“When I pick up an SG, it does everything I want”: Phil X reveals why he favours Gibsons over Fenders
Phil X has had his say on the classic Fender vs Gibson debate – and he’s firmly chosen his side of the fence.
While the Bon Jovi guitarist does appreciate a Fender, he’s a Gibson guy at heart and specifically likes a Gibson SG. However, that hasn’t always been his position as last month, he revealed he used to take issue with the brand’s quality control but “that’s a long time ago”.
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X explains to Ultimate Guitar that his musical heroes growing up – Ted Nugent, Angus Young, Tony Iommi and Jimmy Page – were largely Gibson players. The one slight exception was Eddie Van Halen with his famous Frankenstrat – a Fender Stratocaster using Gibson pickups.
Explaining why he favours a Gibson SG, he said: “I just love the SG. I love Les Pauls. I have a few. And there’s something about the Les Paul that, when I want to go high, I’m inhibited by the body and the neck joint and the cutaway. On an SG, you can hit any note you want.”
“In fact, I’m working on a signature SG with Gibson, and it has 24 frets. And they didn’t have to change the body. They just put those extra two frets where that piece of plastic is between the 22nd fret and the and the neck pickup. And they were like, ‘You know what? Why did we ever put a piece of plastic there?’ They could have all had 24 frets!’ And I’m like, ‘That’s pretty crazy.’ So, I’m excited about that. I’m excited about the 24 frets.”
He continues: “There’s something about an SG that sometimes feels like it’s a little light. Because I’m a bigger guy, so it’s a little light for me. So, we made the body an eighth inch thicker to also compensate for the thicker neck. I have a ’56 Les Paul Gold Top neck on it. So that profile, which I love, and the body. I pick up that guitar now, and it feels like home. So Gibson, I mean, even when I was with Framus, I kind of made them make an SG. And we called it the XG. And that was a bigger body and a neck through and that was really cool. I had a good bunch of years with them. But then, when Gibson started saying, ‘Hey, why not come to us?’”
X then returns to his gripe with the brand’s past quality control. “Because there was a time where you could see four Les Pauls on a wall, and one would sound great but not play great,” he says. “One would play great and not sound great, and so forth. They were all so different. And obviously, that comes down to quality control.
“In 2019, I met with the Gibson guys, and I went to the factory, and I was blown away by the people, the work, every guitar that I picked up in the showroom, every guitar that I picked up in the factory, I was really blown away by how everything was coming out. So that really changed my mind from resisting.
“And then that’s my vibe, as opposed to what you asked, ‘Why Gibson instead of Fender?’ And the Fender thing for me is I do like Fenders. I don’t use a lot of Fenders. I use guitars that are like a Tele or like a Strat, made by other companies. But that’s a long story.
“And they do their job, but to me, when I pick up an SG, and I want to rock out, it does everything I want. And even if it only has one pickup, it does everything I want. So, I mean, why stray from that?”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
