little feat

In his preface to a recent Little Feat retrospective compilation, the band’s Paul Barrere wrote, ”It’s almost 33 years ago exactly since Mr. [Lowell] George came to the front door of the Laurel Canyon house I was livin’ in, with that beautiful white ”p“ bass in hand, and asked if I wanted to try out as bass player for his new band. As most who know the story’s end can tell you, as a bassist I make an excellent guitarist, and 3 years later-- when I finally began my stint in Little Feat-- I would never have guessed that I would be here writing these liner notes to yet another chapter in the now storied life of a band that has been my life, and a true labor of love.“

Truth is, there really is no story’s end yet, and Little Feat have indeed led a storied life ever since they formed in 1969. From then on, their unconventional signature of earthy, organic appeal and polished, first-rate musicianship wrapped around eclectic and memorable songs--clearly delivered as an authentic labor of love--has been a lasting fixture on the musical landscape. As American as apple pie--and rock ‘n roll itself--Feat’s music transcends boundaries, a freewheeling fusion of California rock and Dixie-inflected funk-boogie. In the mix as well are strains of folk, blues, rockabilly, country and jazz, inventing a hybrid sound that is truly Little Feat’s own.
That story is about to add a major new chapter – the 2008 release of Join the Band, a very special project in Feat’s history. Keyboardist Bill Payne came up with the idea of a CD that included many things, but featured major Little Feat hit songs as played by a band that included Feat and some very special friends. When you have friends like Jimmy Buffett, Dave Matthews, Emmylou Harris, Bob Seger, Bela Fleck, Brooks and Dunn, Chris Robinson (Black Crowes), Vince Gill, Mike Gordon (Phish), and Inara George (band founder Lowell’s daughter) – you have musical treasure in your hands. Join the Band is going to make some noise.

Easily one of the hardest working bands in show biz, today’s Little Feat is a seven-member powerhouse that ably carries on the group’s tradition in both the recording and touring arenas. Their most recent studio album is Kickin’ It At The Barn, produced by Feat-ers Paul Barrere, Bill Payne and Fred Tackett. It’s named after the place it was recorded throughout 2003, Tackett’s barn-come-studio in Topanga Canyon, which Bill Payne has called ”Little Feat’s version of The Band’s ‘Big Pink’,“ and which lent an invaluable ambience to the undertaking. In his liner notes, faithful Feat scribe Paul Barrere writes, ”If music is a conversation between the players, then we are talking like never before…this has been truly one of the most memorable recording projects we’ve done. We started with an idea to write songs on acoustic guitar and piano, like the old days before computers and samples, and then let the band interpret the music.“
Feat’s story began in 1969 when songwriter, performer, multi-instrumentalist, and all around colorful character Lowell George, formerly of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, set out to form his own band -- at Zappa’s suggestion. The brilliant and often idiosyncratic George connected with keyboard master Bill Payne, and, along with drummer Richie Hayward and Roy Estrada, founded Little Feat. They were soon signed to Warner Bros., where Little Feat, in various configurations, would remain for twelve of their sixteen albums.

