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  • Does Buying a Gibson Guitar Make Me a Hypocrite?

    Does Buying a Gibson Guitar Make Me a Hypocrite?

    I have espoused the virtues of $500 guitars for years.

    I’ve talked about how incredibly good they’ve gotten. How you could play guitar your whole life with one and not be missing out. How even pro musicians often leave their pricey guitars at home, preferring to tour with Mexican Strats.

    And then, in July of 2024, I went and bought this:

    Oh my.

    A Gibson SG Special with a list price of $1,599.

    Now it’s definitely not the top of the line when it comes to expensive guitars; there are, in fact, few cheaper Gibsons in their current lineup. But it is four times the price of the Epiphone I had been playing up to that point.

    Looking back over the last several decades of purchasing, playing, and promoting inexpensive guitars, I had to wrestle with one question: Does upgrading to a Gibson make me a hypocrite?

    What I learned from decades of owning inexpensive guitars

    The truth is, if it weren’t for my decades of buying and playing inexpensive guitars, I would never have even considered buying a Gibson.

    Over my life, I have owned close to two dozen guitars (or maybe more—I’ve kind of lost count). All through that time, without even realizing it, I’ve been trying out all manner of styles, options, and configurations:

    • Different scale lengths
    • Different fretboard radii
    • Different pickups and electronics
    • Different body shapes

    In doing so, I have naturally gravitated toward certain guitars and away from others.

    If it weren’t for my decades of buying and playing inexpensive guitars, I would never have even considered buying a Gibson.

    For instance, I started out playing Stratocaster-type guitars with Fender specs. But as I progressed, I found that I enjoyed Epiphones with their shorter scale length and flatter fretboards more.

    I also owned guitars with every kind of pickup style and configuration. I eventually realized that, to my ears, a good set of P90s sounded “right” to me in a way that humbuckers and single coils couldn’t quite match.

    Additionally, I discovered that I don’t like heavy guitars. For example, I had a perfect-quality Godin Progression (a Strat-style guitar from one of my favorite brands) that I just didn’t bond with — in part because it weighed a ton.

    And when I purchased my Epiphone SG a few years ago, I connected with the body shape and the feeling of the pseudo-extended neck. (The scale length is still 24.75”, like all Gibson-style guitars, but the bridge is much more forward on SGs, shifting the neck higher up. The first time you play one, you’re constantly two frets off!)

    All that hands-on knowledge was made possible by spending decades sticking to playing less expensive guitars.

    Speaking of necks, it dawned on me one day that the guitars in my collection that had “mojo” all shared something in common: their neck profiles. My best-playing instruments, in other words, had D-shaped necks and a 12” fretboard radius.

    If you’re keeping score at home, that means over the course of the last 20+ years, I had unintentionally found my ideal guitar specs:

    • 24.75” scale length
    • A D-shaped neck and 12” radius
    • Equipped with P90s
    • SG body style
    • Lightweight

    All that hands-on knowledge was made possible by spending decades sticking to playing less expensive guitars.

    Had I spent my money on 3–4 expensive guitars instead of two dozen inexpensive ones, my ability to find what works best for me would have been severely compromised. I would have ended up with several nice American-made Stratocasters because that’s what 16-year-old me wanted, all the while never knowing that SGs were the better fit.

    Making the jump from Epiphone to Gibson

    Speaking of SGs, the turning point in this story was when I acquired my Epiphone SG PRO. It quickly became my number one guitar, replacing my PRS SE Custom 24. The more I played it, the more I loved everything about it. The only downside? It had humbuckers instead of P90s.

    Regardless, as I continued to play it, I started to wonder, if this Epiphone is so good, how much better would a Gibson actually be?

    The question started to gnaw at me, and I realized…if I sold off a few guitars and some gear I wasn’t using, a Gibson would, for the first time in my life, be within my means.

    I started to wonder, if this Epiphone is so good, how much better would a Gibson actually be?

    And then I found it: The Gibson SG Special. Seven pounds of P90-growl-inducing, devil-horned rock and roll.

