My Interview With Albare
I recently had a great chat with jazz guitarist Albare for Australian Guitar magazine, which you can read here. Albare is a Gibson endorser, a pioneer of Acid Jazz and a lifelong devotee of jazz. I particularly like what he had to say about improvisation: “In the Talmud it says the distance between the head and the heart is the longest in the world. So for a musician to go from the learning and the understanding back to the giving through the heart, it’s a life experience. So what goes through my head? Here’s what goes through my head: I think about my mother. I think about the sea. I think about things that calm me and take my mind away. Continue reading
Gibson Gary Moore Les Paul Standard
Gibson has offered a few different Gary Moore Les Paul models over the years, and all of them have been beautiful. But I just can’t tear my eyes away from the latest: the Gary Moore Les Paul Standard. That Lemon Burst finish just kills me. This guitar takes many cues from the legendary ’59 Burst Moore was most associated with (the one that was previously owned by Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green). There are a few twists though, which set this guitar apart from previous Gibson Gary Moore Les Pauls. Continue reading
INTERVIEW: Stone Sour’s Corey Taylor & Josh Rand
There comes a point in every band’s life when they start to long for something more. For some it’s an orchestral collaboration. For others it’s an elaborate narrative stage show. Maybe a film of some kind. Something that extends the creativity of the band beyond the regular album-tour-album-tour cycle. For Stone Sour that moment has come, and it’s manifested itself in the form of House Of Gold and Bones [Roadrunner], a two-part concept album and comic book project being portioned out over an extended timeframe. Musically it’s a logical progression from 2010′s brilliant Audio Secrecy but the project finds the band exploring even heavier territory, further narrowing the gap between Stone Sour and Slipknot, the band that shares two of its members (vocalist Corey Taylor and guitarist James Root). I caught up with Taylor and guitarist Josh Rand after the band’s Soundwave festival sideshow with Linkin Park. Continue reading
Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Collection
Guitar Center Presents The Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Collection Featuring Five Limited Edition Signature and Replica Guitars
- Exclusive Guitar Collection Developed in Partnership with Eric Clapton, Guitar Center, Fender®, Gibson and Martin Guitar to Benefit Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Centre
- Limited Quantities of the Collection On-Sale in North America Exclusively at Guitar Center Starting March 21, 2013
Westlake Village, CA (February, 6 2013) - Guitar Center, the world’s largest musical instrument retailer, in partnership with Eric Clapton, proudly announces the launch of the Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Collection. The limited-edition collection will feature five Eric Clapton tribute, replica and signature guitars to be sold in North America exclusively at Guitar Center locations and online at GuitarCenter.com beginning March 21, 2013.
All guitars in the one-of-a-kind collection were developed in partnership with Eric Clapton, Guitar Center, Fender, Gibson and Martin Guitar, drawing inspiration from the guitars used by Clapton at pivotal points throughout his iconic career. The collection includes a replica Fender Custom Shop Eric Clapton “Brownie” Tribute Stratocaster® guitar, Gibson Harrison-Clapton “Lucy” Les Paul, and Eric Clapton Signature Martin 000-28 and 000-45 models, as well as Eric Clapton “Crossroads” guitar straps from Ernie Ball. Continue reading
NAMM: Gibson unveils Frank Zappa Roxy SG
Dweezil Zappa hinted at this one a few months ago, and here it is! The Gibson Frank Zappa Roxy SG! It has a mahogany body and a mahogany neck with a ’60s profile, rosewood fretboard, ’57 Classic humbuckers, two volume and two tone controls with phase and coil tap mini toggles, and it comes with a hardshell case. It’s not on the Gibson website yet. Stay tuned for release date!
NAMM: Brian Wilson performs at Gibson
One of the coolest things about NAMM is the huge variety of artist appearances: from Ola Englund at Seymour Duncan to Frank Gambale at Carvin and all points in between. But in terms of pure ‘wow, I can’t believe I’m seeing this’ value, Brian Wilson’s appearance at Gibson to play several Beach Boys songs was pretty much unbeatable. Wilson and friends sounded great and there was a beautiful sense of reverence in the air.
Check out Gibson’s NAMM update page here.