This initial line-up recorded the band’s first two LPs--their rootsy, 1971 self-titled debut, featuring the classic cut ”Willin,“ and its follow-up, Sailin’ Shoes, which added ”Easy To Slip,“ ”Trouble,“ ”Tripe Face Boogie,“ ”Cold Cold Cold“ and the infectious title track to their repertoire. Upon Estrada’s departure in 1972, Paul Barrere, Sam Clayton and Kenny Gradney (all still in Feat today) signed on, and the rest, as they say, is history…and many more great albums.
Next up was Dixie Chicken (’73), a New Orleans-influenced gumbo of greatness that offered up the signature title track and ”Fat Man In The Bathtub,“ among other delights. The two LPs that followed, Feats Don’t Fail Me Now (’74) and The Last Record Album (’75) served up ”Rock & Roll Doctor,“ ”Oh, Atlanta,“ and ”All That You Dream,“ respectively, while 1977’s Time Loves a Hero offered up, in fine Feats fashion, another unforgettable title track. That same year delivered the aforementioned Waiting For Columbus, forever memorializing their legendary stage prowess.
During Little Feat’s recording of their eighth album as a group, 1979’s Down On The Farm, founding member Lowell George—who had already been veering towards solo work-- met a tragic and untimely passing. Except for Hoy, Hoy, a 1981 full-length assemblage of rarities, live performances, previously overlooked tracks, and a new song apiece from Payne and Barrere, Little Feat disbanded until the mid-‘80s. At that point, their own lyrics from ”Hangin’ On To The Good Times Here,“ ”…although we went our own ways, we couldn’t escape from where we came, so we find ourselves back at the table again, telling stories of survivors and friends,“ proved very telling. Barrere and Payne remember that a chance jam session in 1986 brought them together again, when they were reminded of how deeply Little Feat’s music was ingrained in them.
In 1988, the reformed band—with new members Craig Fuller (handling George’s vocal duties) and Fred Tackett--rekindled Feat’s magic for fans old and new alike. That year, they released the lively reunion album Let It Roll, and the singles ”Hate To Lose Your Lovin’,“ and, of course, the title track. The 1989 follow-up, Representing The Mambo, would prove to be their last for Warner Bros. Next came 1991’s Shake Me Up (on Morgan Creek), after which Fuller departed the band. Little Feat added a new lead singer, Shaun Murphy, in 1993, and released an acclaimed studio album, Ain’t Had Enough Fun in 1995 (this time on Zoo). Shaun’s feminine energy and powerful, seasoned, bluesy vocalizations certainly upped the fun quotient for a recharged Little Feat.

This incarnation of the band— which remains current today—was captured live to great effect on ‘96’s Live From Neon Park, a two-CD set culling performances from multiple concert venues including San Francisco’s fabled Fillmore Auditorium, Portland, Oregon’s Roseland Ballroom, and House of Blues Sunset Strip. Named after the renowned album cover artist whose striking images gracing Little Feat’s releases was a time-honored tradition (until his death from ALS in 1993), this live-fest featured all the band’s best-loved songs as well as their contemporary material. The collection proved how vital they remained after all the changes time had wrought.
In 1998, Little Feat released Under The Radar, their first album on CMC International. Spotlighting a confident and well-oiled configuration of first-rate talents, Under The Radar delivered a consistently strong set of songs including new Feat favorites ”Home Ground,“ ”Eden’s Wall,“ and ”Calling The Children Home.“ With 2000’s Chinese Work Songs, also on CMC, Little Feat’s ever-evolving repertoire grew even more, featuring original compositions including ”Marginal Creatures,“ ”Eula,“ and ”Another Sunday,“ as well as vibrant covers of Bob Dylan, The Band and Phish songs.
Released in October 2003, Kickin’ It At The Barn adds to the ever-growing repertoire on the band’s very own Hot Tomato Records. ”It’s something we’ve talked about doing for a long time,“ says founding Feat-er Payne of launching the label, adding, ”it gives us the chance to do what we want, and it’s there for everybody in the band… and when it’s really up and running, for other artists too.“ In a perfect synergy of saluting their vibrant past and christening the untold future, Hot Tomato kicked-off in June ’02 with the inaugural releases Raw Tomatos and Ripe Tomatos, each a double-CD collection of live rarities spanning over three decades. Tracks were culled from a wealth of tapes amassed over the years from both fans and band sources alike, with each collection boasting well over two hours of music—they are only the first in what promises to be a Hot Tomato tradition of creatively mining the band’s inexhaustible archives.
Other Hot Tomato releases include the 2002 two-CD set Live From The Ram’s Head, capturing a 2001 acoustic show recorded in Annapolis, MD, and ‘03’s Down Upon The Suwannee, a live recording captured at the Magnolia Festival in Live Oak, Florida. The title, which is also a tip of the hat to Stephen Foster, refers to the Suwannee River, which flows through the concert site.
Fred Tackett’s solo album In A Town Like This came out in 2003 as well, and plans are in the works to release discs from various band members in the future, including a second Paul Barrere/Fred Tackett album, among other projects. Bill Payne finally got on the solo bandwagon with 2004’s Cielo Norte (Northern Sky), a marriage of the various types of keyboard, from synthesizers to acoustic piano, that is at times atmospheric, impassioned, and lyrical, and always intimate. Any CD that takes its inspiration from Yo Yo Ma,, Bill Evans, and John Fahey covers an elegant span of musical territory.
Yet another present day acknowledgement of Little Feat’s rich legacy is Rhino’s deluxe 25th anniversary edition of the band’s monumental concert LP Waiting for Columbus, released in 2002 as an expanded two-CD set with extensive new liner notes and rare photos. When it first came out in 1977, Waiting For Columbus instantly became one of the all-time great live rock ‘n roll albums, serving up bringin’-down-the-house versions of a host of Feat favorites including ”Dixie Chicken,“ ”Fat Man In the Bathtub,“ ”Time Loves A Hero,“ ”Sailin’ Shoes,“ ”Oh Atlanta,“ and ”Willin’.“ The new package restores the full 17-song sequence of the original concert, and adds seven previously unreleased outtakes. In October 2002, Little Feat commemorated Rhino’s re-release--and the unforgettable musical event that inspired it-- with a benefit concert at Washington, D.C.’s Lisner Auditorium, one of the two venues where Waiting For Columbus was recorded. An all-star guest line-up including Jackson Browne, Stephen Bruton, Joe Ely, Bela Fleck, Levon Helm, Sonny Landreth, and Billy Bob Thornton helped the band celebrate.