    It literally had every spec on my wishlist. It was beautiful. It even came with a hard-shell case. And when my Sweetwater rep did me a solid and knocked a couple hundred dollars off the price (I’d had some issues with a gift card), it was a no-brainer.

    Why a Gibson was the right choice for me

    Now that I’ve owned it for around eight months or so, I can tell you that quality-wise, my Gibson is not four times better than my Epiphone — but it is better.

    The Gibson has better wood selection, better electronics, and better hardware. It has a thinner, sleeker body. The nitro finish looks nicer than the typical polyurethane finish on cheaper guitars. The headstock is even more proportional (to my eye) than an Epiphone.

    I could go on, but the point is this: everything is a step up, making the cumulative quality difference noticeable.

    And I’ll admit, it is more fun — and inspiring — to play, even if only because of the “Gibson” screenprint on the headstock.

    Cheaper gear has made me a more informed consumer.

    Does that make it worth the extra $1,200 over the almost identical Epiphone version? I suppose that depends on whose wallet is under assault.

    For me, it has been 100 percent worth the money.

    Having owned and played so many low- and mid-tier instruments for so long, I can discern and appreciate the small improvements in quality and sound. To put it bluntly, cheaper gear has made me a more informed consumer. When I’m guitar shopping, I know what I’m looking at. I notice the details, and I know which ones matter. I understand the value proposition. And most importantly, I know what I want.

    As much as I still love my affordable guitars and amps, they’ve always lacked that certain something.

    And what I want is a certain feel and a certain sound.

    As much as I still love my affordable guitars and amps, they’ve always lacked that certain something. They could take me 95 percent of the way there.

    But now, with my Marshall amp and Gibson guitar, I’m at the mountaintop. It just feels like I’m playing a professional setup. And I can finally start dialing in what I would consider “good” tones — the kind of tones you’d hear from an actual musician on an actual record.

    It is incredibly hard to put a price on such things.

    I might be foolish, and that’s okay

    Expensive guitars are still expensive. Low- and mid-tier guitars still offer amazing levels of quality for a fraction of the price. You’d have to be a fool to buy a $1,600 Gibson when a $499 Epiphone exists.

    But sometimes you just have to be a fool. If that makes me a hypocrite, too, so be it.

    At least I’m a happy one.

  • A Quick History of Gibson’s Flying V Guitar

    A Quick History of Gibson’s Flying V Guitar

    It was 1957, and Gibson had a problem.

    Specifically, they were losing ground to Fender, whose new-fangled Stratocasters were taking the guitar world by storm. Fender’s flagship guitar sported a space-aged name and a futuristic and innovative body style. At the height of the Space Race, this resonated with the public.

    By contrast, the Les Paul seemed like a throwback to the older Spanish and archtop guitars from the previous half-century. While now we view Les Pauls as iconic, Gibson felt that consumers saw the design as outdated at the time.

    The guitar of the future…except it wasn’t (yet)

    Gibson CEO Ted McCarty gathered together a team of designers to create their own line of futuristic guitars to level the playing field. The team designed and prototyped three different products: the Moderne (which never made it into production), the Explorer, and the Flying V.

    The Flying V body style was the brainchild of Seth Lover, who was also responsible for designing Gibson’s first humbucking pickups. He sketched out several designs that were a departure from previous guitars. When he showed McCarty, the Gibson head laughed and said it “looked like a flying V.” The name stuck, and after prototyping, the guitar went into production in 1958.

    Albert King playing an original Gibson Flying V guitar. (Photo by Grant Gouldon, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

    Initial sales, unfortunately, were abysmal. Fewer than 100 of the first production run of Flying Vs were shipped and sold. Dealers mostly thought the design was too far-fetched, and those who did order them often only purchased a single instrument to display in their window as a curiosity to draw in customers.

    As a result of the lack of demand, production was halted shortly afterward.

    Lonnie Mack, Albert King, and the British Invasion

    Not all was lost, however. Of that first run, several ended up in the hands of professional musicians. Blues legend Lonnie Mack owned an original Flying V that he used as his main guitar for decades. Albert King also played on one. As a lefty, he played a right-handed guitar “upside down,” and the symmetrical body style made it easy for him to play.

