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What made you buy a Gibson?


Mike from TX

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Probably been covered but Young, Iommi, Gibbons and Page. I wanted their guitars. Tone, looks, it had it all. It took a while but I was able to buy a Gibson guitar. Never gonna let them go. I see a lot of guitar players regret selling or trading their gear in the past. One mistake I will not do. So how bout you? What made you love these kick a** guitars?

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Is very easy for me to answer your question...

 

Gibson guitars are beautiful guitars with incredible designs and quality.

 

I love Gibson Acoustics and I'm just waiting the opportunity to buy a Gibson ES 335 Block Reissue... It would be the last on my collection.

 

My Gibson Hummingbird Pro

6c830665f1883ebe02554baff251d827.jpg

 

My Gibson Songwriter Deluxe Standard

2b073c97c0467657350081f4c5611bce.jpg

 

And... My Gibson Hummingbird Gold Custom Quilted (Only 24 were made)

6c4977c63003676f55705ce2f2a849d2.jpg

 

Regards from Mexico.

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What made me buy a Gibson (originally) was a local guitar player who played a Gibson ES345. And I loved his playing and fell in love with the guitar too and ended up getting one myself only to (foolishly) later sell it.

 

The local player's name was a guy called Terry Newman (he still plays but I haven't seen him in years)who played in an East London pub band called the Powerpack. The drummer Bobby Harrison was an original member of Procol Harem. Terry purchased ***Paul Kossoff's Les Paul guitar (one of them)and played this for a while instead of the ES345.

 

After I sold my ES345 I only had an old acoustic for a long time then got a black Gibson Les Paul Custom only to sell it again. Not quite sure why I wanted a Custom - just liked the look I think. And the same is true of my current only Gibson my 25 / 50 Anniversary - I just love the split block markers and flame top etc etc (but it also sounds good - "it" rather than me!).

 

Edit: Here is a link re Kossoff' Les Paul (it is no8 the dark 1958):

http://www.woodytone.com/2009/06/10/paul-kossoffs-all-right-now-tone/

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Probably been covered but Young, Iommi, Gibbons and Page. I wanted their guitars. Tone, looks, it had it all. It took a while but I was able to buy a Gibson guitar. Never gonna let them go. I see a lot of guitar players regret selling or trading their gear in the past. One mistake I will not do. So how bout you? What made you love these kick a** guitars?

Played an SG at my local shop and had to have one, that's all she wrote.

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For me it's all about performance. In particular, I bought all of my guitars and basses for their entity of tone, playability and looks. In this order I also tended to compromise if I had to. There are seven brands in my arsenal, and in total my Gibson instruments just exceed the absolute majority.

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I had ben a long-scale/Fender-scale player since I started but when I was a guitar teacher in the late 80s I was lent a fairly standard Norlin-era 3-piece top wine red LP custom which was one of the most incredible guitars I'd ever played up to that point. It did everything a Gibson ever should have done and playing it was like a road-to-Damascus epiphany for me.

But I still didn't get one until 2011 when I got my LP custom...which in many ways is exactly the same as the one I borrowed all those years ago, just incredible high quality and a complete dream come true. I also bought a new ES175 last year which is stunning, amazing, does it all....they are just tremendous high-quality instruments from one of the great American guitar companies; it's an American invention.

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After a 10 year hiatus (and no gear anymore), I decided to get back into playing. Originally I thought the Epiphone Les Paul Ultra-III would fit my needs best. However, after going through 5 guitars in a 4 month period (or was it 4 guitars over 5 months??), I'd had enough. I returned the ELP to Guitar Center, and went to a smaller dealer.

 

I was still looking at Epis, but fancied trying out some Gibsons as well. Played several that were way out of my price range (and not the greatest quality), and many, many Epis as well. BUT, my eyes, and fingers, kept being drawn to a beautiful honeyburst GLP. It just FELT right in my hands.

