Slash Interview

Excellent interview with Slash in Modern Guitar magazine in which he talks about working with Gibson on the Gibson and Epiphone signature Les Pauls.
‘Basically the Goldtop is a reissue of the 1991 Goldtop I got from them back then. And I used it for the whole two and a half year Guns N Roses “Use [...]

Epiphone ES-175

The Epiphone ES-175 is a semi-hollow body electric guitar based on Gibson’s hugely popular ES-175. The Gibson ES-175 was originally launched in 1949 and became one of the most famous jazz guitars in history. It was the first Gibson to feature a Florentine cutaway, and was so named because it originally cost $175. Sixty years later is still in production. It has been played by notable players such as Elvis’ guitarist Scotty Moore, and Steve Howe of Yes.

Epiphone Dot

The Epiphone Dot is based on Gibson’s ES-335 hollow-bodied electric guitars which were first produced way back in 1958.

The Epiphone Dot has a laminated maple body, glued-on maple neck, a dot inlaid rosewood fretboard. The Alnico Humbuckers are controlled by volume and tone pots whose bonnet knobs are period accurate. There’s chrome hardware and a Tune-o-matic bridge with stopbar tailpiece. The f-holes and shaped pickguard complete the look.

Two great Slash Les Paul videos

It’s been a while since I posted any videos, so I thought I’d make up for it by posting two great videos today.

They both feature Slash. In the first — which is an Epiphone promo, so is a little ‘in your face’ — he talks about the Epiphone version of the Slash signature Les Paul and how he suggested it to Gibson as a way of making it available to those of us who can’t afford to drop $4,000 on one guitar.

Video: Learn to play the Slash way

Whatever your view of the man or his music, there’s no escaping that Slash is an icon. One of the most recognisable guitar players on the planet, both physically and in his playing, Slash has built an army of fans and would be imitators over the last 20 or so years.

His influence is so great, he’s the cover star for one of the biggest vide games of teh decade, Guitar Hero III, and has had a Slash signature model guitar made in his honour by both Gibson and Epiphone — and very fine guitars they are too.

The anatomy of an Epiphone guitar. Part 1: The Humbucker

The humbucker, or humbucking pick-up, is a feature of most of the electric guitars made by Epiphone and its parent company, Gibson.

The humbucker is a two-coil pick-up with coils of reversed polarity, reverse wound, and connected in series. The name is derived from the fact the design of the pick-up significantly reduces the noise and interference associated with single coil pick-ups used in other guitars, such as Fender’s Stratocaster. In other words, they ‘buck the hum.’

Epiphone Riviera

The Epiphone Riviera is a hollow-body electric guitar, based closely on the Gibson E335 and originally manufactured between 1962 and 1969. It has a maple side and top, one-piece set mahogany neck, and a rosewood fretboard with trapezoidal pearl inlays.

10 ways to make sure you don’t get scammed buying a guitar on eBay

Following the post last week on the dangers of buying an Epiphone guitar on eBay, I thought it would be a good idea to post a few tips on how to avoid being scammed. There are two key factors involved in fraudulently selling fake guitars on eBay - the copies are often very good (at least until you play the guitar) and the prices are very, very attractive.

The combination of those two elements sucks lots of people into bidding on and buying these guitars only to regret it later. Don’t be fooled, just because these Epiphone guitars look like the real thing doesn’t mean they sound or play like a real Epiphone. They don’t. They’re poorly and cheaply made, the wiring is usually dreadful and the finish slapdash.

Does it matter that Epiphone is owned by Gibson?

Scott is concerned that guitar manufacturers are becoming conglomerates and that this is harming the guitars they make. I don’t think it matters one jot. The guitars made by a company, any company, should be judged on their own merit, not on which factory they were built in and where that factory is located.
Besides, Gibson [...]

Epiphone SG G-400

The SG is one of the iconic guitar shapes. Originally built by Gibson to replace the Les Paul, which was selling poorly in the late 1950s, it has established itself as a classic. Epiphone makes a whole range of SGs and here we look at the G-400 models.