    Dave Davies from the band The Kinks also purchased an original Flying V. He found the guitar languishing in storage in a shop. The owner pulled it out of its dusty case, and Davies bought it on the spot for $60.

    Dave Davies of The Kinks with an original Flying V. (Photo by Photograph by W. Veenman, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/nl/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons)

    In the mid-1960s, The Kinks would make it big as part of the British Invasion, and Davies’ Flying V brought about a renewed interest in the unique guitar.

    Gibson attempted to capitalize on the free advertising by reissuing the guitar in 1966. But the new version fared about as well as the original — only 111 guitars shipped the first year, and it went downhill from there. The second-generation Flying V was discontinued in 1970.

    Third time’s the charm

    For Gibson, however, the third time was the charm. They released a Flying V yet again in 1975, and this time it stuck. It has been a staple in the company’s electric lineup ever since.

    The list of famous guitarists who have played a Flying V is long and illustrious. Metallica’s James Hetfield bought one for $200 while still a teenager as used it as his main guitar during the band’s ascension to stardom. As mentioned, Lonnie Mack and Albert King both owned them. Other guitar greats with a connection to the Flying V include Tom Petty, Billy Gibbons, and even Jimi Hendrix, who ordered a custom left-handed version in 1969.

    The popularity of the Flying V is evident in that not only does Gibson still produce them some 65 years after they were first introduced, but many other companies have Flying V-inspired guitars too. It’s a common occurrence to see this kind of guitar being used in many genres, from blues to metal.

    While it may have started off life as a not-so-successful attempt to knock the Stratocaster off its throne, the Flying V has endured and made its own unique impact on the history of guitar and rock music.

  • From Rivals to Bedfellows: the Story Behind Epiphone

    From Rivals to Bedfellows: the Story Behind Epiphone

    Every guitarist knows Epiphone, Gibson’s “little brother” brand for beginners and people who can’t afford The Real Thing(TM).

    Or at least that is a common view of the brand. In actuality, Epiphone does make more budget-friendly guitars, but they also make high-quality, unique instrument models, and some guitarists even prefer the feel of Epiphone over their Gibson counterparts.

    A 1945 Epiphone archtop guitar.

    One thing remains true, however: Gibson and its budget brand Epiphone share a lot of commonalities. Epiphone has its own versions of Les Pauls, SGs, and 335s. The brands have worked together to create a guitar empire and have quality instruments at every conceivable price point.

    But things weren’t always so cozy between Epiphone and its parent company Gibson. In fact, for the first half of the 20th century, they were fierce rivals.

    Anastasios Stathopoulos, Greek Instrument Maker

    Epiphone can trace its roots back almost 150 years to the town of Smyrna, Turkey. It was there in 1873 that the Greek immigrant Anastasios Stathopoulos first set up shop, making and selling lutes, violins, and traditional Greek instruments.

    Stathopoulos continued to grow his instrument shop until the turn of the century. By that time, the government was imposing high taxes on Greeks in Turkey, which made life difficult for Anastasios and his family.

    In 1903, he decided to move his family to America, and soon after moving to New York City, he reopened his shop in his new country. In addition to lutes and violins, they began to make mandolins, which were in high demand at the time.

    Epi Takes the Helm

    Unfortunately, after 12 years in New York, Anastasios died, leaving the business in the hands of his 22-year-old son Epimanondas, or Epi for short. Thankfully, Epi was a natural businessman and knew his father’s business well.

    Soon after Epi took control, the company began to focus itself on manufacturing banjos, which were starting to grow in popularity in the 1920s. By 1928, the business had gone all-in, renaming itself the “Epiphone Banjo Company” and later just “Epiphone.” Epi had taken his own name and added the Greek word for sound, phōnē, to create the new moniker.

    In the same year, the company started to build and sell archtop guitars. This was the beginning of their rivalry with the biggest guitar company at the time: Gibson.

    Rivalry with Gibson

    Initially Epiphone’s guitars did not stack up well against the competition. The first Epiphones were too quiet, which in a world without amplifiers was a huge deal. By the early ’30s, however, the company was producing comparable guitars to Gibson. Throughout the decade that followed, both brands competed fiercely with one another for market dominance.

