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Gibson Officially Announces Slash ‘Appetite For Destruction’ Les Paul

Cary — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:00:10 +0000

Well, they’ve been talking about it off and on for months, and a few photos have even gone around the web, but Gibson yesterday officially announced the release of their new Slash ‘Appetite For Destruction’ Les Paul, and based on the photos it’s a real beauty (take a look at that wood grain, yum…)

To honor the Guns N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver guitarist, and apparently based on classic Les Paul Standards circa 1958-1960, this latest Custom Shop creation will sport the aformetioned gorgeous two-piece “reverse-chevron” Grade AAA figured maple top, which has been finished in a nitrocellulose “Unburst” lacquer, and fastened on top of a chambered, or “weight-relieved” mahogany body.

Electronics will include a pair of Seymour Duncan Signature Series Alnico II Pro Slash humbuckers, which are meant to recreate Gibson’s highly-prized PAF humbuckers from the late ’50s and early ’60s, along with traditional 3-way pickup switching, individual Tone and Volume knobs for each pickup, and a Switchraft 1/4″ output jack.

Other stand-out features are expected to include a single-piece, Grade A, quarter-sawn neck of mahogany w/slim ’60s neck profile, a rosewood fretboard (12″ radius) with 22 jumbo frets, trapezoid fret marker inlays, TonePros Tune-o-matic bridge with stopbar tailpiece, Tone Pro Kluson-style Crème Key tuners w/press-in bushings, a high-density Corian nut, and a custom Slash graphic on the headstock.

The Gibson Slash Appetite for Destruction Les Paul will ship in a plush-lined black Gibson hardshell case with a silk-screened Slash logo on the front and an owner’s manual, and is currently selling for a street price of just over $2800… actually surprisingly cheap compared to some other recent Gibson Custom Shop creations.

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Slash Talks About The Gibson ‘Appetite For Destruction’ Les Paul

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Gibson Releases Free iPhone App – Tuner, Metronome, Chord Dictionary

Cary — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:03:37 +0000

Well, if you haven’t bit the bullet yet on a dedicated guitar app for your iPhone (or even if you have, really,) you might want to take a look at Gibson’s new offering.

Hey, it’s free, it’s good looking, and it’s loaded up with all the basics, including a tuner that supports multiple popular tunings, a tap metronome, a useful — if still somewhat limited — chord dictionary, and a library of lesson snippets.

I could do without the advertisement splash screen on boot-up, but other than that there’s a lot to love here at such an unbeatable price.

While I’m at it, I might mention that I’ve been using and loving the Peterson strobe tuner iPhone app –– iStroboSoft –– even if the name is terrible, and I still find myself making use of both the GuitarToolkit and iReadMusic; the latter being a great way to keep up on your guitar notation reading skills.

What about you? Got any favorite iPhone guitar apps?

5 comments

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Gretsch Introduces Tim Armstrong Electromatic Hollowbody

Cary — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:36:30 +0000

Looking for a totally murdered-out Hollowbody? Look no further –– Gretsch this month announced the availability of their latest signature model and it’s a black beauty –– the G5191BK Tim Armstrong Electromatic, in honor of talented Rancid/Operation Ivy guitarist and songwriter Tim Armstrong.

All done up in black and gold –– yep, that includes all gold-plated hardware including a harp tailpiece, adusto-matic bridge, pickup bezels, and grover tuners –– this beast really stands out in Gretsch’s already impressive line of hollowbody six-strings.

Built around a single cutaway body of laminated maple (17″ wide by 2.75″ deep,) the Tim Armstrong signature model will sport a laminated maple top finished in matte black urethane, a single-piece maple neck, rosewood fingerboard (12.5″ radius,) 21 Jumbo frets – plus zero fret – and block acrylic inlayed position markers.

Electronics will include a pair of “Black Top” Filter’Tron pickups, dual Volume controls, dual Tone controls, a Master Volume knob, and traditional 3-way pickup switching.

According to Gretsch, other unique features will include a white graphite nut, pearloid Gretsch headstock inlay, black headstock overlay, 4-ply top and back binding, 3-ply fretboard and headstock binding, single-ply f-hole binding, and Tim Armstrong’s signature on the truss rod cover.

