When did you know it HAD to be Gibson?

[Cruznolfart]

I wasn't a picker at all. I was a drummer in one of a string of garage bands, still in high school. Our rhythm player had a (as I recall) '61 SG custom with a Bigsby. White with gold. I remember thinking it was about the most beautiful electric guitar I'd ever seen. I'll admit I knew mostly nothing about guitars at the time but that one caught my eye. But beyond its looks, the thing that grabbed me about that guitar was the way the neck felt, even in my inexperienced left hand. The difference between that neck and anything else I'd ever played was like the difference between a manual typewriter and an electric. (it occurs to me there are several members so young they probably don't know what a typewriter is, let alone a manual typewriter.) Anyway, point is you could just about lay your fingers on the strings and they'd play themselves, the action was so sweet. I never forgot that neck and the way it felt. That would have been about 1964 or so. I knew, if I ever played guitar, my ultimate goal was to own a Gibson.

 

The Songwriter Deluxe is everything I thought it would be. Well worth the 40+ year wait. And, although it's not yet in the budget, when it is, I have no doubt the CS 356 will be no less so.

 

When did you know it had to be a Gibson? And how long did you wait?

[Dynadude]

I always wanted a Gibson.

 

When I was younger, and had less disposable income, they were out of range. I settled for Peaveys and such.

 

Around 1985 I started playing guitar with my brother in law on weekends. He had a 1965 Melody Maker (SG 2 pup), and an older Firebird. I loved to play both, and soon after, I found my "62 LP/SG in a local pawn shop. I have demanded that all my guitars have great tone and playability since then. No going back to the cheapos for me.

 

I still can't afford all the Gibsons I want, but I have 2 more than most people, so I consider myself lucky.

[baxter]

I knew in the fetus.

[AXE®]

77

[RichCI]

I wanted one when I was a kid and was really into KISS because that is what Ace Frehely played. After I had been playing for a few years and was a teen (around 82 or 83), my father brought home a Les Paul Custom that a friend of his was selling to see if I wanted it. I thought it was too heavy so I turned it down. After that, I hadn't considered a Les Paul (or any other Gibson guitar) for a long time; I had a D'Agostino, went through a few Ibanezes and some others until I started working in a music store after I graduated from college (a BS in Communications basically gets you a job in retail).

 

Being surrounded by all those guitars on a daily basis at the music store, I got to play a LOT of different ones and decided I liked Les Pauls the best. I kept trying out different ones whenever I had a chance until I found the one that I still have today; I must have played over 50 Les Pauls until I found The One. It is absolutely the sweetest sounding and feeling Les Paul I have ever played and have never felt the urge to try to find another one outside of seeing flame tops now and then and thinking, "Ooooh... shiny!" but I can't see bothering to drop several thousand dollars on second Les Paul just for looks when there are other things I'd rather buy. If I was a touring musician and needed a backup, that'd be another story but it's just not my reality.

[ksdaddy]

One of my earliest memories is of my father playing the '63 Southern Jumbo he bought new. In 1984 I bought a '64 Southern Jumbo and many Gibsons have come and gone but the SJ will be with me forever.

[ChanMan]

I knew in the fetus.

 

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

 

ok... maybe not funny... could be true...

 

 

But to the question at hand...

 

 

When my wife said "Why don't you get that Les Paul you wanted?" Really' date=' it had been a "would be nice to own a Les Paul one day" kind of thing for me. I LOVED my Strat. I even thought about getting a nice Marshall stack instead, but something in me told me if I didn't get a Les Paul, I'd regret it. I even tried a BUNCH of other guitars, too, to see if maybe one of them was "the one". But... I don't want to get all Zen and Voo Doo on you, but... I just [i']knew[/i] it was gonna be a Les Paul.

 

And it was.

 

The One:

 

[greatwhitenorth]

Thats funny ChanMan. My story is similar to yours. The day I knew it had to be a Gibson Les Paul was the day my wife told me I was allowed to have one.

 

GWN

[Custom....]