    In 1943, Epi died of leukemia, leaving his younger brothers Orphie and Frixo to run the company. The two brothers continued to grow the company until the early ’50s, when family and financial problems caused significant issues with the company. They attempted to move the company to Philadelphia during this time, but many of their employees wouldn’t go. The resulting lack of trained staff in the new location caused quality issues and damaged the brand.

    Merger with Gibson

    In 1957, former rival Gibson offered to buy the struggling Epiphone. The deal was actually suggested by none other than Les Paul. Gibson, of course, by that time was producing Les Paul guitars, but the famous musician had first built his “log” electric guitar in the Epiphone factory.

    Les suggested to Gibson CEO Ted McCarty that he should offer to buy Epiphone. McCarty decided to reach out to Orphie, who sold the entire company to Gibson for $20,000 — about $200,000 today.

    Gibson brought the Epiphone brand in house and over time developed it into the massive budget brand that it is today, and it’s safe to say they made their money back! Yet in 2022, even knowing the backstory, it’s hard to imagine that these brands that share so much started out vying against one another.

  • A Quick History of the Gibson ES-335

    A Quick History of the Gibson ES-335

    In the 1950s, guitarists had a problem.

    With the advent of amplification and the first electric guitars, the instruments were for the first time able to play above the rest of a band in a live performance. This changed the way guitars were played: the instruments could now be featured front and center. The lead guitar was born.

    Wanted: the best of both worlds

    Solid-body guitars like the new Fender Stratocaster or Gibson’s Les Paul were well suited for playing lead guitar. The fact that their bodies were solid wood allowed them to be turned up loud without on-stage issues cropping up. The tone, however, was brighter with more treble than other guitars of the day.

    Hollow-body guitars like Gibson’s ES-330, on the other hand, had large, resonate bodies that gave the instruments a desirable, warm tone. But that increased resonance lead to feedback problems when amped up. (This was, of course, well before people like Jimi Hendrix learned use feedback as a musical technique.)

    Guitar players at that time wanted the best of both worlds: a dark, warm tone without feedback during live performances.

    Enter Ted McCarty.

    Ted McCarty, problem solver

    Ted McCarty was the CEO of Gibson. McCarty was one of the truly great guitar innovators and came up with such great Gibson guitars as the Les Paul, the SG, the Flying V, and the Explorer. He had a knack for problem-solving when it came to guitar design.

    McCarty listened to guitarists’ complaints and began work. He came up with an idea to find a middle ground. To do this, he created a guitar that was neither totally hollow nor totally solid.

    The ES-335, which debuted in 1958, became the world’s first semi-hollowbody guitar. McCarty’s design called for a solid block of maple to run through the center of the body, with hollow, resonate “wings” attached to either side. He also incorporated cutouts in the upper bouts to allow for access to higher frets and F-holes.

    A 1960 Gibson ES-335 (Photo by Lightburst, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

    The guitar was an instant success, as it delivered on the need of a warmer tone with very little feedback. It quickly became one of Gibson’s top-selling guitars, and in fact it has been in continuous production since its debut over 60 years ago.

    Famous ES-335 players

    Over the years, the Gibson ES-335 has been used by many famous musicians. Chuck Berry was one of the first big stars to use the guitar to great effect with his new “rock and roll” style. (An additional tie-in with Chuck Berry can be found in the movie Back to the Future, where Marty McFly plays — you guessed it — an ES-335 at the dance with Chuck’s cousin’s band.)

    Perhaps the most famous ES-335 player was B.B. King, whose trademark guitar, Lucille, was a version of the guitar that featured a maple neck instead of the standard mahogany and lacked F-holes.

    B.B. King playing Lucille (Photo by Roland Godefroy, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons)

    Almost as famous is Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, who plays a beautiful blue variation of the guitar that has a Firebird headstock and diamond-shaped holes.

    Dave Grohl with his custom 335 (Photo by Andreas Lawen, Fotandi, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

    The ES-335 has had enormous appeal to guitar players over the decades, and Gibson currently has over 25 different 335s in production.

