage, falling on his face and dropping his guitar in front of thousands of music fans. He recently smashed his signature guitar to pieces on an "MTV Live" taping in Times Square. He didn't mean to drop it so hard, but once it was broken, he couldn't help himself. To see Tom play his signature model (and not fall down) check out the video for their single "Feeling This".

The band has matured, professionally and personally. They have kids now, as well as wives. DeLonge has a hard core side project, Box Car Racer along with fellow blink-182 comrade, drummer Travis Barker, David Kennedy on rhythm guitar and Anthony Celestino on bass. All the experimentation has only given them a new lease on their band and their music: DeLonge says it's their best album yet.

"I just think we're just a much more diverse, dynamic band. I think our songwriting is a whole different deal, and I think it shows," DeLonge concludes. "The record is a mixture of concept, and it's very art-driven and just a musical, kind of moody roller coaster. So I think the style has completely changed from when we first started, but evolvement is something to be embraced, I think, with bands. You need it at least, I think."