 

It was $100 more than the ELP I had returned, but even the wife said it looked and sounded better than most of what I had tried. So, I told 'em to pack 'er up, and I've been happy with her ever since. :)

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When I was young I had Fender guitars, (Jaguar and Jazz Bass), and for electric guitars, Fenders were and still are my 'go to' instrument,

 

(still have a Strat and a P-Bass)...but for acoustic guitars, it was always Gibsons.

 

I grew up with Gibsons around, so I guess it was natural.

 

I've told this story before, but I was working in a music store in about 1965. We got in a Hummingbird. I played it whenever there wasn't a customer in the store....LOVED it....

 

Told myself if I could ever afford a nice acoustic guitar, it'd have to be a Gibson, (hopefully a H-Bird). Bought a Jubilee when I got out of the Army, (about 1971 or 1972), then my wife bought me a

 

Dove in about 1980 or 1981, (I told her about the Hummingbird in the music store...she remembered it was a Gibson, but couldn't recall which 'bird' it was). Anyway, when I

 

could afford it, I bought a Doves In Flight and then a Hummingbird Customer Koa.

 

Still have all four of those guitars!

 

110730_0321.jpg

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Man, those are beautiful guitars! [thumbup] You didn't include the Jubilee in the pic though. Not a bird I know, but...

 

Yeah...I don't think I have a photo of just the 4 Gibsons.... here's the Jubilee... still LOVE that guitar! (Still love the chick too!)

 

BobampKevenPlayingJubilee_zpsec6d0701.jpg

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For me, it has to be the dollar store countertop Richlite fretboard on my Midtown Custom [biggrin]. I mean really...how many of you can eat a dozen hot wings while playing some hot blues runs without having the BBQ sauce slow you down? No problem for me [flapper] .

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Great question!!!

 

For me it's not cut & dry... I was a Fender fanatic back in the day and all I ever cared about was a Strat and chasing Strat tone. I wanted to sound like Clapton, SRV, Buddy Guy and a host of others. Probably Clapton 1st and foremost which is odd because he has the most un-Strat-like of all the Strat tones... I was far too ignorant about tone being in the hands back then...

 

Which is also kinda funny as once I saw the "Beano" album with him with the '60 Burst and that Marshall JTM45 I looked like I was his twin brother back in high school with the bob hair and the sideburns... My nickname in high school was "Sideburns." That should have been an epiphany for me but I still associated Slowhand with Strats at that time... That Beano tone should have been an epiphany for me too, but that would come later...

 

To shorten the story I'll simply add that my early career was bright and fun, and then relationships and trying to find the right woman for myself partially, along with a turn of hard luck, led me to my 20+ year hiatus that saw me sell my '89 Torino Red American Standard Strat and even go without a guitar for awhile, along with getting a Squire Blackie Strat and a cheap Peavey amp as a poor man's replacement which eventually simply went into the closet to be forgotten...

 

Clapton actually is the one responsible for turning me onto the Blues pioneers and originators. So in all my research and seeing these pioneer guys live, finding the Chicago Blues guys always had me itching for a Gibson ES-335 as far as tone went throughout my adult life that's what I seemed to admire the most. One day 20+ years after putting it away my daughter found the Squire Strat in my closet and the rest is history... She wanted into that and it became hers at approx 9-y/o. (We are actually in the middle of a FrankenStrat build with the body of that Strat today that should be completed this summer before she turns 18.) Her music/guitar sojourn brought it all back to me and had me purchase my first electric guitar for myself in 20+ years after purchasing her a better quality electric than that Squire Strat...

 

I was so put off by all the issues I always had in my youth with going out of tune and breaking strings constantly with a Fender fulcrum/knife edge bridge that saw me figure out for myself about bottoming the bridge out on the body so the whammy bar only allowed me to do dives and not up-swells, I just remembered how much BS I went thru with a Strat in the day that I wanted to go hard-tail and I finally bought a poor man's ES-335 style guitar and got my first very own hard-tail which was a Peavey JF1-EX in Transparent Red. I still have all the axes I've ever bought in my ressurected career in adult life...

