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What’s better than six?  Seven, right?  That’s one better.  And what’s better than a Gibson Explorer?  Well, what about a Gibson Explorer with seven strings instead of a paltry, miserly, six?
That should do it.
The Gibson 7-String Explorer has been unleashed.  And it’s available in None-More-Black (sorry, I can’t help it – the Tapisms keep coming).
Effectively this is a regular Explorer in high-gloss ebony nitrocellulose with the addition of a low-B for low-down, doomy riffage.  As you’d expect, body and neck are mahogany and are coupled with the usual glue-in, set-neck …

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A couple of notable anniversaries for October.
The Big Two of guitar makers both have something worth celebrating this month:

Although officially announced in April (and included on the cover of Fender’s April price list), full-scale production of the Fender Stratocaster really only began in October 1954.  Initial production – from April until October – was really quite slow, consisting mainly of marketing models.  These were used to demonstrate the radically new instrument to dealers and players (and at that summer’s NAMM).  Only after the dealers had gotten sufficiently used to …

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Wow! No denying that it’s eye-catching. This is the new Gibson SG Zoot Suit. Really, Zoot Suit. It’s made from a sandwich of multiple laminations of birch wood. Each is dyed before being pressed into a single block. Those crazy stripes you’re seeing are the edges of each thin layer of the laminated body – it’s not a paint effect. The images here show the Rainbow finish but it’s available in a number of two-colour finishes that sport alternating laminations of black and red, black and orange, red and blue …