The triumphant return of the Gibson Moderne
Here’s something I wrote for Gibson.com recently, about the newly reissued Gibson Moderne. This was a really fun article to research and I hope you dig it.
The Moderne is the great lost Gibson guitar. Shrouded in mystery and myth, its story has been passed around in dimly lit bars, cluttered music stores and thronging NAMM Show floors for almost six decades now. It’s elusive and desirable, partly due to its unique styling and partly due to its sheer unattainability for so many years. That’s all about to change (the scarcity, anyway: the Moderne will remain as freaky-cool as ever). But more on that in a moment. First, let’s backtrack.
INTERVIEW: Ace Frehley
It’s the Les Paul that launched a million guitarists: the 1974 Cherry Sunburst three-pickup Gibson Les Paul used by Ace Frehley during KISS’s breakthrough era. The guitar, known as the Budokan Les Paul in honour of the historic Japanese venue where it was given one of its best-known public showings, left Ace’s stewardship a few years ago, and it was long since retired from the road. But now it’s back, in spirit at least, in the form of Gibson Custom’s new Ace Frehley “Budokan” Les Paul Custom. This limited edition instrument will be available in four versions: fifty signed guitars aged by Tom Murphy in the Gibson Custom Shop; one hundred aged (but not signed) pieces; a further 150 finished with Gibson’s VOS (Vintage Original Spec) process; and 1000 pieces of an Epiphone version which retains most of the design features of its Gibson big brother. Ace took some time to talk with I Heart Guitar about the new guitar, the 30+ year old classic it’s based on, and his future plans.
“It was my favourite guitar that I used pretty much exclusively through the 70s and 80s, I guess,” Frehley says of the original instrument. “I continued to use it even with Frehley’s Comet. I don’t even remember when I got it! It was some time around 1975, 76. I had three or four backups, but the particular one that they just released, which is called the Budokan guitar, it was always my favourite guitar, my number one. It just felt the best and played the best.”
COOL VIDEO ALERT: Seymour Duncan ’59/Custom Hybrid
A few weeks ago I wrote about the ’59/Custom Hybrid which Seymour Duncan announced at NAMM. Check out this new video of Seymour Duncan’s Frank Falbo demoing and discussing the pickup in comparison with a few others. The video offers a nice clear recording of the differences and ‘sames’ between the Custom, the ’59 and the ’59/Custom pickups.
What’s really super mega cool about this pickup is that it’s based on a mod developed by a member of the Seymour Duncan User Group forum. So there ya go – those of you who like to mod your gear and brag about it online (and who doesn’t?), just think – maybe the next time you perform some sweet mod on your guitar or pedal or something, it could end up as a production model.
Maybe.
Conan O’Brien meets George Harrison’s guitar collection
This is so cool!
REVIEW: Ernie Ball Music Man Albert Lee HH
Country guitarist Albert Lee is a freak. One of the true greats able to play totally in the pocket in a very tasteful, rhythmic manner – as those who were lucky enough to see him at the recent Ernie Ball 50th Anniversary party can attest – then slice your head off with a seemingly impossible flurry of speedy yet purposeful notes. Lee’s longstanding signature Ernie Ball Music Man guitar is much the same: both restrained and outrageous, traditional and exotic. The most common, three-single-coil configuration displays an obvious lineage to the Fender Stratocaster but to think of it as just a pointy Strat is to do the guitar a great disservice. And that fact is driven home even further by the EBMM Albert Lee HH model.
The twin-humbucker HH has the same basic outline as the triple single coil version, with its angular body horns and a very ‘designy’ forearm contour which follows the path set in motion by the slope of the top edge of the cutaway. The body is made of African Mahogany, finished in a high gloss polyester and available in all of EBMM’s Standard Classic Colours range. The company goes to great pains to ensure that all guitars weigh in within a specific range – around 2.95kg, give or take a little, or 0.2kg more for the tremolo version, ensuring consistency from guitar to guitar.
Hi! I'm Peter Hodgson. I write for Gibson.com, Australian Guitar, Australian Musician, Mixdown Magazine (including my instructional column, 'Unleash Your Inner Rock God,' which has been running since 2007), guitarworld.com, Tone Deaf, Beat (including their weekly hard rock/metal column Crunch) and The Brag. And I'm Assistant Social Coordinator with Seymour Duncan.
I've been playing guitar since I was 8 years old, and I've been writing for magazines since I was 18. I've also worked as a guitar teacher (up to 50 students a week), a setup tech, a newspaper editor, and I've also dabbled in radio a little bit. I live in Melbourne, Australia, and my hobbies include drinking way too much coffee, and eating way too much Mexican food.
You can check out my guitar playing at Reverbnation or on YouTube, and feel free to email me at iheartguitarblog@gmail.com