Page 89 - Guitar Classics Magazine - The Les Paul Bible 2019

SLASH

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The ‘new’ Gibson made its debut at NAMM 2019
with an overhauled range of guitars that seemed
to put the focus squarely back on giving Gibson
lovers modern takes on the company’s most iconic
instruments. The press and fans were certainly
impressed, but has Slash been equally smitten?
“The new guitars are amazing!” he affirms. “They
did the first run of all their key models, and they
let me play one of each, and I was like: ‘There’s
such a huge difference here… but there’s nothing
different!’ There’s something about the mindset
going into making them that’s different. Because
it’s the same guitar! But there’s definitely a noticeable
change there.”
Slash reveals that he took the overhauled Les Paul
models out on tour with both Guns N’ Roses and
on his solo tour, and came away suitably impressed
with how the guitars performed on the road.
“They feel tight and solid, is the main feel thing,”
he explains. “For me, I use heavy strings, and it gives
a certain amount of tension, and that is all there.
But they just feel really good and they sound really “I APPRECIATE ROCK ’N’ ROLL’S
good. You know how you pick up a guitar and you
get a smile on your face because it’s not buzzing, NOT PART OF THE MAINSTREAM.
it’s not doing any of those little things that you find
unsavoury? You don’t think about it, you just feel I THINK IT’S GREAT, BECAUSE
happy doing it!”
He wasn’t taking the new Gibsons on tour for fun, YOU KNOW WHO THE ROCK
however – as Gibson’s most high-profile signature
artist, it’s understandable that talks are now in the FANS ARE NOW, Y’KNOW?”
pipeline for a brand-new Slash signature model that
will incorporate these new improvements.
“There were developments that were happening
right towards the end [of Gibson’s previous regime] and then you’d hang out and talk, and then end up OPPOSITE Slash is working
there that I couldn’t adhere to,” says Slash. “But working together. That’s how it was, especially in the with Gibson on a new
now we’re back to the traditional Les Paul – it’s late 90s and early 2000s when I was just wandering signature Les Paul – and
he’s used them live lately, too
fundamentally the same guitar, it’s pretty much a around! But I’ve just been so tied up with stuff of late
Standard. But the new one that I’m working on I just haven’t been able to do it.”
ABOVE Les Paul and Slash
with them… I’m not going to give out too many Listen to the radio at the moment and it’s clear tearing it up. Paul, who died
details, but they’re cool, and I’m playing a couple that the electric guitar isn’t exactly at the forefront in 2009, aged 94, had
live right now.” of popular music, so as someone who knows a thing a weekly residency at
or two about bringing rock ’n’ roll to different the Iridium Jazz Club in
KNOW YOUR PLACE audiences, we conclude our chat by asking Slash New York into his 90s
Now that he’s back in Guns N’ Roses and with nearly if he thinks guitar music is still in a healthy place
a decade with The Conspirators under his belt, it’s right now…
easy to forget that for a period in the 90s and early “Y’know, the guitar’s a funny thing,” he ponders.
2000s, Slash was an elite gun for hire, who worked “It’s constantly in and out of vogue. I think in what
with everyone from Carole King and Rihanna to you consider pop music, it’s a mainstay, but it’s not
Lenny Kravitz and The Yardbirds – we wonder if he a featured instrument. But back in the 80s, it was
misses the variety that period offered him… like, you had fuckin’ metal or you had no guitars
“I’ve always loved doing that. I haven’t been doing at all! But I am aware of where rock ’n’ roll is in
it much lately, because I’ve been busy in two bands, the bigger commercial scheme of things and I sort
and I’ve also been doing the movie-production thing,” of appreciate that it’s not part of the mainstream.
he explains. “We’ll see if anything comes up in the I think it’s great, because you know who the rock
near or not too distant future. I loved doing sessions fans are now, y’know?”
and I love playing with different people and all
that stuff. You’d meet someone who you really like Living The Dream is out now. See slashonline.com for more
and admire, or whose material you appreciated, info and tour dates

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