Rhino/Warner Bros. also saluted Little Feat’s accumulated musical history with the comprehensive retrospective Hotcakes & Outtakes: 30 Years of Little Feat, a project initiated and co-produced by Bill Payne and Paul Barrere. Released in 2000, the deluxe 4-CD, 83-track boxed set features hits from all of Little Feat’s classic albums as well as fan favorites, alternate takes and hand-picked rarities from the band’s eventful past.

Time has loved these musical heroes for more than three decades now, as have legions of fans and countless fellow musicians, many of whom they’ve played with over the years. Feat’s fabled collaborators have included Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Beck, Brian Wilson, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Plant, John Lee Hooker, Johnny Lang, and Leftover Salmon (for whom Bill Payne recently produced an album). With the success of Hot Tomato Records, an endeavor powered by an inspired band of musicians continuing to create exciting new material both individually and as a group, Little Feat will no doubt be sailin’ into the future with no end in sight.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.hottomatorecords.com/
MANAGEMENT:Little Feat is co- managed by Sirius Management and Metropolitan Talent
Sirius ManagementPO Box 2913San Anselmo, Ca. 94979
Metropolitan Talent100 Fifth AveNew York, New York 10011kristen@metrohybrid.com
PUBLICITY:Dennis McNally415-896-2198dennismcnally@mac.com

Happy Birthday to You! Les Paul!

Musical pioneer and namesake of Gibson’s most iconic guitar, Les Paul was born 93 years ago, on June 9, 1915 in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Any player who knows his guitar history is already aware that Gibson’s Les Paul guitar was pioneered, developed with the assistance of, and endorsed by Les Paul, a famous jazz-pop artist and musical and electronic genius.

Paul wanted a guitar that better served the needs of jazz guitarists, one that would offer more sustain and feedback resistance than the hollowbody archtops that were the norm at the time, and would also be more versatile sonically. In the early ‘50s, he and Gibson worked together to develop the cutting-edge guitar of his dreams. What resulted was the Les Paul, and with its unrivaled tonal capabilities it soon landed in the hands of top guitarists from every genre. Though Les Paul may be best known for developing the electric guitar as we know it, the sum of all of his contributions is immeasurable.

The great Les Paul still plays every Monday night at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City.

For more on the Les Paul legacy, click here.

Overdrive

Effects Explained: Overdrive
Dave Hunter | 06.05.2008
Adapted from the book Guitar Effects Pedals: The Practical Handbook (Backbeat Books)

Welcome to Part 1 of a new Gibson series that will dissect a different breed of effect each week, to tell you—the player—what each does, and how it does it. Effects pedals can be divided into a range of categories of types, but there are undeniably some gray areas between these, since different designs will achieve their sonic ends via different means. The distinctions get blurrier when we throw digital technology into the brew. An analog and a digital chorus, for example, are very different circuits, approached—from the design perspective—from very different standpoints, although the sonic results may sound roughly similar (in the good ones, though, the subtleties are usually quite distinctive).