I knew it had to be a les paul when i decided my guitar was a piece of ****. So i serched the internet endlessly for a good les paul and found my baby. I sold my other guitar and never looked back. And now i am the envy of all my freinds because the have cheap imitation guitars that are worth a couple hundred dollars. GIBSON.

[sepultura]

Earlier in life there wasn't much disposable income and I settled for a $100 strat knockoff. Hearing Santana and Jimmy Page sealed the decision - it had to be a Gibson. Started working, and I decided to go cheap - got an Epiphone LP. It had bad microphonic squeal, flaky wiring and sub-standard sound. Many years later I got a Gibson with P90's, that was the sweetest sounding guitar I ever played. Since then, it's been Gibson all the way.

[L5Larry]

Contrary to what many people have stated, when I was young, ALL my income was disposable. If I didn't smoke it up, I bought musical equipment with it. As a teenager living at my parents house, in '74 I bought a 1960 Stratocaster for $195 with the money from my lawn mowing and skate sharpening businesses (which I still Own $$$$$). A year later I had saved up enough money to buy the next guitar I HAD to own, a tobacco sunburst Gibson Les Paul Standard for $500 (which I still own). The old used Strat was the first "real" guitar I could afford and Clapton Played one, but Duane Allman played a LP so I had to have one of them too.

 

Of all the Gibson's I've owned, I've only ever sold two of them, a '64 Firebird III (got big bucks at the Dallas guitar show) that I quit playing, and a '75 335 that I played to death. The rest of them are shown in my avatar. I sold them because I didn't play then anymore, or they were used up (yes, a guitar can be "used-up"). Sure, I wish I had kept them both, but I am a guitar player, not a collector, so there comes a time when it's time for them to go.

 

I still continued to be a "Strat Man" for years. During the SRV craze of the early '90's I got so tired of everybody playing Strats and trying to sound like Stevie that I put my Strats away for ever. In '92 I had started a new band with another guitar player named Dan Chesler. He was playing a Franken-Strat, and I was playing a custom shop Strat built-to-order by John Page (the same guy that built David Gilmore's red one). When we listened back to the rehearsal tapes, we couldn't figure out who was playing what. It was then I decided The I was a GIBSON man, and I haven't looked back. I eventually built a custom Strat for Dan, just to make sure it didn't sound anything like a Gibson, and we are still playing together 15 years later.

 

So, I guess the answer to the question of when did you decide you had to have a Gibson, was when everybody started playing Fenders.

[RudyH]

I play a Variax, and tried the different models. The one I liked most was th "semi" model, which models the ES335. After several months of this I thought I should try the real thing. That was a very expensive whim because after I tried the real thing, I simply had to have one.

[grampa]

I first had a funky Silvertone in '62 but I knew even then that I was destined to have a Gibson. Got my first one in '63, a C-1 classical. Not the best classical but it worked for the next 20 or so years . Then I got my F-25 and sold the classical to pay for it. I've had that ever since.

[JimBetts]

I’m still a new player struggling to learn and only playing acoustic at this point. I am coming along but being new to guitar some of the chords are still challenging. I was at a friend’s house learning from someone who’s been playing for many years. We were working on something where I needed to use bar chords and I was having a lot of trouble baring clearly on my guitar. He knew I was frustrated so he handed me one of his guitars, it was a Gibson.

 

My guitar was a basic beginner model; tight, twangy, hollow and difficult to play. Why can’t someone make a beginners guitar that feels and responds well? Very frustrating!

 

Once I started playing his Gibson everything I was learning, and had previously learned, was so much easier to play. Seriously, the difference was night-and-day. It was at that moment that I knew I wanted a Gibson.

 

So, now I’m on a hunt for a 1939 AJ that I can afford. No, I’m not expecting to find one; I probably won’t ever be able to justify the cost if I ever come across one for sale. So, realistically, I’m on the hunt for a Gibson that feels, and sounds, like his AJ.

[thejay]

First time I saw a SG I had to have it... it was about 10yrs or so before I actually got a real Gibson though; of course my SG Standard. From then... its been all Gibbys for me!

