Category — Gibson Guitars

Now, you might be asking me why I am posting about the Virgin Music Festival in Toronto (yes, I know it’s In Canada) when I never mentioned the one in Baltimore. You might also be wondering why I would bother calling it a music festival when I know full well that Jack Johnson isn’t on the lineup. But then you would have just answered your own question. At just a little more than halfway through the fest, we’ve already got an array YouTube videos to sift through. Check out footage of Foo Fighters playing Learn To Fly . And don’t forget the customary drunk guy who climbs a tree and gets kicked out . With an arguably better lineup than the Baltimore fest, I wouldn’t mind traveling the extra mileage to Toronto. All I can say is, maybe next year you’ll be seeing footage of me up in that tree.

Here are some more videos from the fest to check out:

• Bloc Party - Helicopter
• Against Me! - Trash Unreal
• Spiritualized
• MGMT - Time To Pretend

It was announced earlier this week that Les Paul, the 93-year-old guitarist and inventor, will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this November. Funny considering his main area of expertise has never been rock and roll until recently. However, his guitars and innovative effects have utilized by many rockers such as Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and James Hetfield just to name a few. Jeff Beck was inspired by Les Paul enough to induct him into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 for the early influences category.

Rock Hall President and CEO Terry Stewart said Paul hopes to attend the ceremony in November. He speaks of Les Paul with great admiration: “It’s not just his innovation and his musical playing, but sort of the residual effects of that guitar, it’s become the beginning point for so many people in music, particularly rock music.”

Got a cool guitar riff? Enter to win a signed copy of the Gibson Les Paul Guitar here.

Hoping to pick up on the absence of Guitar Center’s and convenience, Best Buy has announced that they will begin carrying musical instruments. The store won’t change into solely a musical instrument retailer, but they will allocate a certain amount of space per store to instruments/musical equipment.

“The nation’s largest consumer electronics retailer will announce Tuesday that it plans to open as many as 85 of the music centers inside its stores by the end of the year and could add even more locations in the future, executives told The Associated Press.”

“Each site will use about 2,500 square feet of retail space and include roughly 1,000 different products with well-known brand names such as Fender, Gibson, Drum Workshop and Roland.”

“When the rollout is complete, Best Buy — already considered by many investors to be a global powerhouse in the electronics retailing world — will become the second-largest instrument seller in the country based on locations.”

While I am usually weary of huge corporations in general, I really think this is a postive thing. A lot of kids in smaller towns or areas don’t have any local music stores or even Guitar Center and I can see a lot of kids getting their first guitar from a place like Best Buy.

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Stereogum is having  a giveaway through their monthly newsletter and this time its a guitar. The guitar in question is an Epiphone SG, not the nicest guitar ever but very nice for free!

“You can learn more about it here. Speaking of knowledge gathering, maybe you can learn a Scars On Broadway song or two. The band’s the new collaboration between System Of A Down’s Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan. They mention Iggy Pop, David Bowie, and Neil Young as influences on the new material, opened for Metallica last month and have a debut out 7/29 on Interscope. Take a listen. Practice. The winner gets the guitar and a copy of Scars On Broadway’s self-titled debut.”

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Now I don’t mean to offend anyone who liked Audioslave (I actually liked their first record) or Chris Cornell’s solo material, but he’s gone too far…

“His new track (produced by Timbaland) “Long Gone” is a love song, which is OK because love is nice. It’s got flange-ing “My Love”-y production and a general “Apologize” vibe, which is OK because those were hits or something. But when you add that voice to the canned, cookie-cutter radio-ready mix, the voice that was once “Outshined,” and we’re down on our knees today: the grace fall is complete. You can stop now. Let’s please start with the forgetting. Forget redemption, I’ll go with repression.”

My opinion on all of this is that I saw it coming. It’s just painful to see all these crappy 80’s and 90’s bands reuniting and not see one of the best 90’s band’s (Soundgarden) not reunite. How could a reunited Soundgarden concert/tour not be successful?

Chris Cornell: Please, please call up Kim Thayil, tell him to bring his Gibson SG’s over. Then call up Ben Shepard and get Matt Cameron to take a break from Pearl Jam, strap on your Les Paul, get drunk and start kicking ass again! Please! Everyone wants you to do it.

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Gibson.com has a great, brand-new interview with Buzz Osborne of The Melvins up at their site. In this interview Buzz Osborne discusses, among other things, the recording of The Melvins new album “Nude With Boots” and his thoughts on music in general.

One thing I thought was very interesting about the interview is that he mentions using Fender guitars in places on the new album. Buzz Osborne is usually associated with Les Paul Customs, as many Melvins fans know. Excerpt…

“I used my ’69 Les Paul on the whole album supported by a Silvertone, Telecaster, and an early ’90s reissue Mustang.”

You can check out the full interview here.

On my vacation, I went record shopping and picked up a few things. One of which was a vinyl version of Black Sabbath’s classic “Vol 4″ album. This album is already one of my favorites as it features awesome riffs and great all-around playing by the whole band. It is arguably, (along with Sabbath’s Master of Reality), THE landmark album for the “stoner rock” genre.

For me though, the star of the band has always been guitarist Tony Iommi. Most people know by now that Iommi basically created the heavy metal riff. All the members are great, but it’s Iommi’s overall vibe that carries the songs. I’d definitely love to have Iommi’s tone, and on a limited budget, as I know he uses something crazy, like 6 Laney amplifiers on-stage.

Regardless, his sound is pretty stripped down aside from the loudness of his live setup. The most impressive sounds he gets on this record are the pure Gibson SG with overdrive and wah run through a tube head, just straightforward. I am sure his setup has changed drastically over the years but this record really reminds you how awesome he is. It also has the cleanest sound of the classic first 4 Black Sabbath albums. If you haven’t heard it, pick it up at some point.

His setup at guitargeek.com (not sure of the accuracy of it)…

Tony Iommi’s Live Setup Circa 1971

Gibson has announced its Guitar of the Month, a Les Paul 295 Gold Top guitar model. For a while Gibson guitars custom shop has been holding a “guitar of the month” promotion where each model is limited to 1,000 units worldwide and a new model launches on the first Friday of every month.

This particular Les Paul is unique in a few ways. It has both old and modern features. The body is like a normal Les Paul, yet features additions such as a cutaway on the body more reminiscent of  a Gibson ES-175.  The guitar also features a hand-painted gold flower pick-guard and a chrome bigsby tail-piece.

If you are wanting to get one, be prepared to spend a pretty penny on it, as the retail price is $4,399.

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Today would’ve been Kurt Cobain’s 41st birthday…hard to believe. I remember being in 5th grade, in 1992 and hearing/seeing Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video on MTV and being totally effected by it. I got the Nevermind album shortly thereafter, and still love it to this day. I think a lot of people remember when they first heard that song, as well as when they heard about his death as well. Kurt Cobain and Nirvana was what basically got me wanting to play guitar in general so I wanted to post here about it.

Also, I haven’t had a chance yet to go back and play that 70’s Stratocaster at Guitar Centers Vintage room, but I will definitely get around to it sometime this week. I also want to play some vintage Jaguars and Les Pauls just for fun. I can’t afford all of them so I might as well…

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