For our purposes, I’ll break pedals down into four overarching categories: 1) Boost, Compression, Distortion, and Fuzz; 2) Modulation; 3) Echo and Delay; and 4) Filtering and EQ-Based effects, and this series will focus on individual types that come within each of those larger categories (for example, Modulation includes many quite different effects, such as chorus, vibrato, phasing, and so on). This is not to say that some manufacturers or other writers couldn’t categorize things differently, and certainly a few examples below could be safely lifted out of the heading I have stuck them in and accurately described by another category. It doesn’t matter all that much. These headings are mainly a means of breaking down the sonic results of the enormously varied range of pedals that exists out there, and taking a brief look at what makes them tick.

BOOST, DISTORTION & COMPRESSION

This is easily the most popular category of effect, and sonically is the natural first-step away from the thin sound of a straight, clean amplified guitar. If a player only owns one pedal, chances are it’s a distortion, fuzz, or booster box, and plenty of players have collections of several or even dozens of units from this genre, and use two or three at a time on their pedalboards for different colors and textures and levels of sonic sizzle. Yep, of the players who want to change their guitar’s pure sound in the first place, more probably want to filth it up than all of the other options combined.

Who created the first distorted electric guitar sound in history? I’ll tell you: the first adventurous player to plug a hollowbody guitar into a tube amplifier way back in the 1930s, that’s who. We might have forgotten his name, or maybe there was no one there to witness the event, but you can bet he lifted up that guitar, checked out his new amp, saw that the loudness control went to 10, and cranked it up to hear just what it could do.
Players and rock historians alike will talk endlessly about who either created or discovered or recorded the first distorted guitar tone. They argue, pontificate, debate, and even break it down into categories of type and of geographical location. “So, do we mean distortion, overdrive, or fuzz tone?” or “Do you distinguish between North American and European ‘firsts’?” Dave Davies of the Kinks is often credited with the first appearance of a heavily distorted electric guitar sound in the British charts for ‘You Really Got Me’ in August 1964.

“I was getting really bored with this guitar sound—or lack of an interesting sound,” Davies remembers. “There was this little radio spares shop up the road, and they had a little green amplifier in there next to the radios. An Elpico. I twiddled around with it and didn’t know what to do. I tried taking the wires going to the speaker and putting a jack plug on there and plugging it straight into my AC30. It kind of made a weird noise, but it wasn’t what I was looking for.

“I started to get really frustrated, and I said, ‘I know! I’ll fix you!’ I got a single-sided Gillette razorblade and cut round the cone like this [demonstrates slitting from the center to the edge of the cone], so it was all shredded but still on there. I played and I thought it was amazing, really freaky. I felt like an inventor! We just close-miked that in the studio, and also fed the same speaker output into the AC30, which was kind of noisy but sounded good.”

Others, however, will look to Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend, or the Beatles, or credit the first recorded use of a fuzz box in Britain to Big Jim Sullivan’s performance with a custom-built Roger Mayer fuzz on P.J. Probey’s 1964 No. 1 hit single ‘Hold Me’ (according to Mayer himself)—or, supposedly, Bernie Watson’s solo on Screaming Lord Sutch’s ‘Jack The Ripper’ in 1960. Or, a little later, the one more of us remember, Keith Richard’s worldwide smash-hit fuzz riff for the Stones’s ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,’ courtesy of a Maestro Fuzz-Tone.

The Fuzz-Tone connection hints that we need to look further back, and across the pond, for earlier examples of recorded guitar distortion. Gibson, and hence Maestro, was given the circuit that became the Fuzz-Tone by studio engineer Glen Snotty. Snotty, in turn, had devised the transistorized fuzz-generating design to replicate the sound that occurred when a tube preamp in the channel of a mixer he was using to record Grady Martin’s short-scale bass solo for the 1961 Mary Robbins hit record ‘Don’t Worry’ started to fail and yield a distorted tone. Whoever decided to stick with the track rather than re-record it through a properly functional channel was on to something; the result was Nashville’s first recorded fuzz guitar (a Danelectro bass, in fact). Courtesy of Maestro, Snotty’s fuzz circuit soon made the trendy new sound available to the world.

But if Nashville was recording it in 1961, you gotta believe some hipper cats were doing it somewhere a little southwest of there a good few years before.

