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 Les Paul Studio Review

A review of the Epiphone Les Paul Studio from an About.com reader. The verdict? ‘Sounds wicked, feels wicked, looks wicked, easy on the wallet, what else do you want? Obviously I wouldnt say this is the BEST guitar out there but it certainly beats most others I’ve played and I’ve played a good range, from [...]

New Epiphone guitar coming soon

Epiphone’s brand new blog has an exciting post about a new Epiphone guitar which is coming soon. “We’ve been hard at work around here on an awesome new model that we are REALLY excited about!” There are some pics on the blog. Hard to say what it is from those. But it’s electric, it’s got black pick-up covers and what looks like a silver pickguard. From the look of the fretboard inlays, it could be a signature model or some sort of special edition.

In other news, only four days to go until the Slash Les Paul Gold Top hits the shops. Woohoo! Get your credit card ready.

Epiphone Les Paul ‘56 Goldtop

The
Epiphone Les Paul ‘56 Goldtopis a replica of the very first Gibson Les Paul guitars. Its Goldtop finish and P-90 pickups set it apart from the rest of the Epiphone Les Paul range.
The P-90 was originally introduced in 1946 and for a while, until the introduction of the humbucker in 1957, was Gibson’s standard pick-up for the Les Paul.

Epiphone Launches Slash Les Paul Goldtop

Epiphone has announced the introduction of its second Slash signature Les Paul, the Slash Les Paul Gold Top.

Like the Slash Les Paul Standard Plus Top, the Goldtop was designed and built in collaboration with the Guns n Roses and Velvet Revolver guitarist and is limited to only 2, 000 units worldwide.

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.’

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.

Epiphone Slash Les Paul Standard Plus Top

Cast your mind back to 1988 if you can remember that far back. Blues and rock guitarists alike were ignoring the great guitar in favour of Fender Strats and variations on the Strat body shape from the likes of Ibanez and Charvel. Think of the big name guitarists of the time Eddie Van Halen, Stevie Vai, Joe Satriani, SRV, Clapton, and there’s not an LP among them. Then along came the curly-haired, top-hatted, chain-smoking, goofy-grinned genius sporting a Les Paul and playing what would become some of the greatest riffs of the decade on Guns n Roses seminal album, Appetite for Destruction. The Les Paul was back.