Monday, March 15th, 2010
Gibson’s latest artist model is the new “Slash Appetite For Destruction” Les Paul. The new guitar pays homage to one of the most important hard rock albums of the 1980’s and the guitarist that gave us some of the coolest riffs we’ve ever heard.
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
Gibson has decided to get into the mobile app game and released their first effort with the “Gibson Guitar App“. The app features a tuner that can handle chromatic as well as open tunings, a metronome with tap tempo, chord charts and video lessons. After playing around with the app for a little while we’ve found it’s best feature to be it’s price - free.
Saturday, January 2nd, 2010
As far as we’re concerned, there is no better way to ring in the new year with a new guitar. And Gibson Guitar is ringing in the new year with two. Yesterday, Brian wrote a great story about the new Jimmy Page Number Two Gibson Les Paul. And today we’re seeing the release of the Gibson Keb’ Mo’ Bluesmaster - a guitar that seems like it came straight the early 1900’s deep south - but customized for modern players like the guitar’s namesake - Keb’ Mo’.
Friday, January 1st, 2010
The Gibson Custom Shop has recreated Jimmy Page’s famed “Number Two” Gibson Les Paul. Page, perhaps one of the most iconic Les Paul players of all time, collaborated on the limited edition model by providing Gibson access to the original guitar. Gibson and Page worked side-by-side to recreate one of the most tricked out Les Pauls known to man.
Only 325 will be made with famed aging expert Tom Murphy handling the aging of 125 of the models. We’re pretty sure most, if not all, of these will end up in the hand of collectors with prices ranging $11k - $25k USD.
Monday, December 21st, 2009
While most of us would love to be Eric Clapton or The Edge - playing guitar for a living - the truth is that most of us need to have day jobs. Plenty of guitarists are teachers, doctors, lawyers and yes, even accountants. In short, when you play guitar that is often the most exciting thing you get to do. Unless you are also an Olympic athlete. And that is where Ben Agosto comes in.
Friday, December 18th, 2009
Techie magazine and blog Wired has posted a review of the Gibson Dusk Tiger guitar. They gave the guitar a 7 out of 10, praising the extensive amount of customization in an easy-to-use knob and software combo, while still maintaining the classic Gibson, analog signal. Wired panned the “cheesy looks and weird finish” and described the guitar’s name as “Ron Burgundy-esque”. They’re right, the name does conjure up thoughts of Sex Panther.
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
We know that you would normally wait until the end of the year to start recapping the top items of the year, but here at Fretbase we like to do things differently. We know that people are considering guitars for that special someone right now and so we thought it would be worthwhile to let our users know now which were our most popular guitars in 2009.
So far this year over 400,000 people have visited Fretbase to get information about a guitar, gear, artist or song and we figure those 400,000 people probably know quite a bit (heck, they are reading Fretbase aren’t they?). So we have compiled a list of the most popular guitars as determined by looking at the number of our readers looking at each of these guitars. So without any further delay, let’s get to the list.
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
Gibson has released some of the most beautiful, iconic guitars around. The Gibson Les Paul Standard, the Gibson SG and Gibson Explorer are just a few examples of some of coolest looking guitars known to man. But recently we think Gibson has released some very ugly looking guitars that I’d have a hard time shelling out Gibson prices for.
Everyone has hits and misses. Check out these misses over the past couple of years coming from one of our favorite builders out of Nashville.
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
Inspired in part by Michelle Obama’s gift earlier this year of a Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitar to Carla Bruni-Sarkozi, the New York Times has an article today suggesting classic guitars as a good item to buy or give as a gift this holiday season (we should all have friends or family like this). While the first lady gave Bruni-Sarkozy a new model Hummingbird, the article suggests that an original model from the 1960’s might have been a better choice.
According to a guitar-maker quoted in the story, “A Hummingbird from the 1960s would cost in the region of $6,000, about twice as much as the new model. They are both great guitars, but for the extra money you get a level of craftsmanship in the vintage version that has been lost.” Then, the author turns his attention to the guitar that continues to be far and away the most sought after vintage guitar.
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
A number of press outlets are reporting that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has served a search warrant on Gibson Guitar while investigating the company’s importation of Madagascar Rosewood. Sources say the Nashville-based guitar manufacturer is being investigated for violating the Lacey Act (an environmental law) for importing the endangered species of wood.
Rosewood is a very popular wood for guitars and is used on a number of Gibson models including the Gibson J-45 Rosewood Modern Classic. We have reported before on the fact that high quality woods are getting harder to come by and it is too early to comment on Gibson’s role in depleting some classic types of wood. Read on for Gibson’s response.
