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What made you like Gibson guitars?


Seb1968

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Forgive me if this topic has been raised before, but what made you like or prefer Gibson guitars?

 

With me, although I initially liked Fender Strats, over time when I saw more and more live rock music, I began to fall in love Gibson especially the Les Paul, mainly because of that meaty, ballsy sound Gibsons have, especially when they are plugged into a big stack of Marshalls, and of course the classic look of the Les Paul. Of course, the sound of the guitar ultimately comes down to the skill of the player, and I have heard some fantastic Fender Stats and Telecasters, but there is something unique about that Gibson sound, it's raw, meaty and powerful and just screams rock. I want to make it clear that I am not hating on other makes of guiatrs, and there other great guitars like Gretsch, Fender etc, but with Gibson they have that ultimate rock sound.

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I was in high school and about to buy a car from the guy I was working for in 1974, (cook/cleaner/bottle washer at a coffee shop).

 

my only electric was a 72 strat..

 

had already been approved for a loan of $1,800 to buy the car (a GMC Gremlin, which would have been horrible mistake, they were just lousy automobiles)

 

went a music shop in Worcester Mass with a friend who had a keyboard on lay-a-way to make a payment, and saw this gorgeous a gold top deluxe hanging on the wall behind the register.

 

Being a huge Betts / Duanne Alman & Jimmy Page fan, who wouldn't want something that had those sounds! asked if I could try it out, and that was all it took. Put a deposit on it to hold it.. went straight to the bank and cancelled the loan, and instead got a personal loan for the guitar which was priced at $475 Sure, my boss was pissed but he understood my passion and soon had sold it to someone else (a regular costumer who wanted it all along, and had nothing but trouble with it.. DOH!! maybe HE should have bought a guitar instead too)

 

Anyways, regarding me and gibson, that's how it all started... should have never traded that gold top..

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"Once Upon A Time, In A Galaxy Far, Far, Away..."

When I joined my first "band" (age 13), I didn't have an "electric" guitar, but our drummer's older brother,

had stopped playing, and loaned me his Gibson "Les Paul" SG Junior, and his Gibson GA-20 Amp. I played that,

until my Mom bought me a Fender Strat (which I still have), and a few months later, a Fender Bandmaster amp,

brand new, in early 1964. I later bought the SG from our drummer's brother for like 50 bucks, or some such.

Then sold it (foolishly), about a year later, to fund another SG (Standard). So, Gibson, and especially SG's,

figure prominently, toward my "first love," of guitars. [thumbup][biggrin]

 

 

CB

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I was in high school and about to buy a car from the guy I was working for in 1974, (cook/cleaner/bottle washer at a coffee shop).

 

my only electric was a 72 strat..

 

had already been approved for a loan of $1,800 to buy the car (a GMC Gremlin, which would have been horrible mistake, they were just lousy automobiles)

 

went a music shop in Worcester Mass with a friend who had a keyboard on lay-a-way to make a payment, and saw this gorgeous a gold top deluxe hanging on the wall behind the register.

 

Being a huge Betts / Duanne Alman & Jimmy Page fan, who wouldn't want something that had those sounds! asked if I could try it out, and that was all it took. Put a deposit on it to hold it.. went straight to the bank and cancelled the loan, and instead got a personal loan for the guitar which was priced at $475 Sure, my boss was pissed but he understood my passion and soon had sold it to someone else (a regular costumer who wanted it all along, and had nothing but trouble with it.. DOH!! maybe HE should have bought a guitar instead too)

 

Anyways, regarding me and gibson, that's how it all started... should have never traded that gold top..

 

I bought a new SG - think Dicky Betts - from what was probably the same shop in 1974 I think. I was a freshman at Worcester Tech. The shop was on the west side of Main Street downtown somewhere near the courthouse, best I can remember. I think it was like $325.00 or so. Good times blasting the tunes out the of the dorm window, seeing how many blocks away my buddies could hear me. [thumbup]

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Footage of Andres Segovia Paul Kossoff playing live at the Isle of Wight festival, 1970. It must have been screened on UK TV around 1972. Pure magic.Talk about the hairs on the back of your neck standing up!....

His playing still has that effect on me to this day. Sadly missed.

 

paul-kossoff1.jpg

 

...and a local guitarist called Johnny Cunningham who had a mid '70s LP Custom but by then I had started to play stuff by post-Cream Clapton; Rory Gallagher; JJ Cale and, a few years later, Mark Knopfler so my first 'proper' guitar, bought in 1980, was an old (even back then!) Strat. I did, in fact, buy a Norlin-era LP Custom in around '82 but it was a dog and it really put me off Gibsons for years...

 

Eventually I came back into the fold. And I'm happy I did.

 

msp_smile.gif

 

Pip.

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Like most here I think it started with rock guitar players of my era, Page, Walsh etc..when I decided I wanted to take up guitar I had to have an LP first because of them and the looks. As far as the acoustic side when I first played a couple in the shops they did not feel right to me and went to other brands. Then one day I pulled one down from the wall in a shop and it felt great and sounded great and that was the start..now none of the others measure up with the exception of some of the Martins.

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Great point [thumbup]

 

I'm not sure it's being taken the right way though.

 

Fenders made me like Gibsons because each was what about half of my favorites that made me play used. I figured if Teles and Strats were this good Gibsons had to be pretty good too. Wouldn't be without both!

 

rct

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I bought a new SG - think Dicky Betts - from what was probably the same shop in 1974 I think. I was a freshman at Worcester Tech. The shop was on the west side of Main Street downtown somewhere near the courthouse, best I can remember. I think it was like $325.00 or so. Good times blasting the tunes out the of the dorm window, seeing how many blocks away my buddies could hear me. [thumbup]

 

 

Small world aye? and that would be Union Music...

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I'm not sure it's being taken the right way though.

 

Fenders made me like Gibsons because each was what about half of my favorites that made me play used. I figured if Teles and Strats were this good Gibsons had to be pretty good too. Wouldn't be without both!

 

rct

 

 

I too have a Tele and a Strat so I do not hate them, but I do not won a acoustic.

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All of the above. But the main thing for me is the way they feel. The more I've played, the more I've realized the quality of the product. Yeah, I've played several that should have never gotten out of the factory. But when you find one that is made the way it was supposed to be, there is no finer instrument. I've only owned two. I got rid of my LP because as good as it felt, it just wasn't me. I will never get rid of my 335, even though it is not my go-to guitar.

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The more I've played, the more I've realized the quality of the product......when you find one that is made the way it was supposed to be, there is no finer instrument....

This X infinity(*).

 

I wish I had written that. Congrats, ZZ!

 

eusa_clap.gif

 

Pip.

 

* Yes; I know that's still infinity. Thank you.

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The picture of a big L5 or Super 400 archtop in John W. Duarte's Young Person's Way to the Guitar. The gold block lettering, black lacquer, shape and solidity of the headstock on my guitar teacher's 1940s Gibson flat-top after years of just playing classical. The black lacquer headstock and honey-burst body of the Hohner Les Paul copy on the wall of Downtide West's music shop in Sheringham. Realizing that electric guitars are made of wood and can have proper round curves and F-holes. Marty McFly. Chuck Berry. B.B. King. Slash's tone on Sweet Child O'Mine.

 

But maybe it's deeper. Quote of the day from Proust: 'And so it is with our own past. It is a labour in vain to attempt to recapture it: all the efforts of our intellect must prove futile. The past is hidden somewhere outside the realm, beyond the reach of intellect, in some material object (in the sensation which that material object will give us) which we do not suspect. And as for that object, it depends on chance whether we come upon it or not before we ourselves must die.'

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