    Imitation — still the highest form of flattery

    McCarty’s revolutionary semi-hollow-body design, of course, has been copied many times. Notable brands with their own versions include:

    • Fender (Thinline Telecaster)
    • Ibanez (Artcore series)
    • Rickenbacker 330 (the brand’s top-selling guitar)

    Success is being in the right place at the right time

    The Gibson ES-335, which occupies a special place in the history of guitar and rock and roll, was a needed advancement in the electric guitar that came about at the right time. The fact that the design has endured and been copied many times over is a testament to how amazing this guitar actually is.

  • Slash’s favorite Gibson isn’t real — but it’s still awesome

    Slash’s favorite Gibson isn’t real — but it’s still awesome

    Slash. The iconic guitarist of Guns N’ Roses. Inventor of perhaps the best guitar lick of all time: the intro to Sweet Child o’ Mine.

    His image is as unmistakable as his playing: long, curly hair, top hat, and shades, with a Gibson slung across his shoulder.

    Slash rocking out on a Gibson Les Paul
    Slash rocking out on a Gibson Les Paul (Picture byI Do Shows(Scott Penner), CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

    But what if I told you his main guitar wasn’t a Gibson at all, but a copy?

    The early days of GNR

    Before GNR was a household name, they were just another Southern California band looking to make it big.

    The band at that time, like many up-and-coming bands, had almost no money. And what money they did have they spent on parties, drugs and alcohol (which should come as a surprise to exactly no one).

    When they finally scored a record deal in the mid-1980s, they were still in the same financial boat — the one with the giant hole in the bottom.

    As they went into the studio to record what would become the Appetite for Destruction album, Slash ran into an issue. His meager arsenal of guitars at the time (he has over 100 of them now) was down to two Jackson guitars, a B.C. Rich Warlock, a Firebird, and a one-off arch-top, Strat-style guitar. He had sold the rest of his guitars because he needed the money.

    Appetite for Destruction

    Apparently he failed to consider how his remaining guitars would sound in the studio, because, in his words, “They all sounded horrible.”

    Not knowing what to do, Slash turned to his manager, Alan Niven. Alan scoured the guitar scene in L.A. and came back the night before Slash was to record with a Gibson Les Paul. At least, that’s what it looked like. Slash fell in love with the instrument, recorded the album, and the rest was history.

    A guitar built for no one

    But that guitar did not originate in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was instead a replica Les Paul built by a local luthier named Kris Derrig. Derrig was a luthier who usually built custom orders for individuals, but he just happened to make a 1959 Les Paul clone without a buyer lined up in 1984–85.

    When Slash’s manager was on the hunt for a guitar for the debut GNR album, he found Kris’ boss, Jim Foote, who directed him to Kris — and the guitar without a buyer. Kris agreed to let Alan borrow it for recording, and its legacy was established from that point on.

    Slash refers to this guitar as the “original” and has used it on many of his studio albums, starting of course with Appetite.

    What did Gibson think?

    You would think that once Gibson found out Slash was using a fake, they would have gone after him with a vengeance. In this case, however, they made an exception — for several reasons.

    First, Slash has since become a Gibson artist. He owns and loves many Gibson guitars and has had a business relationship with the brand since 1997. Gibson has made some questionable decisions over the years, but even they know that suing your best brand ambassador is a bad idea.

    Second, Kris Derrig’s Gibson knockoff in the hands of Slash sold countless Gibson guitars. If you’re Gibson, why kill the golden goose when you can get the eggs for free?

    Third, a high-end replica like what Derrig built is a far cry from a mass-produced “Chibson” (which Gibson does go after). Derrig’s guitar is a work of art and an homage to Gibson — real luthiers are generally not in the habit of passing off their guitars as someone else’s. Slash and his manager knew that his guitar was not a “real” Gibson — they knew exactly who had made it. But they also knew it was a special guitar.

    A final note

    Sadly, Kris Derrig passed away in 1987 and was never able to see the profound effect of his guitar on rock and roll. So the next time Sweet Child o’ Mine comes on the radio, take a moment to remember Kris and his unique contribution to the history of rock and roll.