Arlen Roth’s Blog

Check out Arlen Roth’s Blog at Gibson lifestyles. He’s one of the pioneers of video instruction with his series of Hot-Licks tapes/DVDs. He’s full of very helpful hints. For example, don’t obsess over copying another players style, just try and get the essence. There are some great posts about developing your own style and reading verses TAB. The other blog at Gibson worth reading is the Performance Tips & News.

Just don’t forget, you can buy 3 or 4 used USA Tele’s, or Sparrows for the price of a new Gibson” Headless Wonder”. And just a side note, Canadian readers have you ever noticed we’re not eligible for any of their contest’s (Gibson)? Sorry but I’ve never forgave Gibson for discontinuing the L6-S, everyone that’s played mine is amazed what a versatile, easy to play, simple, solid axe it was. The flat frets were kinda weird, I replaced those w/ Dunlop super-heavies right away.  It’s the perfect combination of a maple neck tele and a les paul! It’s a maple, laminated neck-thru body design with Bill Lawrence electronics, Unfortunately it has an oblong les-paul sort of look to it.

While I’m bashing Gibson, everyone knows that Gibson tried to sue Actavision over the Guitar Hero series, right? They sued Wal-Mart, K-mart, Toys R Us, Here’s the Wiki link (look under lawsuits). They claim that the Guitar Hero controller is a musical instrument. They are also trying to sue the makers of Rock Band.

The best example of how big companies screw their customers, is the way they way way they offer budget priced guitars that look ridiculous next to the expensive line. Melody Makers could be a wicked little axe, but the reason they are there, is to make Les Pauls and SGs look better. The only real problem with them is is the ugly pickguard and pickup. The shape of the headstock kinda screams “budget” too. Here’s an example Is this not one apologetic looking Guitar? How much would it cost them to put a P-90 and a less retarded looking pickguard on it? We’ll never know because they don’t actually want to sell them. They want you to look at it and say, “well for a couple of hundred dollars more I could get a Les Paul Jr”.