“I have a thing for quality control” Bon Jovi guitarist Phil X on why he refused to play Gibsons for many years
Bon Jovi guitarist Phil X has opened up about his journey to becoming a Gibson artist and his initial skepticism about the brand due to its past quality control issues.
Despite being inspired by legendary Gibson players like Ted Nugent, Angus Young, Tony Iommi and Jimmy Page, Phil X says he was hesitant to jump on board the Gibson train because many of the guitars he encountered previously fell short in terms of sound and feel.
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“I got used to playing with the hardtail piece, and then I wanted an SG, but I have a thing for quality control,” Phil X tells Guitar Summit [via Ultimate Guitar]. “So for the longest time, Gibson wasn’t so good with the quality control. And that’s a long time ago.”
The guitarist elaborates, “And it’s not me — I could walk in and I could pick up a beautiful Les Paul that looks amazing, but it doesn’t sound very good and it doesn’t feel very good because it wasn’t set up right, because of the quality control, or the lack thereof.”
“And for me, it’s like, ‘I don’t care.’ I put it back. But you got a kid who saves all their money to go buy it, and Gibson Les Paul because Jimmy Page uses it, and they get a non-good version of it for, like, $4,000 that they saved. And that kind of bugged me.”
The turning point came in 2019, after James ‘JC’ Curleigh took the helm at the beleaguered guitar giant following the departure of longtime CEO Henry Juszkiewicz.
“So, in 2019, I was at the Dallas International Guitar Show, and I was talking to Gibson,” Phil X recalls. “And they say, ‘We’ve changed everything. Our quality control is amazing, and you need to come to Nashville and check out the factories.’ And I did, and I was blown away.”
“And the one thing that really hit me, like really, really hard, was everybody… Whether you were putting binding on a Les Paul, or wiring up an SG, or doing whatever to a Flying V or something — everybody was happy,” he says. “Like, ‘Oh, man, these people love their jobs. Okay, this got to be a really great company.’”
“So they wooed me, and I got wooed, and I have been in there since.”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
