There's no Pauls, We're Paul-less

Seems as I have covered one music icon, the Fender Stratocaster, I'm pretty much obliged to talk about its top rival, The Gibson Les Paul.


http://images.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Les-Paul/Gibson-USA/Les-Paul-Supreme-Florentine/Gallery-Images/LPSUFCUBG1-Glam-Shot.jpg

This guitar has been notably played by artist such as:

Slash of Guns N' Roses

Billy F. Gibbons of ZZ Top

The iconic archtop cutaway design has become a staple for many guitar company designs and is often used in movies and tv.


The Les Paul was replaced by Gibson due to bad sales by the Gibson SG but was put back on the market to huge success.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Gibson_Les_Paul%28sg%29_1962.jpg
A Gibson SG

Gimme a riff, STRAT!

The next guitar I'm gonna look at is the iconic Fender Stratocaster.
This is the guitar notably used by world famous guitarists such as

Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits








and Eric Clapton of Cream



These guitars are produced by fender America at high costs for their craftsmanship and sound but cheaper versions are available from the Japanese and Mexican factories with "Squier by Fender."

The model features a double-cutaway design to aid guitarists reaching the higher frets on the fingerboard.

http://www.swingcitymusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Top-Fender-Stratocaster-Swirl.jpg

Black Betty (Bam A Lam)

Hello again people, I hope you liked my last post.
My next guitar I'm gonna talk about is the Ibanez Talman TCY10EBK acoustic/electric.


http://musiciansworldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Ibanez-TCY10E-BK-Acoustic-Guitars.jpg

Personally I love this guitar, it is well assembled and sounds great. My one has been christened "Betty" after the song made famous by Ram Jam.
The top is spruce with a mahogany back and sides and a rosewood fingerboard.
This model is assembled completely in China and shipped worldwide. This causes it to have a slightly worse quality than other brand's models. This is expected from the low price of only €200 or so.

The guitar is part of a series that all have some slight differences to them.


TCY20VV
http://www.thejsm.com/images/405.jpg

TCY15ERD
http://musiclandstore.com/wp-content/uploads/TCY15ERD-e1342315502742.jpg



What Team? WILDKATS!

The first guitar of mine that I am tracing is a Custom Shop Epiphone Wildkat Royale. Picture Taken from http://epiphonewiki.com/images/7/79/Royalewk.jpg

Due to the fact that I'm super cool I  decided to name it after Sandy from the musical Grease.
It sells for around €400 which is pretty reasonable considering its body is made with pure mahogany and it has a maple neck and rosewood fingerboard and includes a "Tune-o-matic" bridge with Bigsby B70 vibrato tailpiece to add to the tone and sustain.

This guitar is only able to get its reasonable price because it is built for cheap in Epiphone's factory in Korea and shipped worldwide from there.



Image take from http://www.mygear.com/items/view/20672 
(Not mine)

This model of the guitar was properly put together in the Epiphone custom shop in the United States and will be worth slightly more than its non-custom shop counterparts the Wildkat, Flamekat & Alleycat

Flamekat

http://epiphonewiki.com/images/3/36/Flamekat.jpg

Alleykat
http://epiphonewiki.com/images/d/dc/Alleykat.jpg

Wildkat
http://epiphonewiki.com/images/e/ec/Wildkatmetallic.jpg

Oh Hey, Didn't See You There

Hello people of the internet box, my name is Michael.


I'm starting up a blog here for a geography module. This blog will be based on the geography of the guitar manufacturing and trade industry.


I am hoping to trace back my personal collection of guitars and to see where geography plays a part in getting them from raw materials to a guitarists hands