The Les Paul Quest Part 1

A good buddy of mine is on a quest for his ultimate Les Paul and he has kindly agreed to let me document his ongoing research and correspondence with the various luthiers, pickup makers and hardware manufacturers. Thanks Sherman! 

And having owned several Gibson Les Pauls in the past, he initially had his sights set on one of the obscure Japanese manufacturers.

Like this Provision Les Paul.

Largely unknown outside of the US, Provision makes mid to very high-end Les Paul copies in limited runs.

From Ishibashi Japan's U-Box listing of used instruments, this axe features a nicely flamed, solid maple top, mahogany neck and body and comes equipped with Seymour Duncan 59N and JB pickups.  It was listed on Ishibashi's U-Box for 140,952 yen  or US$1854.  This was Provision's mid-level model, so the price brand new would have been in the US$2500 region.  Pretty crazy I know.

So why would anyone want to pay that much for a no-name guitar?  Folks, it's all about attention to detail and looking past that unfamiliar name on the headstock. 

Gibson's quality began to flag in the early '90s.  My theory is that one Saul Hudson aka Slash suddenly drove demand for Les Paul guitars through the roof and Gibson were caught off-guard and were unable to crank them out fast enough.  In the process, quality was sacrificed. 

And thanks to Slash's popularity, almost overnight Gibson guitars appeared with dodgy craftmanship -- sloppy finishing, rough fretwork with sharp fret ends and misaligned pearloid fingerboard markers inlaid into oversized slots with a huge amount of surrounding wood filler.

What better conditions for a high-end Les Paul-copy market in Japan to suddenly fluorish and prosper, appealing to a culture that is positively fanatical about details.



This particular guitar sold out pretty quickly from Ishibashi's listing despite the numerous dings and dents that pervaded the headstock, sides and back.

Stay tuned for upcoming instalments of the Les Paul Quest!

Gibson Releases Slash 'Appetite' Les Paul

Gibson recently announced the release of their new Slash signature 'Appetite' Les Paul. 

Based on the Les Paul copy built by Kris Derrig that Slash used for most of  Guns n' Roses 'Appetite For Destruction', this axe, honestly, appears to be not much different from Gibson's usual offerings.

It appears that either Derrig nailed it in copying Gibson's design specifications or not much research went into the design of this new signature model.  Or what if a couple of Kris Derrig's design innovations on the original were too much of a departure for Gibson to want to implement?  Who knows? 

The 'Appetite' Les Paul features a 'reverse chevron' AAA-maple top, 'Unburst' nitrocellulose finish, Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro Slash signature humbucking pickups and TonePros tune-o-matic bridge and tailpiece.  Amber top-hat knobs cap the linear 300k volume pots and 500k non-linear tone pots.

Jumbo frets are fitted to the rosewood fingerboard on the slim-60s profile quarter-sawn mahogany neck and the 17-degree angle headstock features a silk-screened Slash signature and logo.

Get thee to a music store to check out the Appetite Les Paul if you're a true Slash fan.

(Pic Source: www2.gibson.com)

What Six Real Guitar Heroes Have To Say About Guitar Hero The Game

With the debate going on about the educational merits, or lack thereof, of Guitar Hero, here's what six of our real guitar heroes have to say:

Jimmy Page:

"Obviously, there have been overtures made to Led Zeppelin, but if you start with the first track on the first album, Good Times Bad Times, and you think of the drum part that John Bonham did there -- how many drummers in the world can actually play that, let alone dabble on a Christmas morning?  There could be a lot of alcohol consumed over Christmas, and you still aren't going to get it."

Yngwie Malmsteen:
"I actually think it's a good thing. I do. I think because it introduces kids to music. I was sitting in the airport in Miami, I don't know, a couple of months ago. We were flying somewhere, and me and my drummer and my bass player or somebody, probably my singer too, we were sitting at this restaurant waiting and this little kid, he couldn't have been more than eight or nine years old, and he looks up at us and goes, 'Hey, are you guys in a band?, We go, 'yeah.' 'I want to be in a band!' And this was so cool because a few years ago that wouldn't be happening. Plus, I see in the audience when I play now, every night there's very, very young kids. This is a great thing."

