Epiphone 1960 Les Paul Tribute

’60s slim taper neck. Carved hard maple top and maple body. Gibson USA ‘57 classic humbuckers and much more

Over the years, Les continued to work closely with Epiphone by reviewing new product ideas and offering suggestions. The NEW Epiphone “Tribute” Les Paul Standards honor that relationship by combining “as good as it gets” performance and features with legendary Epiphone quality and value.

The Construction
The solid Mahogany neck with hand-fitted, glued-in joint extends well into the neck pickup cavity creating maximum neck-to-body contact and acting almost like one continuous piece of wood. Combined with the Mahogany/Maple body, the result is a tribute to Les’ timeless guitar design with the sound that you can only get from a Les Paul.

Using 4-conductor pickup wiring, Epiphone has added two push/pull tone pots to allow for series/parallel pickup switching. The result is a Les Paul with all the standard sounds plus a huge palette of tonal possibilities at your fingertips.

Like every Epiphone, it features their Limited Lifetime warranty backed by world famous 24/7/365 day Gibson Customer Service. This guitar is not only a tribute to Les Paul, it’s a tribute to just how good a guitar can be…TODAY!

Specs
Body Material: Mahogany
Top Material: Carved Hard Maple
Neck Material: Mahogany
Neck Shape: 1960’s SlimTaper; D profile
Neck Joint: Vintage “Deep-Set”, Glued-In
Truss Rod: Adjustable
Scale Length: 24.75 in.
Fingerboard Material: Rosewood with mother-of-pearl Trapezoid inlays
Neck Pickup: Gibson USA ‘57 Classic(TM) Humbucker (4-wire)
Bridge Pickup: Gibson USA ‘57 Classic Plus(TM) Humbucker (4-wire)

Estimate Price: $799.00

Ibanez ART320 Artist Electric Guitar

The ART320 features set-neck construction, superior hardware and warm tones and sustain courtesy of the mahogany body. The ART320 also features a rosewood fingerboard, Gibraltar III bridge with Quik Change tailpiece and 2 active pickups.

Features
The finish is beautiful, the pickups are comparable and the set in neck is an awesome feature for the price! Great active pickups that take only two AA batteries. Hardware is nice, stays in tune well.

Quality
All hardware is tight, fits well, and I don’t fear anything falling off or breaking. You will not find a better quality guitar in this price range.

Sounds
It is a great sound for classic rock or metal. The active pickups have a slightly muddy sound to them and they sustain forever. Sounds great as long as the battery still there.

Specs
Neck Material: Mahogany
Neck Type: ART set-in
Neck Dimensions:
- Scale/Length: 628 mm/24.75 inches
- Width at Nut: 43 mm
- Width Last Fret: 58.5 mm
- Thickness 1st Fret: 20 mm
- Thickness 12th Fret: 22.5 mm
- Radius: 305 mm
Body: Mahogany body/ Flamed Maple top
Frets: Medium frets
Fingerboard: Bound Rosewood
Inlay: Diamond inlay
Bridge: Gibraltar III bridge

Estimate Price: $449.95

Ibanez XP300FX Xiphos

The Xiphos body style is instantly recognized a with it’s sharp edges and x shaped from that screams through an amplifier with the the help of it’s high output pickups.

Ibanez X-Series XP300FX-BK Xiphos Electric Guitar – mahogany body, 3-piece bolt-on maple neck, rosewood fretboard, 24 jumbo frets, white dot inlays, fixed bridge, Cosmo black hardware, INF3 neck and INF4 bridge humbucker pickups, 648mm scale length, includes gig bag and strap.

The Ibanez XP300FX X-series Xiphos is a non-traditional guitar shape that stands out on stage. Powered by dual humbuckers on a mahogany body with 3-piece maple neck. 3-way pickup switching.

Shapes can be shifted, rules can be broken and radical thoughts are the norm. This way of thinking might also apply to Ibanez’s X Series. The wicked Xiphos is like something out of a sorcerer’s nightmare.

Features
- 3 piece Maple Wizard II Neck
- Basswood body
- Bound Rosewood Fingerboard with Jumbo frets
- Pearl dot inlay
- Fixed bridge
- INF3 (Neck) and INF4 (Bridge) Pickups
- Cosmo Black Hardware

Specs
Neck Material: 3 piece Maple
Neck Type: Wizard II
- Scale Length: 25.5 inches (648mm)
- Width at Nut: 1.69 inches (43mm)
- Width Last Fret: 2.2 inches (56mm)
- Thickness 1st Fret: 0.75 inches (19mm)
- Thickness 12th Fret: 0.83 inches (21mm)
- Radius: 15.75 inches (400mm)
Body: Basswood body
Frets: Jumbo frets
Fingerboard: Bound Rosewood
Inlay: Pearl dot inlay
Bridge: Fixed bridge

Estimate Price: $399.95

Practice Tips From: Dimebag Darrell

By Dimebag Darrell

Dimebag Darrell

Originally published in Guitar World, July 2004

Here are Dimebag Darrell's Top 5 practice tips.