The Gretsch Tim Armstrong G5191BK Electromatic Hollowbody is currently selling for a street price of around $1,150, and is apparently actually available in a left-handed model. A gig bag ($100) or an economy hardshell case ($130) are optional.

Care to comment?

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Gibson Unveils 50th Anniversary 1960 ES-335TD

Cary — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 23:01:16 +0000

Well, I was thoroughly entrenched at San Francisco International Airport, anxiously awaiting lift-off for New Orleans (and Mardi Gras, baby!) when Gibson announced their latest Custom Shop extravaganza –– the new 50th Anniversary 1960 ES-335TD.

That was nearly a week ago, but today I finally got a few minutes to do some research on it.

Like other recent editions from Gibson’s venerable Custom Shop, this beauty appears to be well out of range of your average guitarist (myself included,) with MSRPs hovering in the mid-$5,000 to low-$6,000 range… but it’s a looker for sure, and I have no doubt it’s something to behold… Just wish I could afford to play one.

According to Gibson, the ES-335 changed quite a bit over the course of 1960, but to celebrate the Golden Anniversary of this classic guitar the Custom Shop has chosen to reproduce the so-called “fast neck profile” model –– arguably the most unique version of the 335 to come out that year.

Among other things, the 50th Anniversary 1960 ES-335 will feature a laminated-maple body (top, back and sides,) with a solid maple centerblock, choice of three different VOS-aged nitrocellulose finishes (Antique Natural, Antique Faded Cherry, and Antique Vintage Sunburst,) period-correct hardware, and a one-piece mahogany neck with maple spline and 12″ radius rosewood fretboard.

Electronics are expected to include traditional “insert” Tone and Volume knobs, bumble-bee capacitors, a 1/4″ Switchcraft output jack, and a duo of Gibson’s accurate PAF reproductions –– the 57 Classic humbuckers.

Additionally, according to Gibson’s write-up the neck on the ES-335TD has been totally re-tooled for accurate truss rod profile and channel depth, utilizing scans of by the Custom Shop’s Engineering Team.

The Gibson 50th Anniversary 1960 ES-335TD will ship with a silk-screened Custom Shop hardshell case with black pleather exterior, charcoal plush interior, a Certificate of Authenticity, and all the usual goodies and documentation. Prices range from $5645 to $6115.

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Gibson Announces Custom Shop 50th Anniversary 1960 Les Paul Standard

Cary — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:27:49 +0000

Well, it looks like Gibson is releasing yet another Custom Shop reproduction of a much-coveted classic Les Paul –– this time in three different versions to capture three distinct personalities of the transitional 1960 Les Paul Standard.

Dubbed the 50th Anniversary 1960 Les Paul Standard, the guitars will feature period-accurate accoutrements including the now classic tonewood combination of carved maple top with solid mahogany back, old-school PAF-style BurstBucker humbuckers with Alnico II magnets, long-tenon neck joint, a back-angled headstock, and a traditional thin nitrocellulose finish.

Version One of the guitar is expected to feature a full-size, single-piece mahogany neck with rounded neck profile, top-hat control knobs, and will be available in one of two finishes: Heritage Dark Sunburst or Heritage Cherry Sunburst. It will also sport a 1960 serial number stamped into the headstock back, along with the R0 serial number of the 50th Anniversary model.

Version Two will feature a thinner, but still slightly rounded and elliptical neck profile, which was apparently based on scans of a number of ’60s LPs taken by Gibson’s Custom Historic and Engineering team. The guitar will be available in two “faded” finishes: Sunset Tea Burst or Light Iced Tea.

Version Three of the guitar will feature a classic slim-taper neck, double-band tuners, a set of gold top-hat control knobs with silver inserts, and a colorfast Cherry Sunburst finish that painstakingly recreates Gibson’s finishing process from the later part of 1960.

The Custom Shop 50th Anniversary 1960 Les Paul Standards will be built in a limited run of just 500 instrument all together, and will ship with a hardshell case and a 50th Anniversary Certificate of Authenticity. MSRP is currently set at $8,504.

