[J Kimble (FLICKOFLASH)]

[S Lowe (Steve Lowe)]

My Dad. He always had Gibsons.

[p carlino (jimihendrix)]

I initially got into guitar by seeing SRV playing the El Mocambo in Toronto...he played Voodoo Child (Slight Return)...which led me to Hendrix...I first got into Gibsons after one of my brothers brought home "The Song Remains The Same"...Jimmy Page pulled off an encyclopedia of rock moves and techniques that had me mesmerized...after watching that concert flick I just HAD to have a Gibson Les Paul...

[m dailey (milod)]

To be honest, I have no idea whatsoever. Mind you, we're talking about the 1950s as I was coming to be aware of guitars and brands.

Gibson simply was "the" guitar as I recall.

m

[J GGoerge (joey257)]

Les Paul - the guitar, not the guy. Saw one, heard one, had to have one!

After that, just a matter of chasing tone, style and quality - end up with a Gibson more often then not.

[K Bolas (lespaul1963)]

I've listened to a lot of music since I was a kid...as I found out more about the people who played the music that really had an impact on me, I discovered a commonality...They all played Gibson's, some exclusively and some now and again. Gibson just kept popping up. Below are some of my favorite guitarists. I used mostly older pictures (70's and early 80's) because it's from that era that I was first incurably bit by the Gibson bug. I apologize for the small size of the photos. It was the only way to get them in the post and stay under the 500 KB limit.

 albert king 01.jpg (19.25K)
Number of downloads: 1 Albert King



 Billy Gibbons.jpg (34.36K)
Number of downloads: 2 The Right Reverend Billy F. Gibbons



 eddie_van_halen-LP2.jpg (139.28K)
Number of downloads: 5 Eddie Van Halen (This is one of the first photos I saw of him and assumed that all that aural magic was coming out of a Les Paul).

 Elvin Bishop.jpg (14.67K)
Number of downloads: 4 Elvin Bishop

 Gary Rossington 2.gif (32.05K)
Number of downloads: 2 Gary Rossington with SG

 ted-nugent.jpg (34.77K)
Number of downloads: 3 Uncle Ted

 Tom Scholz.jpg (34.25K)
Number of downloads: 2 Tom Scholz





 muso-pic-gary-moore.jpg (9.44K)
Number of downloads: 4 Gary Moore

[R Reed (HRC)]

J Galante (Johnny G), on 06 September 2010 - 10:37 AM, said:

Les Paul - the guitar, not the guy. Saw one, heard one, had to have one!

After that, just a matter of chasing tone, style and quality - end up with a Gibson more often then not.

Same here.

[D Thompson (rockstar232007)]

My uncle with his '74 LP Deluxe. That was the first guitar I had ever laid my hands on when I was 5 years old ('87). Since then, I've been hooked!

Peter Frampton was a great influence as well, but that wasn't until much later (around 9 or 10).

[J Luekemeyer (ACELUEK)]

[I Stoddard (Low-B 5-String)]

Eric Clapton, who played Gibsons with Mayall, Cream, Blind Faith. Mike Bloomfield. BB King. Duane Allman. Johnny Winter. Carlos Santana. Leslie West. Oh, yeah, and this lefty playing an SG named Tony Iommi. I'm sure I've left out a few.

Late '60's, early '70's blues/rock axe-slingers: most of those whose tone I worshipped, used a Gibson with humbuckers to make it.

Then I caught up with Jimmy and Peter and Albert and Tom....

[B Bowden (Bobb)]

Never really had a Gibson inspiration back in the day. In fact, at one point, I had the opposite experience. During the mid sixties, my guitar teacher had a Gibson for sale. He had decided to sell it since the model was so unpopular that even Gibson had dropped the model. The guitar was heavy especially on the control end, it kept trying to roll of my leg while sitting. Sound was dull and it didn't play all that great. Needless to say I passed on it. Guess I should add, it was a 59 Les Paul.

I ended up getting my first Gibson a few years later. It was a really beat up but very playable ES330. That one stayed with me for about 20 years.

[S Sill (Scott Sill)]

I was just about 12 when I bought my first Gibson/guitar. My dad played Fender so I am guessing I wanted to play exactly the opposite of my Dad. He was into country, (Buck Owens, Hank Williams etc). Gibson seemed to be exactly opposite of that in my mind so I picked a Les Paul Studio as my first guitar. I haven't looked back since, but I did pick up a few Fenders later in life. I guess you can take the boy out of Illinois, but you can't Illinois of him.

Scott Sill

[M Weaver (Awfers)]

Must have been a combination of my guitar teacher (he owns 9 Les Pauls) and various artists (among them Slash)

[D Schulteis (Deej)]

From an artist standpoint, Jimmy Page. From an influential standpoint, my father... was a big Gibson fan, and bought me my first SG. He had a chambered LP style Univox, frets were coming off of the dang thing... made me a deal, if I could play Johnny B Goode better than him, he'd buy me a "real" guitar - I spent that summer in the basement doing nothing but practice... by x-mas, my 73 SG was under the tree. Wasn't satisfied with anything but Gibson since.

[r akers (wrick)]

Just starting in the early 70s, just about every local band, all guitarist play a Paul or SG that spoke volumes.Now its me and another guy in a different band that I see playing out with Gibsons what happed?

[F Shrimer (J185-4Me)]

Pete.

[P Petiniot (Blues4U)]

p carlino (jimihendrix), on 05 September 2010 - 11:42 PM, said:

I initially got into guitar by seeing SRV playing the El Mocambo in Toronto...he played Voodoo Child (Slight Return)...which led me to Hendrix...I first got into Gibsons after one of my brothers brought home "The Song Remains The Same"...Jimmy Page pulled off an encyclopedia of rock moves and techniques that had me mesmerized...after watching that concert flick I just HAD to have a Gibson Les Paul...

The guy that this 59 originally belonged to inspired my Les Paul fetish ---

[r ferrell (raven999)]

Ace, Carlos, Pete T. Albert and Freddy king, and of course Billy F.

[r wells (wolfman63)]

At risk of revealing the dinasour that I am... I'll have to admit it was actually Les Paul "HIMSELF". Chet Atkins was at the time playing Gretsch. Hard to believe I've been playing that long and still give the kids a surprise once in a while. I've been at this a day or two. I was introduced to Gibson at the tender age of about six, and it took a paper route,many lawn mowings and all kinds of odd jobs, and when I graduated high school in 1964, I finally had enough saved to buy my own Les Paul Jr. Over the years I've had many guitars and found things I love and dislike about all of them. They have all been different, and unique in their own way. Gibsons biggest flaw is the price. I have Epiphones that I wouldn't trade for anything else - Gibson, Fender, Gretsch, PRS, or anything. I currently own two 1960 Classic Les Pauls that one of which I'll never part with, because it was a gift from my wife............... and the other because it is a great guitar and I play it a lot. I, at my age, have a lot of guitar heroes, none of which could influence me to buy a guitar. The guitars I own have all done that for themselves. When I was younger I was influenced by such things but most times that turned out to be a dissapointment. The guitars played by the big time entertainers are not what you buy off the shelf. Theirs have been modifyed to their taste. Yes, I'm old and jaded, and some of the "kids" think "That old Geezer is full of it......." but sometimes, on a good day.......

[m dailey (milod)]

Newbie...

Whatta yah mean "old geezer..."

I'll swap ages. <grin>

Naah, not really. I did graduate high school before you did...

m