Carlos Santana:
"If you're going to spend that much time and energy, get yourself a real guitar.  I'm not into virtual anything, if it's not the real thing."

Steve Vai:

"Now I can jam with people in the comfort of their own plastic!"

Joe Satriani:
"I've stood at the end of the aisle at Best Buy and watched eight-year-old kids completely dominate the game, but I haven't played. A couple of my songs are featured on the games, so they've sent me the console. But I've never opened the box. I don't think it would be any fun for me -- there are only three or four buttons. Plus I seriously thought I'd mess up my head. One night onstage, I'd be looking for the green and yellow buttons and it would just be strings and frets and I'd be confused."

Jeff Beck:
"Who wants to be in a kid’s game, like a toy shop?  There’s just this mad avalanche of material that’s available, so it’s so hard for aspiring young players to find where they should go (and) not be enslaved to yet another tool or device."



Thanks to Stratoblogster's Jeff Beck article for inspiring this one!

Rock On The Range 2010 Lineup To Include Slash

This year's Rock On The Range will take place on May 22nd and May 23rd at Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio and promises to be bigger than ever.  The fourth year of the annual festival, this year also marks the debut of Slash at Rock On The Range.  Fans can expect the top-hatted one to play some new material from his upcoming solo album.

Here's this year's Artist Lineup:

• Godsmack
• Rob Zombie
• Three Days Grace
• Limp Bizkit
• Rise Against
• Seether
• Slash
• Deftones
• Papa Roach
• Five Finger Death Punch
• Coheed and Cambria
• Bullet For My Valentine
• Mastodon
• Killswitch Engage
• Theory of a Deadman
• Puddle of Mudd
• Sevendust
• Drowning Pool
• Skillet
• Apocalyptica
• Halestorm
• Airbourne
• Mushroomhead
• Adelitas Way
• Helmet
• Escape the Fate
• Cold
• Anberlin
• Nonpoint
• 2cents
• Violent Soho
• Janus
• Shaman's Harvest
• Year Long Disaster
• Taddy Porter
• Like A Storm
• Noise Auction

Check out:  http://rockontherange.com/

Win A Private Guitar Masterclass With Slash!

Courtesy of Ernie Ball strings, twenty guitarists will have a chance to win a private guitar masterclass with Slash, a long-time Ernie Ball endorser.

Just like the Golden Ticket in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, twenty gold guitar picks have been concealed in packs of Ernie Ball strings -- find one and you qualify for the Slash guitar masterclass, with flight ticket and hotel accomodation thrown in to sweeten the deal. 

Willy Wonka would have been proud.  I just hope that Slash doesn't off his masterclass attendees one by one like Wonka.

A total of 1,000 Ernie Ball Slinky, Coated Slinky, Classic Pure Nickel and 7-String Ernie Ball string packs have been released, each with a gold, silver, red, black or white guitar pick.  A non-gold guitar pick wins the finder anything from a custom Ernie Ball instrument, a $500 Guitar Center shopping coupon, a signed copy of Slash's soon-to-be-released  album or packs of Ernie Ball strings.  The contest will run til April 30th.

Personally I would settle for the Ernie Ball custom guitar and wait for videos of the Slash guitar masterclass to be leaked on YouTube.

Gibson Announces Slash Signature 'Appetite' Les Paul for 2010

Gibson recently announced the soon to be released, limited run Slash signature 'Appetite' Les Paul.  My guess is that this will be the most talked about, reviewed, discussed and dissected axe for 2010.

But folks, 'Appetite' has got to be one of the strangest guitar model names ever.  Not to mention that its imminent release comes so closely after Jimmy Page's 'Number 2'.  Is it just me or are we seeing some kind of gastro-intestinal pattern developing here?  Too bad that the far more elegant sounding 'AFD' has already been taken by Marshall for their new line of Slash amps.

What is interesting is that Gibson, after taking several stabs at a Slash signature Les Paul over the years, has finally chosen to tackle head-on and attempt to replicate the guitar used on Appetite For Destruction.  Never mind that the singing beast used by Slash on Guns N' Roses debut wasn't made by Gibson but was actually a Les Paul copy built by one Kris Derrig.  