It’s 1951, a dark, rainy night on the backstreets of Memphis, Tennessee. Ike Turner and His Kings Of Rhythm are packing the gear into the station wagon, getting ready to head off to the studio to record a track for producer Sam Phillips, a track that the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame will one day honor as the first rock and roll song of all time, ‘Rocket 88.’ (Although, distinctly unfairly, the song will be credited to singer Jackie Brenston and the imaginary band ‘His Delta Cats.’) “The amp—a Fender Bassman—was in the trunk of the car and it fell out, right on the road,” Ike Turner told Guitar Magazine’s Rick Batey in 1998, “and it was raining, so the amp got wet. When we got to the studio and plugged it in one of the tubes went ‘pop.’ We didn’t have no more tubes—so that’s where the fuzz came from.’

Rhythm Kings guitarist Willie Kizert’s recording through a failing tweed Fender therefore predates the more talked-about ‘fuzz firsts’ by a good ten years (although he probably did it through a TV-front Pro—a 1x15 like the first Bassmans—or a Super, since the Bassman model didn’t hit the market until 1952). So is that where it all began?

Consideration of this takes us back again to Kink Dave Davies: “The blues players were the first to crank it up, and the music had that spirit, that anguish. We used to listen to all those guys. Like John Lee Hooker—he had that buzz, that drive. I used to listen to him and think, ‘What’s he doing there? That’s amazing—how do you get that sound?’ I think all those elements led to me messing around with amplifiers, because all the amplifiers were clean, soulless.”

Whoever first got the sound down on tape, vinyl, acetate or whatever, it’s hard to imagine that adventurous, pioneering electric guitarists like Charlie Christian, Lonnie Johnson, T-Bone Walker and others didn’t crank up that brown electric suitcase to see just what it could do. Even if they were banned from such sonic mayhem on the bandstand or in the recording studio, you can bet a few juke joints and basement jams rang with the sound of distorted guitar right back into the 1940s and even the ’30s. Do you doubt it? Plug a fat-sounding Gibson ES-150—with its beefy ‘blade’ pickup—into an EH-150 or BR-1 amp wound up to max. Dirty? Damn straight. As for distortion, there are no more ‘firsts’ to be claimed. For sheer variety of sounds, however, the modern guitarist has it all over his predecessors.

Few dispute that, for tonal purity, the best distortion sounds come from cranking up a good tube amp. In particular, those with ears for tonal nuances buried even within a heap of distortion agree that a vintage-style, non-master-volume amp (or good boutique amp with the master up full to effectively take it out of the circuit) driven to the point where the output tubes are beginning to distort offers most players’ dream visions of the perfect overdrive tone.

Not to say that other sounds don’t have their place: the total freakout—sometimes very, very cool in itself—of a second-rate tube amp pushed way past its normal operational capablities; the smooth, pliable, ultra-saturated sound of a cascading gain preamp; the cheesy, buzzy fizz of a cheap tranny amp slammed with too much gain and clipping to beat the band… Any of these can yield the godlike tone of the day in the right application, with the right player. But think Page, Hendrix, SRV, Blackmore, Eric Johnson, Clapton, Van Halen, Gary Moore, and it’s cranked vintage amps and touch that are producing the tone. They were often aided by some type of distortion pedal, sure, because that was the only way to switch textures between verses, choruses and solos, or to push the big amps into distortion at less than full volume. But who wouldn’t choose to get their rock overdrive sound from a 50W 1968 Marshall Plexi on ten, or their blues lead sound from a tweed Bassman on 12, if the ears and the noise police would stand for it? For most players in the broad spectrum of rock, even those usually chained to the back of the stage hacking away at a clean rhythm part, these yield the sweetest, most tactile, touch-sensitive and playable tones available. Get that amp cooking to where the riffs get juicy and fluid and effortless, sustain and harmonic feedback hover into view at the tap of a fret, and the preamp and power amp tubes’ race to keep up with the pick attack lends a comforting softness and compression to the feel (a sensation further enhanced by the natural sag of tube rectification, where present). Mmmm. You can almost feel it now. If we could only get that play-it-all-day vibe at tolerable volume levels, any time we liked.