[Taylor Player]

I had a friend in High School that had a 1960's Gibson acoustic. I had a Hondo that sucked big time. Whenever I could a borrowed his guitar to play and the difference was night and day. Mostly, I loved the neck feel. Move forward several years and many cheap guitars... I remember going to a local store 15 years ago looking for my first "good" acoustic solid wood instrument. Was certain it would be a Martin or Gibson but the sales guy put a Taylor in my hands after I couldn't find a Martin or Gibby with that neck feel from my buddies Gibson. The Taylor had that neck. The next 13 years I figured I was always going to be a Taylor player. Eventually I traded a Taylor 12 string I had bought a few years earlier for a Taylor T5. After a few months it was not growing on me so I offered it on Craigslist for trade or sale. I got a response from a guy with 3 acoustics he said I could choose from to trade. Two were Taylors and one was a 2005 Gibson Advanced Jumbo. I was sure I was going to choose either the Taylor 614 or the Taylor 710 and really hadn't given the AJ any consideration. When I got to his house to audition his guitars, I found neither Taylor really hit me or sounded as good as my almost 15 year old Taylor. I pulled out the Gibson AJ and on the first chord, I felt a thump in my chest that blew me away. I strummed, played some fingerstyle, tried some alternate tuning stuff and quickly made up my mind I was leaving with the Gibson. Not only did it blow both of his Taylors away but the neck felt lovely, just like my buddies old Gibson.... It was then I knew it was a keeper. Now I have both my Taylor and Gibson and between the two, because of how different they are, there is nothing I can't play. They really compliment each other like they were meant to be together.

 

 

[Homz]

My desert burst is prettier then yours (chanman).javascript:insertsmiley(':-({|= ','/images/emoticons/eusa_boohoo.gif')

[boo hoo!]

I think you take better pictures though.

[SRV-Zeppelin]

When I started getting adequate on acoustic guitar and was thinking about making the jump to electric (which I'm glad I did, I don't even touch my acoustic anymore...) a friend of mine kept babbling on about this "Gibson SG" that was supposed to be really good. So, I googled Gibson, looked at the SGs, and thought they were pretty cool. And then I clicked on "Les Pauls." And I knew.

 

I just knew.

[deepblue]

I knew it had to be a Les Paul when I opened the cover of "Kiss Alive"...Ace Frehley playing his Lester in front of those Marshall stacks!

 

From that moment, not only did I want to play guitar, but I wanted a Les Paul.

[TheJman]

When I hit college in 2003. I didn't really know what "real" music was until that time. I latched on to the Red Dirt music scene as well as the blues and southern rock. For some strange reason the Gibson was the only logical choice. Not only did it have the sound and look, but it had the history too.

[Californiaman]

First electric guitar I ever bought.

Gibson ES-175

[Blackie]

Once I played my buddies LP Standard that was it for Fender

[SGSpecialguy]

Gibsons always seemed to expensive for my tastes, I have owned many Epiphones in my day but never wanted to plunk down the change for a real Gibson, especially a les paul which always seemed well over $1000.00 unless you looked at a Studio,but the Les Pauls always seemed to heavy for my taste too,, I actually just bought my first Gibson about a month ago, a SG Special and I LOVE the guitar,, Ive been a Fender man for MANY years, back in the 80's it was cool to have the strat style with a single humbucker in the bridge, that was my style for many years as I liked the trem on those as well, I do love the SG though, its a very solid and versatile instrument and lite

[BobB]

When I was 17 and traded a Lyle 12 string 335 clone and a couple home made speaker cabinets for a '64 Cardinal Red Firebird V. I was hooked from that day on.

[heymisterk]

Honestly, never. Don't get me wrong: I love my SG Special, but as much as I love the Les Paul, I think they are outrageously priced for what you get. You can get a comparable Hamer, Heritage, etc. that is as good or better in quality than a Gibbie. My first "real" guitar - a '96 SG Standard - was pretty disappointing in a variety of ways, especially when I bought a Guild S-100 and compared the two.

 

I get the whole Gibson mystique and history, and still pine for an Advanced Jumbo. But I am a working man and musician with limited means, and if a Les Paul Standard costs $1,700 whereas a comparable guitar by a competitor is cheaper...well, I am just not that loyal.