Gibson has issued the following specs for the 'Appetite' Les Paul:

•Traditional style weight relief Mahogany body with AAA Figured Maple top

•Unique neck profile made for Slash features rounded 60’s shape

•Rosewood fingerboard with trapezoid inlays

•Un-burst top with faded cherry back lacquer finish

•Slash signature smoking skull with top hat artwork for peghead face

•New Seymour Duncan Alnico II Slash Signature pickups

•Special capacitors selected by Slash for vintage tone

•Tone Pro hardware with historic machine heads, locking bridge and tailpiece

(Pic Source: www.gibson.com)

Marshall Announces Slash AFD100 Amp Project and Website

Marshall Amplification has come up with a unique marketing strategy for the new Slash signature Marshall AFD100 amplifier.  The website, http://www.afd100.com/ was created specially for the purpose of showing the new Slash signature model amp as it goes through its various development stages.

Based on the legendary JCM800 2203 head that Slash used on Appetite For Destruction -- which was actually a rental from SIR Studios, Hollywood -- Marshall intends to nail the mojo of this seeming Holy Grail of Marshall amplifiers.  The AFD100 is scheduled for release later this year.

Interestingly, this is not the first time Marshall has collaborated with Slash. An earlier amp, the Marshall Jubilee JCM 2555SL Slash Signature, was released in 1996.

Ghostbuilders of Slash's Les Paul Replicas

I just came across a tribute site to Kris Derrig, ghostbuilder of the famed Les Paul replica which Slash used extensively on Appetite For Destruction. 

There was a time in the mid to late-80's when Floyd Rose-equipped super-strats were the de facto standard. 

It was also a time when Gibson's production quality was, arguably, at its lowest, paving the way for several private guitar builders to start building high quality Les Paul replicas for a small but discerning clientele.  These Les Paul replicas were physically identical to the originals, Gibson logo and all, and flying under the radar just enough to not be noticed by Gibson's lawyers. 

The more famous of these builders were Kris Derrig and Max Baranet, and across the pond in the UK, Sid Poole.

While Gibson strayed from their original specifications and cut corners in quality, these ghostbuilders started adding their own little improvements in terms of neck pitch, headstock angle, the use of more exotic woods and better overall construction. 

The late Sid Poole began adding sonic chambers under the highly-figured tops of his Les Pauls, lending his guitars an airy, resonant quality -- a concept that Gibson themselves were to adopt later on.

Kris Derrig and Max Baranet became known for building the replicas that Slash was to acquire.  The huge success of Guns N' Roses 1987 debut Appetite For Destruction -- replete with the creamy, sustaining tones of the Derrig Les Paul replica -- led to a tremendous resurgence in the popularity of the Les Paul.  It's ironic that the very guitar that helped make Gibson popular again was not made by Gibson at all!

www.KrisDerrig.com appears to be still in its infancy.  And I'm not sure if its meant entirely to be a tribute site dedicated to Kris Derrig as there is also a fair amount of detail on the site about Max Baranet's work.  I'm bookmarking this one to see how it develops.

Billy Gibbons' Pearly Gates Les Paul - Gibson's Latest Re-Creation

Picture Source:GibsonGuitars

Gibson today announced their collaboration with Billy Gibbons in recreating 'Pearly Gates', his famed 1959 Les Paul Standard.

Each guitar features a figured maple-top, nitrocellulose finish, nickel-plated hardware, Kluson tuners, aluminum stop-bar tailpiece, Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates pickups, pigments which replicate the original's aged colors, '59 medium round profile neck and a long-tenon set-in neck.

Interestingly, Gibson first began mentioning the long-tenon joint only recently -- in their ad campaigns for Slash's signature model in 2008. It makes one wonder if this tone-enhancing feature -- there is better string-energy transference throughout the instrument with it -- was left out in Gibson's earlier attempts at the '59 reissue.

Gibson is producing 350 of these instruments of which 250 will receive Gibson's Vintage Original Spec (VOS) finish. Another 50 guitars will be aged with every ding and wear spot of the original Pearly Gates replicated exactly. To top off the collection, the remaining 50 will be similarly aged and signed and played by Billy himself.

As a side note, the price difference between the aged model, and the aged and signed model is around 10 grand -- making the value of Mr Gibbons signature the highest among the living rock legends. Hmmm..