Featured, Guitar 101 »

A little while back, we posted an article with some information to help you spot a counterfeit Gibson guitar. For a while now, there seems to have been a bit of a glut of fake Gibsons coming from the Far East – mostly China. These guitars are pretty readily available on the net from Chinese wholesale sites.
While these instruments aren’t the worst in the world, I’d hate to think of someone being fooled.  If you want to buy what you know is a fake Les Paul, while Gibson …

Featured, Music »

On June 8th and 9th, Jeff Beck will play two performances as a tribute to the wonderful Les Paul.
The shows will take place at the Iridium Jazz Club, where Les played every week for the last 12 years of his life.  Every Monday, right up until his death at 94, Les played there and these shows are presented by the Iridium in collaboration with Gibson.
Beck will be ably aided by Imelda May and her band.  May has worked with Beck on a number of occasions – most notably perhaps, at the …

Headline, News »

I’m in danger of shorting out my keyboard with long strings of spittle as I read the specs and look at the images of Gibson’s latest.
Hot on the heels of the 50th Anniversary 1960 Les Paul, comes the 50th Anniversary 1960 ES-335TD.
Is it telling that I’m much more excited by this one? In the last few years I’ve been more and more drawn to the 335 and its semi-hollow yumminess. Perhaps I’m mellowing in my old age.
There is simply no denying, though, that the ES-335, and these ones in particular, …

News »

Even Gibson themselves think it’s absurd that the original Les Paul was sufficiently unappreciated that it should be discontinued.
But, discontinued it was.  After 1960, Gibson would stop making Les Pauls.  Well, for a bit anyway.
Weird to think about that now, isn’t it?
To celebrate the (rather odd when you consider it) anniversary of the Les Paul being pulled from Gibson’s line-up in 1960, The Big G has released this: The 50th Anniversary 1960 Les Paul Standard.
There are three variants of this beauty.
Version one will be finished in Heritage Cherry or a …

Featured, Music »

At the 52nd Grammy Awards, Jeff Beck and Imelda May performed a version of How High The Moon as a tribute to legendary guitarist and tinkerer, Les Paul.
Although bit of a jazz standard, the best known recording of How High The Moon was made by Les Paul and Mary Ford in 1951 and spent nine weeks at the number 1 position in the billboard charts.
Here you can see Jeff and Imelda performing a very nice version of the Les and Mary classic…

And, if you want to get an idea of …

Featured, News »

The guitar that’s causing so much stir around the net.  So far, only seen in teasing half-caught glimpses and partial views, the Gibson Dusk Tiger is finally out of the cage.  Almost.
We can get a good look at it though and we can learn a bit more about its features.
As we already knew, the top is a – rather nice looking – exotic hardwood.  Partially pictured in some of the earlier images, that huge chrome thing – pickguard/control panel/pickup mount is likely to be the biggest stumbling block for many. …

Factory Tours, Featured »

OK, so we visited Gibson a few weeks back but there’s always something new to see and to learn.
Here’s a series of three videos following the assembly of a Les Paul. Plenty of interesting stuff to see at each stage of the process and you get to see the presenter hack at lovely Les Pauls in various stages of construction – personally, I hope that guitar on which he butchered the neck tenon with a chisel (looking like he was going to stab himself in the process) wasn’t actually sold …

Featured, News »

Fender has posted an interview with guitarist, John 5.
There can’t be many that are unfamiliar with John 5, if only from his work with Marilyn Manson.  He has, of course, worked with a shed-load of other artists and is lucky enough to have both a Fender and a Squier signature model (and both quite nice they are too).
You may not know, however, that he has a Fender Telecaster from every year they’ve been available except for ‘57, ‘58 and ‘60.  Lucky bastard.
His favourite is a 1950 Broadcaster.
It’s a good interview …

Featured, News »

Hot on the heels of the spate of Angus Young SG models, Gibson announce this, the Buckethead Signature Les Paul.
With 28 solo albums under his KFC meal-deal hat and having played on countless other albums by countless other bands and solo artists, nobody can accuse Buckethead of being a fried chicken-eating couch-potato. He’s showed up on a crapload of ‘Superest Shredders Of All Time In The Universe Ever’ lists and now, he’s got his own signature Les Paul.
Sometimes, when Gibson do ‘contemporary’, they make a mess of it.  Rumours are …

Featured, News »

…Not really, of course.  It’s a ski joke… Downhill… Get it?
Gibson have collaborated with, ski manufacturer, Marker Völkl to produce a couple of ski-culture (my words) guitars.  Some new skis from Völkl were inspiration for the Black Les Paul Custom below and the V above is inspired by Marker’s Rule The Mountain slogan.
The guitars will be built at the Custom Shop in Nashville and will be on display through the winter before being auctioned at the SIA Show in January.  The proceeds from the Les Paul will go to Protect …