New song: “Talk Amongst Yourselves”
Hey! I’ve just popped a new song up on Bandcamp. It started life as a drum beat (you can hear a bit of it in the second half of the solo section) and I decided to chuck a couple of guitars on to see what it sounded like in context. Before I knew it a whole song had tumbled out, lyrics and all. But my singing sucks, so I decided to play the vocal melody on guitar instead. The lyrics are about learning, communicating, reinforcing your opinions with research and discussion, junk like that.
Check it out!
The gear is just a Gibson Les Paul Traditional (thanks, Sky Music!) with Seymour Duncan Seth Lover humbuckers into a Marshall DSL50 mic’d with a Shure SM57. No pedals or anything except for a little wah in a pair of distantly-mixed background guitars.
Greatest guitar sale in history
So if you haven’t read about this yet, here’s the story:
Leo Krebs closes his North Hollywood music store and repair shop in the early 70s. He retains about 70 instruments in storage, including brand new Martins, Fenders and Gibsons. Now, around 40 years later, these instruments are all looking to find a good home.
Just to be clear, we’re talking about things like a NOS (New Old Stock) 1960s Gibson ES335-12 12-string, an NOS Gibson SG Standard, NOS Gibson Violin Bass, NOS 60s Fender Mustain and Precision basses, NOS 60s Fender Mustang, ’56 Strat, ’65 Mosrite Joe Maphis double-neck, ’68 NOS Fender Telecaster, NOS 60s Fender Paisley Telecaster, NOS 1968 Gibson ES-175, a 1950 Fender Broadcaster… oh look, there’s so much there that you should just go check it all out. Hopefully some of it is still available for a few lucky buyers. The link is worth clicking just for the ‘Wow, I can’t believe that’s just been sitting in storage for four decades’ novelty value, and definitely for the history.
REVIEW: 2012 Gibson Les Paul Studio
Once upon a time the Les Paul Studio was considered a budget Les Paul. Gibson achieved this by stripping away of some of the more labor-intensive visual touches like binding, transparent stain finishes and trapezoid inlays, in favour of unbound bodies, solid finishes and dot inlays.
But now Epiphone fills the budget side of the market quite nicely, so the Studio has moved up in the world. It’s been given nicer finishes and more deluxe appointments, and while it still comes in at less than the Traditional and Standard models, it’s generally considered more of a serious instrument today, worth looking at for its own merits, rather than the Les Paul you buy when you can’t afford a Standard.
It’s 29 years since the Studio was first introduced, and Gibson has given the model an overhaul for 2012. It’s now available in a wider range of colours including Vintage Sunburst, Fireburst, Wine Red, Ebony, Pelham Blue, Inverness Green (my favourite), Radiant Red and Silver Pearl, each finished in high-gloss nitrocellulose lacquer. The Ebony and Silver Pearl versions feature black plastic trim while the others carry vintage-style cream appointments, and each model is available in both right- and left-handed configurations.
INTERVIEW: Joe Bonamassa
2012 has been a big year for Joe Bonamassa. In January he unveiled his set of signature Seymour Duncan humbuckers and a pair of Dunlop pedals, then rocked the Ernie Ball 50th Anniversary party in LA; in April he unveiled a new Gibson ES-335 signature model; in May he released Driving Towards The Daylight, which sees him return to his blues-rock sound after exploring other textures on recent recordings; and he’s been hard at work on the third Black Country Communion album. And in October he hits Australia for the second time, playing shows in Perth, Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne.
Daylight features plenty of firey blues-rock playing and some gorgeous guitar tones. “It’s been well-received,” Bonamassa says. “We’re not really blues to begin with, but close enough!” Particularly in Australia: the album features a cover of Jimmy Barnes’ “Too Much Ain’t Enough Love” featuring Barnesy himself on lead vocals. Barnes wrote the song with Randy Jackson, Neal Schon (Journey), Jonathan Cain and Tony Brock. Aside from a few great Bonamassa originals, tracks include songs by Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf, Koko Taylor, Bernie Marsden (“Marsden’s a super-nice guy!”), Tom Waits and Bill Withers.
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), Blunt, 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 Bandcamp or on YouTube, and feel free to email me at iheartguitarblog@gmail.com