6 comments

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Fender Busts Out With Acoustic/Electric Hybrid: The Acoustasonic Tele

Cary — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:38:48 +0000

Wow… I definitely didn’t see this one coming, and I have to say I love the design. Check out that rosewood Telecaster bridge! Very cool looking guitar. And Fender has apparently built a truly usable Electric/Acoustic hybrid guitar if word from the NAMM demonstrations are any indication.

According to Fender, the new Acoustasonic Tele packs both traditional Telecaster tone and feel (note the Custom Shop Twisted Tele pickup in the neck position,) and a believable acoustic guitar component (via a Fishman Piezo Pickup and on-board Aura pre-amp,) into a single, and rather traditional looking Fender package.

The guitar is built utilizing a chambered Ash body with a Spruce wedge center block, and sports a modern “C” shaped maple neck with satin finish (25.5″ scale length,) a rosewood fretboard (9.5″ radius,) and 21 MJ frets.

Of course, the real stand-out here is in the electronics department: as mentioned before the Acoustasonic Tele sports a Twisted Tele single-coil at the bridge, but raises the bar with a full suite of acoustic guitar sounds via an under-saddle Piezo pickup, active Tone control, a trio of PC-board mounted trim pots for volume adjustment, and and 18-volt bridge-mounted pre-amp with four pre-sets emulating various acoustic guitar tones.

Interestingly, while I don’t see it mentioned on Fender’s official website, according to a product write-up at one of the big online guitar retailers, the Acoustasonic Tele sports a “braceless graphite composite top with a directional woodgrain-like pattern that reacts and sounds like spruce.” Huh?

The guitar comes in your choice of Olympic White or 3-Color-Sunburst, and ships with a Deluxe gig bag. It’s currently selling for a street price right around $1,000. I’ll get you more info as it becomes available.

5 comments

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Paul Reed Smith Debuts 25th Anniversary Swamp Ash Special Narrowfield

Cary — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:24:07 +0000

Paul Reed Smith appears to be continuing its move into a “new era” with a host of new guitars recently released.

One of the latest to really catch my eye was the new 25th Anniversary Swamp Ash Special Narrowfield –– a gorgeously designed guitar sporting traditional PRS good looks, and armed with a trio of the company’s innovative new Narrowfield pickups. As PRS puts it––

“The Narrowfield pickups focus the string attack much like a singlecoil but are hum canceling. The result is a new sounding pickup system, which blends features of single coil, soap bar, and humbucking pickups”

Among other specs, the 25th Anniversary Swamp Ash Special will feature a body of carved swamp ash decked out in one of five finishes (charcoal smokeburst, sapphire smokeburst, scarlet smokeburst, smokeburst, and smoked amber,) a standard-shaped rock maple neck with maple fingerboard, 22 frets, 25th Anniversary “Shadow Birds” fret inlays, and an eagle headstock inlay.

Hardware includes a tremolo bridge and PRS 14:1 Phase II low-mass locking tuners, while electronics include three 57/08 Narrowfield pickups, single Volume & Tone controls, and 5-way pickup switching. The guitar is selling for a street price in the $2300 range.

Care to comment?

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Gretsch Pays Homage To Eddie Cochran With Custom Shop Tribute G6120

Cary — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:11:53 +0000

It never fails that as soon as I think it’s safe to peruse Gretsch’s website again they announce yet another gorgeous instrument designed to steal my hard earned money from me.. Argggh!

Case in point: the company this week announced an incredibly limited run (just 50 instruments) of G6120 hollowbodies, in tribute to early guitar legend Eddie Cochran.

According to Gretsch, the guitar, which is being built by master luthier Stephen Stern and his team at the Gretsch Custom Shop, will be a faithful replica of Cochran’s original, though modified, 6120 –– now residing in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

Dubbed the G6120EC Eddie Cochran Tribute, the guitar will feature a laminated maple top finished in Vintage Western Maple stain, laminated maple back and sides with parallel tone bar bracing, single cutaway body shape, three-piece neck of Maple/Walnut/Maple, and a 9″ radius rosewood fingerboard.