With this in mind, rather than taking the category chronologically, let’s accept our good fortune in today having all of history’s distortion sounds at our fingertips—so next time out, we’ll look first at those which transform the guitar and amp’s natural tone least, working toward those which balls it up most. In other words, from the least synthetic to the most synthetic-sounding of the genre.

Coming in Part Two: the individual effects in this category analyzed in detail.

Some Girls and Keith

Deepest Cut: Rolling Stones' 'Before They Make Me Run' from 1978's Some Girls
Russell Hall 06.04.2008
Listen to "Before They Make Me Run" here.


Upon its release 30 years ago, the Rolling Stones’ Some Girls was hailed as a return to form―easily the band’s best effort since 1972’s Exile on Main Street. More importantly, however, for Keith Richards the album also marked a retreat from the precipice of self-destruction. The sessions yielded three hits―“Miss You,” “Beast of Burden,” and “Shattered.” But great as those songs were, they didn’t match the ballsy eloquence of Richards’ “Before They Make Me Run.”

Worked the bars and sideshows along the twilight zone
Only a crowd can make you feel so alone
And it really hit home
Booze and pills and powders, you can choose your medicine
Well it’s another goodbye to another good friend

Some have speculated that that last line refers to Gram Parsons, Richards’ friend and a prime inspiration prior to the country-rock icon’s death in 1973. It’s far more likely, however, that Richards is referencing his own attempt to kick heroin addiction. Busted in Toronto just a year earlier, on trafficking charges, Richards was facing near-certain jail time pending the outcome of a looming court date. In an attempt to mitigate the penalty―and to salvage his deteriorating health―he was making a valiant effort to clean up.

Gonna find my way to heaven, ’cause I did my time in hell
I wasn't looking so good but I was feeling real well

A ragged country rocker, “Before They Make Me Run” bears no trace of the disco beat the drives “Miss You” or the punk-inspired “Respectable.” Punctuated by greasy guitar licks and even greasier vocals (think Bob Dylan filtered through Parsons), the song sounds oddly laconic―a hazy, beautiful mix of quiet determination and weary concession. In the last verse, the Stones guitarist gives voice to a fatalistic philosophy.

After all is said and done
I did alright, I had my fun
I will walk before they make me run

In the end, Richards neither served jail time nor conquered his addiction, although his descent into substance abuse was never again as severe. Three decades on, “Before They Make Me Run” has the aura of an anthem―albeit one that’s subtle and subdued. Vulnerability isn’t a quality normally associated with Keith Richards, but that’s exactly what’s at the heart of this small gem of a song.

Gibson's Robot Guitar

For $2500 you can get a guitar that tunes itself, I guess appealing to the "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero" crowd. I'm not so sure this is good -X

From Muscians Freind Ad.:

"Featuring a performance-safeguarding Neutrik jack, which secures the cord into the guitar, the Robot Les Paul Studio offers all the power, tone, and performance of a traditional Studio model, with the revolutionary Robot automatic tuning.Neutrik jackNeutrik has been making superior electronic interconnection products since 1975, making them the logical choice to supply the performance-safeguarding jack in Gibson's revolutionary Robot Les Paul Studio Limited. Like many Neutrik products, the jack in the Robot Les Paul Studio Limited is manufactured from strong, high-grade thermoplastics and housed in a rugged die cast nickel shell. A retention spring inside the jack ensures optimum grip on any guitar cable, thus avoiding the chance of lost connection.ControlsAt the heart of Gibson's revolutionary Robot Les Paul Studio Limited are its groundbreaking controls. At first glance, the four control knobs seem to be indistinguishable from those on any other Les Paul. But look again.

While the four knobs do provide the standard tone and volume controls for each of the two pickups, the Multi-Control Knob (MCK) the one with the illuminated top serves as the master control for all aspects of the Robot Les Paul Studio Limited's amazing self-tuning system. The MCK is what is commonly referred to as a "Push-pull" knob. When in the normal position (down), it behaves as a regular volume or tone pot. When the MCK is pulled out, the Robot Les Paul Studio Limited's radical self-tuning system is activated and ready for use.