1) Play trills.

Whenever I feel my chops are slacking, I’ll play some widestretch trilling exercises and take them up and down the neck as well as across it. I’ll start off with a two-fret stretch trill between my index and middle fingers and do that until I feel a burn. Then I’ll do the same thing with a three-fret trill between my index and ring fingers, and then a four-fret one between my index and pinkie.

2) Run through scales.

Play the pentatonic blues scale, just for fret- and pick-hand dexterity and to mesh them both together.

3) Practice to records.

Learn licks and songs from records.

4) Play with yourself.

Set up up a four-track or a jambox, lay down a rhythm track off the top of your head and then jam a solo over the playback.

5) Play from the heart.

Even though I’ll do finger warm-ups that go up and down the neck to build up my chops and dexterity, I never, ever sit around and practice the actual licks I’m gonna play live. If you do then you’ll be all worried about the complexity of getting the fingering right and everything else about it, as opposed to the feel…and to me the feel overrides everything.

Recommended Book: Riffer Madness by Dimebag Darrell (Warner Bros. Books)

I don’t use books or videos, so the only one I can really recommend is my Riffer Madness book, not because it’s mine but just because I know this one isn’t a bullshitter and that the techniques in it really do work.

Practice Tips From: John Petrucci

Originally published in Guitar World, July 2004

Practice tips from John Petrucci.

1) Have a goal.

Say to yourself, “During this hour I’m going to master this passage.” There’s nothing wrong with noodling—it can actually produce some of the best ideas—but you’ll get a lot more out of your practice time if you have an agenda.

2) Vary your practicing.

Don’t get stuck in a rut. If you started yesterday’s practice playing arpeggios, start today’s with scales. Also, try to make a song out of what you’re practicing to help break the tedium.

3) Use a metronome.

…or a drum machine or sequencer, if you have one. Whatever you use is fine; what’s important is that you learn how to play in time.

4) Go easy (even when shredding).

It’s all about training the tiny muscles in your hands. Start slow, relax and don’t press hard. When you watch your favorite guitarists play, notice how little their hands and fingers move sometimes. The economy of motion can’t be overemphasized.

5) Record yourself.

After you’ve practiced for an hour or so, turn down the lights and record yourself playing. Improvise and go nuts, then playback what you’ve recorded and listen for your strengths and weaknesses. We record Dream Theater shows and I’ll sit on the bus and listen to my playing—what worked, what didn’t. A lot of times it’s embarrassing and humbling, but that’s what you have to do to get better.

Recommended DVD: Rock Discipline (Warner Music)

I originally put this out in 1996, and I think it’s very appropriate for players of all levels. It includes segments on warming up, developing speed and accuracy, chromatic exercises—all the things you’d pay an instructor hundreds of dollars for.

Recommended School: The Berklee College of Music

It’s where I formed Dream Theater. The whole environment of the school is very inspiring. It’s in Boston, which is a great town; everybody’s walking around with a gig bag or a saxophone. For a musician, I can’t think of a better atmosphere. Did I mention I formed Dream Theater there?

Recommended Book: The Inner Game of Music, by Barry Green and W. Timothy Gallwey (Doubleday)

Gallwey coauthored another book, The Inner Game of Tennis. What’s great about this book is how it helps to train your mind to look at music. It’s not so much about actual playing as it is about concentration and expanding your senses. I can’t recommend it enough.

DigiTech HarmonyMan Intelligent Pitch Shifter

By Chris Gill

DigiTech HarmonyMan Intelligent Pitch Shifter

LIST PRICE: $449.95

MANUFACTURER: DigiTech, digitech.com

Pro musIQ detects proper key and scale; four memory locations; excellent sound

Con No separate outputs for each part

Guitar World Platinum Award for Quality & Design

Originally published in Guitar World, Holiday 2008

Three-part harmonized guitar solos sound incredible, but who wants to share the stage with two other lead guitarists unless you’re in a southern rock group or a Blue Öyster Cult tribute band? Intelligent pitch-shifting effects eliminate the need for other guitarists, but to effectively use these scale-based harmony processors onstage you need to either do a lot of tedious pre-programming or master some Fred Astaire–like foot moves.

The DigiTech HarmonyMan Intelligent Pitch Shifter is the perfect solution for freewheeling harmony-loving guitarists who don’t like to be tied down by set lists or who have to change key during a song. Its unique musIQ feature analyzes chord progressions and automatically determines the ideal scale and key for harmonization. Yet, while it does all the hard work for you, it’s stomp-box simple to use.