Some stand-out features will include inlay markers of “Cactus, Steerheads & Fences,” multiple body, headstock, and fretboard binding, a pearloid Steerhead and Gretsch logo inlaid on headstock, bound F-holes (oversized,) translucent plexi pickguard, gold “Painted” aluminum Bigsby tailpiece, Relic’d gold-plated hardware, and an aluminum nut.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of the Eddie Cochran Tribute G6120 though lies in its electronics–– as per the original, which was apparently modified by Cochran, the guitar sports not a pair of DynaSonic single-coils, but just one single-coil pickup at the bridge position and a dog ear p-90 at the neck.

The guitar will ship with distressed hardware, distressed (read Relic’d) nitrocellulose lacquer, and a premium white western case. Only 50 Cochran Tribute guitars will be produced world wide. List price is currently set at $12,000.00

Care to comment?

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Fender Announces Squier Classic Vibe Telecaster Thinline & Custom

Cary — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:57:32 +0000

Well, the Winter 2010 NAMM show has come and gone, and we’ve got plenty of instrument announcements to take a look at.

Fender has added to its Squier brand of instruments with the debut of two more vintage-inspired ‘Classic Vibe’ guitars –– the Classic Vibe Telecaster Thinline and Classic Vibe Telecaster Custom –– based on their iconic Fender branded counterparts of the 1960s.

As is to be expected, the new Tele Thinline will sport a semi-hollow body of mahogany enhanced with an f-hole in the upper bout and of course bearing the classic white pearloid pickguard.

Other features will include a single-piece maple neck with modern ‘C’ shape (25.5″ scale length,) a maple fretboard (9.5″ radius,) 21 MJ frets, a vintage styled strings-thru-body bridge with three chrome barrels, and a synthetic bone nut.

Meanwhile, Squier’s new Classic Vibe Telecaster Custom will sport a double-bound alder body in 3-color Sunburst finish, old-school mint green pickguard, single-piece maple neck with modern ‘C’ shape (25.5″ scale length,) a rosewood fretboard (9.5″ radius,) 21 MJ frets, a vintage styled strings-thru-body bridge with three threaded steel barrels, and a synthetic bone nut.

Electronics on both guitars will include dual Custom “Vintage Style” Single-Coil Telecaster pickups with AlNiCo V magnets, Master Volume and Tone knobs, and standard 3-way pickup switching.

The new Classic Vibe Teles are currently selling for a street price of around $380, and as I understand it are due in stores within the next few weeks.

4 comments

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Fender Reveals New ‘American Special’ Line Of Guitars

Cary — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:37:34 +0000

Well, it’s NAMM time again folks, and that means new guitars and gear coming out of the woodwork. For its part, Fender this week announced the release of a whole new line of guitars, dubbed the American Specials.

Comprised of the American Special Telecaster, American Special Stratocaster, and American Special Stratocaster HSS, this latest edition to Fender’s line-up is apparently aimed at the mid-market, bringing American Made quality to the sub-$1,000 price range.

All three guitars are decked out with alder bodies finished in gloss urethane, modern “C” shaped maple necks (9.5″ radius,) 22 jumbo frets, ’70s-style oversized headstock decals, and Texas Special singlecoil pickups (with the HSS Strat sporting an Atomic humbucker at the bridge.)

They also feature Fender’s Greasebucket tone circuit, allowing you to roll off the high-end with out adding copious amounts of bass (a really nice feature IMHO.)

Other features of the line-up will include an old-school string-through-body bridge with three brass saddles on the American Special Telecaster (the guitar comes in your choice of Olympic White or Three-color Sunburst.)

And the American Special Strat will be armed with a “vintage style” synchronized tremolo (the guitar is finished in either Candy Apple Red or Two-color Sunburst,) while the Stratocaster HSS will sport a rosewood fretboard, synchronized tremolo, and of course that Atomic bridge humbucker (the guitar comes in either Black or Three-color Sunburst finish.)

The guitars will ship with Deluxe gigbags, and are currently selling for a street price of hovering in the $800 range… a great price for and American made Fender… I’ll be interested to see how they handle.

