Sobre Guthrie Govan, Suhr y Charvel

Finalmente parece ser que los rumores son ciertos. A continuación tenéis el mensaje enviado por Guthrie Govan a través de Facebook sobre su reciente aparición con guitarras Charvel (la que podemos ver en la fotografía) en lugar de Suhr en los conciertos.

Guthrie confirma que ya no trabaja con Suhr Guitars y que además sus modelos GG signature model tampoco van a seguir a la venta. No ha indicado los motivos pero parece ser que ambas partes han llegado a un punto en el cual no se ponían de acuerdo en como continuar su relación profesional.

Sí que ha dejado claro que los motivos son únicamente de negocios y que no tienen nada que ver con la calidad de los instrumentos de Suhr, que siguen siendo excelentes. Confirma además que ninguna marca de guitarras le ha pagado nunca por usar sus guitarras, pedales o amplificadores y que únicamente toca con lo que se siente cómodo.

Actualmente no es endorser de Charvel, pero sí que tiene el prototipo que podéis ver en la fotografía, la guitarra prototipo #1 de Charvel Guitars ha sido usada en el tour europeo de Aristocrats y que incluso provocó que no pudiera tocar en España.

Aquí tenéis el comunicado completo de Guthrie Govan al respecto donde además desvela algún detalle de la guitarra (Koa body, roasted/baked/caramelised maple neck, special Mystery Pickups designed by one of the Fender Custom Shop’s “mad scientists”, Gotoh 2-post trem with vintage-style saddles and Tremol-No as per usual… No “blower switch”, purely because I no longer feel the need for one: presumably my volume pedal chops have improved a little over the last few years?)

Hello! Guthrie here, with a somewhat boring (but apparently necessary!) update… and a pretty picture ;-)

Well… the guitar I’ve been using lately has apparently caused something of a stir in certain sectors of the online community, so I figured it might be helpful if I explained what’s actually going on.

Just to clear things up:

1) I’m no longer affiliated with Suhr guitars, and Suhr’s product range will no longer include a GG signature model. This is really Not A Big Deal: the Suhr guys and yours truly simply reached a point where we couldn’t agree on the best way to develop our working relationship. The finer details are of no concern to anyone other than me and the Suhr company, but there’s certainly no animosity here: it was a mutual business-related decision, that’s all.

Contrary to certain “purple monkey dishwasher” rumours which seem to be in circulation, this has nothing to do with any alleged reliability issues: the Suhr company continues to make consistently world-class instruments, just as it always has done.

2) Just for the record, no company has ever paid me so much as a penny to use their guitars/amps/strings/pedals/whatever. I see no point in working with any gear company unless I have the utmost confidence in the quality of its work… and genuinely feel that its product is helping me in my ongoing quest to make pleasing noises.

3) I don’t currently have any guitar endorsement deal, and not every instrument I use in a public place should be presumed to be a signature model. (I’m aware that this contradicts certain assertions you may have read on Wikipedia but… where that particular source of information is concerned, it strikes me that you only get what you pay for!)

4) Having said all of the above… I have recently been working on some ideas with the good people at Charvel Guitars, and the results have been extremely encouraging!

Below, you’ll see a picture of the #1 prototype Charvel I used for the Aristocrats’ recent European tour. It sounds great, the neck pretty much plays itself and… to my way of thinking, it looks mighty fine, too ;-)

(Koa body, roasted/baked/caramelised maple neck, special Mystery Pickups designed by one of the Fender Custom Shop’s “mad scientists”, Gotoh 2-post trem with vintage-style saddles and Tremol-No as per usual… No “blower switch”, purely because I no longer feel the need for one: presumably my volume pedal chops have improved a little over the last few years?)

Unfortunately, the only current video footage out there seems to be a Greek interview (where I’m playing through a hired 100W Marshall at bedroom volume levels) and a TV broadcast from the Frankfurt Jazz Festival (where the sound guys somehow contrived to add a bizarre and very distracting short delay to the guitar signal) but… soon enough, I’m sure you’ll be able to hear this thing properly: its tone has a unique kind of snarl, which I’m liking a lot ;-)

If this guitar evolves into a full-on signature model/endorsement, I’ll certainly let you know (and I’m guessing that Charvel might have something to say about it, too!) but at this stage it’s just a “Mk1” prototype. Let’s just see what happens from here…

In other news… the launch of the live Aristocrats DVD/CD package is just around the corner! Stay tuned – I promise that my next post will be more exciting and less verbose than this one ;-)

Cheers,

GG

 

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