It immediately places the Robot Les Paul Studio Limited in standard tuning mode (A440). A quick turn of the MCK presents six factory presets, all of which can be customized. At any time, you can also restore the tunings to the factory presets and start all over again. The LED display on top of the MCK also lets you know when a string is out of tune, or when all strings are in tune, and even when the tuners are turning to get them in tune. It also guides the setting of accurate intonation. At the end of the tuning process, the blue lights on top of the MCK flash. Push the MCK back in and it's ready to go. The only thing you have to do is play.ChamberingThere's something about playing a Gibson Les Paul with perfect tone, balance, and weight. One of the ways the expert craftsmen at Gibson USA achieve this equilibrium is by carving carefully mapped-out chambers in the solid mahogany backs of Les Pauls using a Computer Numeric Controlled (CNC) router before the maple top is glued on. The positioning of the routs was established after careful examination of the resonant characteristics of the Les Paul. Gibson approached this process with the awareness that every change to the formula would have repercussions on the instrument's sound. The results are comfortable, lightweight guitars that are acoustically louder, with increased sustain and resonance.

Mahogany Body and Maple Top

There isn't anything more fundamental to a Les Paul than a mahogany back with a maple top, as well as the regimen involved in selecting the right wood and the formula to dry it out. First, every piece of wood is personally inspected and qualified by Gibson's team of skilled wood experts before it enters the Gibson factories. Once inside the Gibson factories where humidity is maintained at 45 percent, and the temperature at 70 degrees all woods are dried to a level of "equilibrium" by ensuring the moisture content does not change during the manufacturing process. This guarantees tight-fitting joints and no expansion, and helps control the shrinkage and warping of the woods, in addition to helping reduce the weight. It also helps with improving the wood's machinability and finished properties, and adherence to glue. Consistent moisture content means that a Gibson guitar will respond evenly to temperature and humidity changes long after it leaves the factory.

Nitrocellulose Finishes

Applying this nitro finish to any Gibson guitar including the Robot Les Paul Studio Limited is one of the most labor-intensive elements of the guitar-making process. A properly applied nitro finish requires extensive man-hours, several evenly applied coats, and an exorbitant amount of drying time. But this fact has never swayed Gibson into changing this time-tested method that has been employed ever since the first Gibson guitar was swathed with lacquer back in 1894. Why? For starters, a nitro finish dries to a much thinner coat than a polyurethane finish, which means there is less interference with the natural vibration of the instrument, allowing for a purer tone. A nitro finish is also a softer finish, which makes it easily repairable. You can touch up a scratch or ding on a nitro finish, but you can't do the same on a poly finish. In addition, a nitro finish is very porous in nature, and actually gets thinner over time. It does not seal wood in an airtight shell as a poly finish does and allows the wood to breathe and age properly.

Tune-control Bridge and Data Transmitting Tailpiece

The revolutionary Robot Les Paul Studio Limited sports a unique, highly specialized Tune Control Bridge, which acts as one of the main components of the self-tuning robotic system. The Tune-Control Bridge is a modified Tune-o-matic that measures the individual tuning of each string via special saddles. The signal from each string is then transmitted to the control CPU in the control panel, which then transfers the signal to the Neck CPU and the Powerhead Locking Tuners, which, in turn, tune the strings. At first glance, the tailpiece on Gibson's groundbreaking Robot Les Paul Studio Limited looks like a normal tailpiece. But look a little closer and you'll see that it's far from ordinary. Gibson's Data Transmitting Tailpiece is a hub of activity. First, each string is separated by ceramic insulators that isolate each individual string signal and avoids confusion as to which string is being processed and tuned. There are also special isolating inserts that keep the ball ends commonly found on electric guitar strings from making contact and disrupting signal flow. Underneath the tailpiece is a tiny circuit board that processes each individual signal to the ribbon cable, which is then transmitted to the on-board CPUs. Both pieces work with each other to help balance all the information being transmitted between the various points, and makes sure every string is in tune.Gibson's 490R and 498T PickupsThe mid to late 1960s saw the emergence of a very different type of music coming from the clubs of England. The new genre's players were demanding more powerful amplifiers with increased volume outputs to satisfy their sonic explorations. This led to a call for a more versatile pickup to split coils through a push/pull knob, and prevent the microphonic feedback that occurs when the volume is turned up to maximum levels. Gibson answered this call with the 490T and 490R pickups ("T" for treble, and "R" for rhythm), both with the traditional characteristics of the original "Patent Applied For" pickups, but with two key modifications. First, a four-conductor wiring scheme allows the 490s to be connected to any push/pull knob, which lets players split the coils and increase versatility. Gibson also introduced wax potting, which does away with any air space inside the pickup thus lessening the chances of microphonic feedback. The result is a humbucker with the tonal characteristics of an original PAF, with a slight increase in upper mid-range response. The Gibson 498T bridge pickup is the 490's ideal complement. Taking the 490 one step further, the 498 swaps the Alnico II magnet to an Alnico V, this making it slightly hotter with emphasis on mid-ranges and highs. The pole pieces on the 498T are also aligned a little further apart to accommodate the spacing of the strings at the bridge, which is different than the spacing of the strings at the neck. As with all Gibson pickups, every part is precisely manufactured at Gibson USA in Nashville, Tennessee.