3 comments

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Gibson Unveils Jimmy Page ‘Number Two’ Les Paul Replica

Cary — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:27:50 +0000

Lordy, they’re trying to kill me… Gibson this week finally pulled the veil on their latest super-high-end Custom Shop re-creation (read: cha-ching!) –– a painstaking replica of Jimmy Page’s iconic “Number Two” Les Paul.

Based on Page’s original ‘59 Les Paul ‘Burst –– which was massively modified by the guitarist in order to explore its full tonal capabilities –– the Jimmy Page ‘Number Two’ Les Paul will sport a number of custom features, including a switching system built to re-produce the numerous coil splitting, series/parallel, and phase-reverse options of Page’s original instrument; all via push/pull pots on the four control knobs, and a pair of hidden switches beneath the pickguard.

Other custom specs will include a one-piece body of genuine mahogany capped by a “uniquely figured” two-piece Eastern maple top, a single-piece, quarter-sawn mahogany neck carefully grain-matched to the body for improved tone and sustain, and a pair of Jimmy Page BurstBucker pickups; covered version at the neck, uncovered w/black bobbins at the bridge.

The guitar will also feature a rosewood fretboard with 22 frets and a 12″ radius, aged acrylic trapezoid inlays, and tortoise side dots, while top shelf hardware will include 12:01 ratio Grover tuners, a tune-o-matic bridge, light-weight aluminum stop bar tailbar, and a period-correct antique bell truss rod cover.

As with previous high-end Custom Shop Replicas, the Gibson Jimmy Page “Number Two” Les Paul will be made available in extremely limited quantities, and will come in three different finishes: 25 guitars will be aged by Tom Murphy and signed by Jimmy Page, 100 guitars will be simply aged, and a final 200 will be available in a VOS model.

The guitars are expected to sell for a street price of $25,882, $15,294, and $11,176 respectively, and will ship with a black pleather Custom Shop case silkscreened with Page’s signature, an interior of maroon crushed velvet, and a leather-bound Certificate of Authenticity.

6 comments

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Gibson Releases Les Paul Tribute 1952 Goldtop

Cary — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:02:39 +0000

Hot on the heels of their Epiphone branded Les Paul Tribute Standard, Gibson this week announced the release of a high-end Custom Shop model –– the Les Paul Tribute 1952 –– in honor of the legendary musician/innovator behind the name, Les Paul himself.

Billed as the closest match yet to Les’ original specs, the guitar looks to be a beauty of classic styling and guitar-history nostalgia… even the brass trapeze tailpiece and top-wrapped bridge (a Les Paul patented creation,) are present and accounted for.

According to Gibson the Les Paul Tribute 1952 is being built around a two-piece mahogany body (Grade-A) that’s been topped with a two-piece maple top (Grade-C,) and glued together with super-strong Franklin Titebond 50 glue.

And as per the earliest LP models, the guitar will be hand-finished with Gold nitrocellulose on the top (90-sheen lacquer –– no poly here) while the rim, back and neck have been left to show off that Grade-A mahogany grain, and coated with a high-gloss lacquer.

Other stand-out features will include a solid quarter-sawn Grade-A mahogany neck with ’50s neck profile, headstock with Gibson logo inlaid in mother of pearl and“prototype” stamped into the back, and a 22-fret fretboard of Grade-A mahogany (12″ radius,) with acrylic trapezoid inlays and antique neck binding.

Electronics will include a pair of cream-colored single-coil P-90 pickups, dual Volume controls with Gold Speedvolume knobs, dual Tone controls with Gold Speedtone knobs, 3-way pickup switching via toggle switch, and a Switchcraft 1/4″ outback jack. Tuners are vintage-style, with press-in bushings.

The Gibson Les Paul Tribute 1952 will ship with a hardshell case and Certificate of Authenticity, including a photo of Les Paul and detailed specs of the instrument. It carries an MSRP of $5,581.00.

5 comments

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Gibson Unveils Three New Angus Young SG Models

Cary — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:14:24 +0000

Hell yes… Gibson this morning unveiled a whopping three new Angus Young SG models, including a standard Gibson USA production run version, plus two new Limited Edition Custom Shop versions –– in Aged and VOS (Vintage Original Spec) finishes.

