COLUMN TITLE: TUNE IN WITH SKIP

Electric guitars at their best.
Skip McDonald – Columnist

1957 Gibson Les Paul custom guitar, 2024, Gibson.com, 23 Sept, 2024, <https://www.gibson.com/en-US/p/Electric-Guitar/CUSGJ5555/Ebony-2-Pickup>

1957 Fender Stratocaster guitar, 2024, Amazon.com, 23 Sept, 2024, <https://www.amazon.com/Fender-Player-Stratocaster-Electric-Guitar/dp/B07CTV5YVZ?th=1>
It was 1971. I was 14 years old, a freshman at Milpitas High School. I was responsible for producing the beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion from the guitar in the genres of jazz, blues, classic rock, and heavy metal for three bands. For this, I needed two entirely different guitars. After numerous trials of contrasting scores of guitars, I decided to buy a 1968 Gibson Les Paul Custom and a 1970 Fender Stratocaster.
These two guitars are very different. The Gibson Les Paul was introduced by Les Paul himself in 1952. The guitar was only available in a gold finish at that time. In late 1953, Les Paul requested a more luxurious version. This guitar, nicknamed the Black Beauty, was a black guitar with white trim on the outside, as he wanted it to look like a tuxedo. It was one of a kind with its round shape and the single cutaway horn on the bottom. One other thing that stood out and shined on this guitar was the two gold metal pickups in the middle of the body and the gold metal tuning keys at the top of the neck.
The Stratocaster was introduced by the renowned Leo Fender in 1954. It has a double cutaway body with an extended “horn” shape on the top for balance. The Stratocaster’s nickname is Strat. The Strat came in various colors, the one I owned was black. So the Fender wasn’t as flashy as the Gibson.
I would like to tell you that when I thought you needed two different guitars to play different genres of music, I was young and dumb. It isn’t the guitar that makes the music, it’s the guitarist. Now to give you my history of what kind of guitars I have used throughout my musical career, one great example is when I won first place Jazz Soloist at the 1974 Reno International Jazz Festival, I played a Kmart $59.99 Bluelight Special no brand named guitar. I have owned and played an $18,000 vintage guitar in a pizza parlor for free pizza; I’ve played many different guitars in many different places.
I bought two guitars because they have incomparable sound qualities. The Gibson is known for its low tone, “which for me is great” for blues and jazz, not to say that it is not great for rock & roll either. Now when I rock out, I “personally” prefer the Fender. So that is what differs the sound of the two guitars, and why “I personally” choose to use two guitars for two different genres of music. Today, I can play either guitar on any style of music.