Fret Wire

The fret wire on the revolutionary Robot SG Special Limited is a combination nickel and silver alloy (approximately 80 percent nickel and 20 percent silver) specifically designed for long life and superior wear. Gibson's traditional "medium/jumbo" fret wire is first shaped by hand, then cut to and exact 12-inch radius. After hand pressing it into the fingerboard, a machine press finished the job to eliminate the gap between the bottom of the fret wire and the fingerboard.22-Fret

Rosewood Fingerboard

Rosewood has always graced the fingerboards of the world's finest stringed instruments. The fingerboard on Gibson's Robot Les Paul Studio Limited is constructed from the highest grade Rosewood on the planet. It's personally inspected and qualified by Gibson's team of skilled wood experts before it enters the Gibson factories to be fitted onto the necks of the Robot Les Paul Studio Limited guitars. The resilience of this dense and durable wood makes the fingerboard extremely balanced and stable, and gives each chord and note clarity and bite. The 12-inch radius of the fingerboard provides smooth note bending capabilities and eliminates "dead" or "choked out" notes, which can occur on fingerboards with lesser radiuses. Resilient and less porous, rosewood tends to absorb oils well, allowing it to preserve its rich, beautiful color.

'50s Rounded Neck Profile

No guitar neck profile is more distinguishable than the one employed on the Robot Les Paul Studio Limited the traditional '50s neck, which is the thicker, rounder profile, emulating the neck shapes found on the iconic 1958 and 1959 Les Paul Standards. Each neck is machined in Gibson's rough mill using wood shapers to make the initial cuts. Once the fingerboard gets glued on, the neck is carefully shaped by hand. That means there are no two necks with the exact same dimensions. True to its handcrafting, each neck will be slightly different, with a distinct and traditional feel.

Powerhead Locking Tuners

Gibson's Robot Les Paul Studio Limited is unique in many ways, but the "robot-like" Powerhead Tuners that grace the headstock are extraordinary. Pull out the Multi-Control Knob (MCK) and watch the Powerhead Tuners spring into action. It takes only a few seconds for the Powerhead Tuners to tune the Robot Les Paul Studio Limited to the desired tuning. Each tuning peg is equipped with a tiny, but powerful, servo motor that kicks into action once the system is activated. The Powerhead Tuners rely on the strings themselves to send the signals, eliminating any potential for interference. Made of lightweight metal with a satin nickel finish, the Powerhead Tuners weigh only 46.5 grams each. A standard Gotoh tuner weighs in at 49 grams. That means a set of Powerhead Tuners weigh a full 15 grams less than a set of Gotoh tuners, which is another indicator of the Robot Les Paul Studio Limited's true innovation.
Gibson Robot Les Paul Studio Electric Guitar Features:

Body Wood: Mahogany
Top wood: Maple
Scale Length: 24-3/4"
Neck Joint: Set-in
Neck Wood: Mahogany
Fretboard: Rosewood
Neck Shape: C-Shape
Frets: 22 Medium Jumbo
Nut Width: 1.695"
Fretboard Radius: 12
Bridge: Fixed
Pickup Bridge: Gibson 498T Humbucker
Pickup Neck: Gibson 490R Humbucker
Controls: Volume / Volume / Tone / Tone
Tuners: Powerhead Locking
Hardware color: Chrome
Pickup selector: 3-way switch
Finish: Nitrocellulose
Includes case