Apparently not meant to be an exact replica of Young’s iconic guitar, according to Gibson the Custom Shop Angus Young SG reproduces “the tone, look, and feel of this rare specimen among a classic breed, but… updates this legendary guitar with custom modifications requested by Angus himself.”

Highlights of the Custom Shop Angus Young SG include: an ebony fretboard with lightning bolt inlays (12″ radius,) a body of solid clear mahogany with offset center seam, custom pre-worn nitrocellulose “Angus Cherry” finish, 3-piece quarter-sawn neck made of top-grade maple (custom profile; said to be similar to the cut on Young’s original ’68 SG Standard,) a genuine bone nut, chromed Schaller tuners (12:1 gear ratio,) and an ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic bridge.

Electronics will include a pair of custom-spec’d Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates humbuckers (standard at the neck, with a higher output pickup at the bridge,) individual volume and tone controls for each pickup, traditional three-way pickup switching, and a Switchcraft 1/4″ input jack.

According to Gibson all hardware on these guitars will be “pre-aged” –– with 50 of them done by hand, and another 200 subjected to Gibson’s VOS process.

The Custom Shop Angus Young SG will ship with a black hardshell case lined with red fur, and a leather-bound Certificate of Authenticity with Angus Young photo insert and the details of the guitar (fifty will be signed by Young as well.) Specs for the production run model can be found here.

MSRP is currently set at $9,409 for the “Aged” version and $6,115 for the larger run VOS, though street prices should be considerably lower… pre-orders appear to already be available at some of the larger online retailers.

3 comments

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Gibson Giving Away Tickets To Les Paul Tribute Concert, Plus A Les Paul Studio

Cary — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:46:02 +0000

Sweet… according to Gibson this morning the company will be giving away ten pairs of tickets to the upcoming Les Paul Tribute Concert –– to be held November 19th at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN –– with one lucky winner receiving a grand prize of not only two tickets to the concert, but also a wine red Les Paul Studio.

The concert, commemorating the music legend, recording innovator, and namesake behind Gibson’s iconic guitar, will feature Les’s band The Les Paul Trio as house band, along with musician Steve Miller –– they’ll apparently be playing a mixture of Les Paul’s music and instrumentals.

According to Gibson––

Joining Steve Miller for the show will be rock’s elite including Ace Frehley, Zakk Wylde, Charlie Daniels and Jennifer Batten. Joining them will be contemporary artist Josh Kelly and Nashville’s own country hit-makers John Rich, Emerson Drive, JD Souther and Steve Wariner…

While the company doesn’t give official specs for the guitar they are giving away, a photo at the bottom of the official Gibson Les Paul Tribute Concert Giveaway page suggests the instrument will be a standard Les Paul Studio in wine red finish, decked out in gold hardware… Good luck!

Care to comment?

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PRS 25th Anniversary Guitars Now Online

Cary — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:31:11 +0000

Just a quick note for all you rabid PRS fans –– the company’s recently announced 25th Anniversary line of limited edition guitars is now online and ready to be ogled.

There are a bunch of gorgeous instruments here, but stand-outs for me are the 25th Anniversary Carlos Santana model (check out the purfling on that figured maple top,) 25th Anniversary Mira 245 Soapbar, and of course the over-the-top but still wonderfully iconic 25th Anniversary Dragon.

You can check out the entire list here.

2 comments

And The Winner Is…

Gibson Unveils 50th Anniversary Line

Epiphone Debuts New Limited Edition ‘59 Les Paul “Burst”

Cary — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:35:40 +0000

In celebration of its 50th Anniversary, Epiphone has announced yet another beautiful reissue of the classic 1959 Les Paul Standard “burst” — this time in a strictly limited run of 1,959 instruments.

The guitar looks to be highly accurate to its nearly royal lineage, boasting a whole host of appointments you’d expect from a ‘59 LP, including a solid mahogany neck with that fat ’50s “baseball bat” rounded neck profile, a deep-set long neck tenon (for increased sustain and better tone,) solid mahogany back, hard maple cap, and the whole thing topped with a premium-grade AAA flame maple veneer.