Washburn Pilsen Idol electric and D78SW acoustic

By: Phil Feser
Posted On: 5/14/2009

Washburn Pilsen. Most often when you see a Washburn guitar, it's in the hands of artist endorsees (including Nuno Bettencourt, Dimebag Darrel Abbott, etc.). For whatever reason, though, the brand has traditionally had a relatively low profile in local music stores. Washburn intends to change that with the PI70 Pilsen Idol. Billed as a "working musician's guitar" and made in its custom shop just outside of Chicago, the Pilsen is named after a working-class Chicago neighborhood and the company says it "exemplifies the craftsmanship and work ethic [of] the employees in Washburn's custom shop." The Pilsen is the lowest-priced instrument made in the company's custom shop. Based on Washburn's single-cutaway Idol guitar, the Pilsen has a 2"-thick body, carved maple top, and a set one-piece mahogany neck with a very smooth neck joint. The Pilsen is devoid of many of the amenities one might expect in a "custom shop" instrument, like fancy flame-maple top, an excessive fancy binding, or gold hardware. But it is loaded with the important goodies that make for great tone and playability, like Seymour Duncan pickups with coil taps, Tone Pros bridge and stop tail piece, Grover tuners, and the Buzz Feiten tuning system. The lack of eye candy does not make the Pilsen an ugly duckling. Rather, the high-gloss black finish (also available in Ruby Red and Rootbeer) with a hint of metalflake, traditional carved top, cream-colored pickup rings, traditional control layout, and the beautiful contrasting-grain rosewood fretboard give the Pilsen a classic, elegant look that is very appealing. Small details aren't overlooked, either; the control cavity features a fully shielded compartment that is neatly wired with full-sized pots and a Switchcraft three-way toggle. Though we were curious about whether the 2" body of the Pilsen would be a beast, the model rolls out of the factory weighing an average 81/2 pounds. Our test model was 83/4 pounds. Close enough, and more than manageable. Sitting down, the Pilson feels comfortable, and the contoured back and deep seamless neck joint make it a breeze to play, with excellent access all the way to the 22nd fret. The rounded neck profile may be a little chunky for smaller hands, but it's very comfortable - and the 241/2" scale length and flatter 12" radius fretboard gave it a fast feel. Acoustically, the guitar is very resonant with a nice ring on open strings - the set neck and Tone Pros hardware allow for excellent string-energy transfer. That resonance transfers well to the overdrive channel of our 50-watt Marshall running into a model 1960A 4x12" cabinet producing a big, tight ballsy overdrive with complex overtones and very nice note separation. The mass of the body, in combination with the Duncan Custom Custom bridge pickup, give the tone beefy low-end and excellent sustain without having to drive the amp's gain. The guitar has an tight, lively sound that's easy to manipulate, whether you prefer a crunchy rhythm tone or screaming, over-the-top sustain for solos. The pickup combination fits this guitar's personality; the Duncan '59 allowed for that classic Les Paul sound, while the Custom Custom reinforced the guitar's heavier hard rock low-end in the bridge position.

Washburn D78SW.

To check its clean tones, we ran the PI70 through a Carvin Belair 212 combo. Along with the traditional fat, punchy humbucker clean sounds you'd expect, we were also able to achieve good usable single-coil sounds, with the push/pull coil splitters. In the middle position (both pickups active), the individual coil splitters lets you add single-coil sparkle to either pickup depending on which is split, giving a variety of sounds, from fat and punchy to a thin, slightly acoustic tone.

The D78 (also from Washburn's custom shop) features solid-wood construction including a Sitka spruce top, mahogany back and sides, and a one-piece mahogany neck with rosewood fretboard. Much of the D78's visual appeal lies in its understated elegance and well-executed construction with top-shelf materials like flame-maple binding on the body (top and bottom) and neck, rosewood butterfly bridge, 1/8" rose overlay on the headstock with a mother-of-pearl logo inlay, abalone dot and rosette inlays, and a flame-maple cap on the neck heal. The high-gloss finish and select woods are all the eye candy most need, and there's an obvious emphasis on fit and finish. The guitar was set up very well, with low action, a nice fret job with no buzz, and perfect intonation via the Buzz Feiten compensated Tusq saddle and nut. The slim neck profile and dressed fret ends make playing effortless.

Whether finger- or flat-picked, the D78 produced a refined dreadnought tone with full, clear, bass and snappy highs, with just enough midrange to keep notes from washing out. The lively spruce top makes notes pop under even a light pick attack. And if you really dig in, the notes get downright jumpy! And using either playing style, the guitar's natural, round tone never surrenders clarity.

The Pilsen and D78SW prove that Washburn is building affordable, top-quality instruments. Instead of blowing you away with over-the-top aesthetics, both draw you closer, then hook you with their hand-made vibe and top-notch playability and tone.