 

I was so immediately in love with a hard-tail of a Tune-O-Matic stop-bar & ABR-1 bridge style configuration it was like a sign from God that I was meant to play Gibsons... So I started researching them and the obvious choice was a Les Paul... In my research long about age 42 I stumbled across Peter Green and the original Fleetwood Mac... The rest is history!!!

 

I became smitten with Danny Kirwan playing and especially his sublime vibrato. I had to have an R6...

 

I still can't afford one but my first ever Les Paul style guitar (not counting my first ever electric guitar actually that my mother bought me as a teenager which was a Japanese Memphis brand lawsuit era Les Paul copy which also helped me in a quest later in life to find a similar guitar, as I had traded it toward a Fender Bullet, in my youthful ignorance chasing that Fender thing) was a Vintage (brand) V100GT (GoldTop) which is an R6 copy with a 60's neck. It was an immediate epiphany moment and solidified that I was probably always a Les Paul guy as it fit me better than any other guitar ever did, period...

 

I eventually modified that Peavey JF1-EX with real Gibson open-bobbin 490 pickups and it sounds awesome! So I have my Chicago Blues axe and my stable of Les Pauls including some thoroughbreds; as later I've since purchased 2 real Gibson Les Pauls and I've never looked back...

 

I even researched and performed a Peter Green mod to the Wilkinson W90's in the V100GT to get that Holy Grail out-of-phase Peter Green tone... I've recently re-modified it back to stock with the purchase (this year) of a Vintage V100PGM Lemon Drop Les Paul style guitar that comes stock with the Wilkinson humbucker pickups magnetically out of phase for that Peter Green tone...

 

I also now have a Vintage VS6; SG style guitar that I've named "Johnny-Reb" for a cantankerous neck that just won't stay in compliance for adjustment with the slightest environmental variance including temp etc, that I've now relegated to my Allman Brothers (Duane & Dickie) style slide axe...

 


Short Answers;

 

Gibson Les Paul - Danny Kirwan, Peter Green, Eric Clapton (Bluesbreaker/Beano era) Page, Peter Frampton, etc. etc. etc.

 

Coupled with a maturation factor in life and finally finding out what guitar fits me best, and it took me into my 40's to figure it out...

 

Gibson ES - Otis Rush, BB King, Son Seals, Eddie Clearwater, Carl Weathersby, Elvin Bishop, Alvin Lee, Eric Clapton, (Cream/Crossroads) etc. etc. etc.

 

Gibson SG - Robbie Krieger, Dickey Betts & Duane Allman, Derek Trucks, Frank Marino, Angus Young, Eric Clapton (Cream w/The Fool) and many many more...

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Is very easy for me to answer your question...

 

Gibson guitars are beautiful guitars with incredible designs and quality.

 

I love Gibson Acoustics and I'm just waiting the opportunity to buy a Gibson ES 335 Block Reissue... It would be the last on my collection.

 

My Gibson Hummingbird Pro

6c830665f1883ebe02554baff251d827.jpg

 

My Gibson Songwriter Deluxe Standard

2b073c97c0467657350081f4c5611bce.jpg

 

And... My Gibson Hummingbird Gold Custom Quilted (Only 24 were made)

6c4977c63003676f55705ce2f2a849d2.jpg

 

Regards from Mexico.

 

 

beautiful guitars all 3 !!

 

i've seen the advertizements for the New Hummingbird Quilted.....oh if only I had the $ !!

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I first remember being aware of the Gibson brand from reading the notes on the back of my KISS album. There was a comment that said something like "KISS uses Gibson guitars and Pearl drums because they only want the best." That was enough to convince me I needed a Gibson. :rolleyes:

 

It just took me 30 or so years to get around to buying one.

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