If you ask me though, the real goods are going to be in the electronics, with the ‘59 Les Paul Standard sporting what is easily my favorite humbucker coming out of Gibson these days — the BurstBucker; a modern re-creation of the company’s highly sought-after PAF pickups. The guitar will be armed with a BurstBucker-2 (wound similar to a ‘57 Classic) in the neck position, and BurstBucker-3 (over-wound and hotter) at the bridge.

Other stand-out specs will include a set of Mallory-150 tone capacitors, a Switchcraft brand 3-way pickup switch, amber top-hat knobs w/metal pointers, Epiphone’s LockTone tune-o-matic stopbar bridge and tailpiece, a blank trussrod cover, and the guitar’s serial number stamped into the headstock back.

The Epiphone Limited Edition ‘59 Les Paul Standard will ship with a Lifton-style replica hard shell case (brown exterior, pink interior,) and the instrument will be available in your choice of Faded Cherryburst or Faded Iced Tea finishes. Street price is expected to run around $900.

7 comments

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Hey, Follow Us On Twitter!

Cary — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:05:27 +0000

Hey everybody, I just wanted to write you all a quick note that you can now follow Electric Guitar Review via Twitter.

Care to comment?

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Gretsch Introduces Gorgeous Country Club Hollowbody

Cary — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:12:38 +0000

I’m sorry to say I missed any kind of “official” announcement from Gretsch, but the company has apparently released two new models of their gorgeous Country Club Hollowbody –– one in two-tone smoke gray/metallic violet finish (shown here,) and the other in bamboo yellow/copper mist.

Both the G6196TSP-2G and G6196TSP-BY Country Club are decked out in gold hardware, and will sport laminated maple bodies, a two-piece maple neck with tapered heal (Modern Gretsch shape,) rosewood fretboard (12″ radius) with 21 Medium Jumbo frets, and a 25.5″ scale length.

Electronics are to include a pair of Gretsch’s DynaSonic pickups, individual Volume controls, a single Master Tone control, and 3-way pickup switching by Switchcraft.

More unique features will include a set of Gold Grover Imperial machine heads (150Gm with stair-step buttons,) Gold Synchro-Sonic bridge w/Bigsby B6G vibrato tailpiece, over-sized and multi-bound F-holes, vintage pearloid hump-block fretboard inlays, multiple fretboard/headstock bindings, and a pearl Gretsch logo inlaid on the headstock.

The guitars will ship with a Deluxe Hardshell case, and are expected to sell for a street price of just under $2900.00. They are due in stores before Christmas.

2 comments

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Epiphone Announces Suped-Up Emperor “Swingster” Hollowbody

Cary — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:18:54 +0000

Epiphone this week announced the resurgence of their classic Emperor Hollowbody in a new suped-up package officially dubbed the Emperor Swingster.

The guitar (shown here in Wine Red) is expected to feature a newly updated set of pickups designed specifically for the Swingster (Epiphone SwingBuckers?) along with a push/pull tone knob for tapping standard and parallel wiring schemes, a “pinned” tune-o-matic bridge with rosewood base and roller saddle, and an old school Bigsby B60 vibrato tailpiece armed with traditional-style “wire” arm.

The Emperor Swingster will also sport a short 24-1/2″ scale length, for easier fingering of unwieldy jazz chord inversions, a fairly flat 14″ neck radius (arguably a boon for quick jazz comping,) and the whole thing will apparently be topped off with 5-ply headstock, body and neck binding.

Standard features will include an arched top made of select spruce, body of laminated maple & birch, a three-piece maple neck, rosewood fingerboard with 20 medium-jumbo frets, and electronics including dual volume controls, dual tone controls, push/pull coil tapping, and 3-way pickup switching.

The Swingster will be available in three different polyurethane finishes: Wine Red, Sunrise Orange, and Translucent Black, and is expected to sell for a street price of just under $700.00, sans case.

1 comment

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Cary — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:40:53 +0000

I hope they aren’t betting the farm on this thing ;)

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