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SMG Review: Epiphone Limited Edition Riviera Custom Royale P93

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Getting down with the Epiphone Limited Edition Riviera Custom Royale P93!

EPIPHONE GUITARS

The Epiphone Company is a musical instrument manufacturer founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos. Epiphone was bought by Chicago Music Company, who also owned Gibson Guitar Corporation, in 1957. Epiphone was Gibson’s main rival in the archtop market. Their professional archtops, including the Emperor, Deluxe, Broadway and Triumph, rivaled (and some contend surpassed) those of Gibson.

OFF THE RACK

The Epiphone Riviera has a warm, vintage tone that is perfect for instrumentals or clean based styles.  A double cutaway, semi-hollow body gives this guitar the classic style that many guitarists have long loved and continue to play. The three P-90 single-coil pickups produce the raw tone that many blues and rock stylists seek. The P90′s traditional combination of high output and brilliant tone is still considered a favorite among many top musicians. The Bigsby tailpiece delivers superb vibrato and has been guitarists favorite for decades. A pearl white finish and gold hardware add a touch of class to the vintage design. The neck is not the fastest, but let’s face it, it’s not meant to be. The smooth comfortable action is very grippy and fits the hand nicely. The Ltd Edition Riviera Custom Royale P93 would be a nice addition for any serious musician looking for a classic axe.

THE SPECS

  • Double cutaway semi-hollow guitar
  • Laminated maple top Arched with hand-scalloped bracing
  • Sound post Laminated maple back & sides
  • Set mahogany neck
  • 1.68″ nut width C-shape neck Adjustable truss rod
  • 24.75″ scale length Rosewood fingerboard with mother-of-pearl inlays
  • 12″ fingerboard radius
  • 22 frets
  • 1-ply binding on fingerboard and body
  • Three Alnico V P-90 pickups
  • 3 volume controls 1 tone controls 3-way toggle pickup selector
  • Tune-o-matic bridge
  • Bigsby vibrato tailpiece
  • Gold hardware Grover tuners Pearl white finish

THE LOW DOWN

The Epiphone Riviera is an awesome, classic guitar that has powerful clean tone and perfect for blues, rock and country. With its smooth playability, you will get a lot out of this guitar. The three P-90 pickups will blow you away with all the clean tone combinations you can create. The Bigsby is always a great addition to any axe, delivering just the right amount of twang and vibrato. The semi hollow design makes this guitar light and comfortable. I found that the Ltd Edition Riviera Custom sounds best through VOX amplifiers. Test one of these babies out for yourself and discover the many brilliant tones you can create with this monster axe.

Pros: Bigsby tailpiece, P-90 pickups ,light weight, classic tone.

Cons: Thick neck.

Street price – $500 – $549

Till next week, thanks for reading and keep on shredding!

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SMG Review: Gibson Dethklok Thunderhorse Explorer

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GIBSON GUITARS

The Gibson Guitar Corporation is an American manufacturer of guitars. Gibson also builds: Epiphone, Kramer, Valley Arts, Tobias, Steinberger, and Kalamazoo guitars.

Company founder Orville Gibson made mandolins in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the late 1890s. He invented arch top guitars by using the same type of carved, arched tops found on violins. By the 1930s, the company was also making flattop acoustic guitars, as well as one of the first commercially available hollow-body electric guitars.  In the early 1950s, Gibson introduced its first solid-body electric guitar and its most popular guitar to date—the Les Paul. After being purchased by the Norlin corporation in the late 1960s Gibson’s quality and fortunes took a steep decline until early 1986, when the company was rescued by its present owners.

OUT OF THE CASE

Inspired by The hilarious Adult Swim Cartoon Metalocalypse. This axe is played by lead guitarist Skwisgaar Skwigelf. The Dethklok “Thunderhorse” Explorer is equipped with two Gibson BurstBucker humbuckers that are both powerful and articulate. These Heavy Metal masterpieces will have you chugging away till your fingers bleed! The thick sustain is long lasting and makes your tone as versatile as any guitar out there. The set mahogany and rosewood neck is both fast and comfortable. This is definitely a great metal axe with all the trimmings, for less then you would expect to pay.

THE SPECS

  • Explorer body style Mahogany body (non-chambered)
  • Set mahogany neck Slim
  • Ebony fingerboard
  • 22 medium-jumbo frets
  • White swirl acrylic dot inlays
  • Gibson BurstBucker 2 bridge pickup with Alnico II magnet
  • Gibson BurstBucker 1 neck pickup with Alnico II magnet
  • 3-way pickup selector
  • 2 Volume/1 Tone control with black top hat knobs
  • Chrome mini-Grover tuners
  • ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic bridge/stopbar tailpiece
  • Corian nut
  • 24-3/4″ scale
  • 1.695″ nut width

THE LOW DOWN

The Dethklok Explorer is a phenomenal axe that you will enjoy for the rest of your days. This axe might not be for everyone but for those who can handle the larger size of a Gibson Explorer, you will be in Metal bliss. It seems to be a bit lighter than the classic Gibson Explorers, but not by much. If you are into Explorers, do yourself a favor and check one out ASAP! Who knows how many of these bad boys Gibson will produce. So go out and get you some Skwisgaar magic…. and shred the night away like the master himself!

Pros: Mahogany body, fast neck, awesome sustain, powerful tone, great feel.

Cons: N/A

Street Price – $1600 – $1950

Till next time, thanks for reading and keep on shredding!

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HOW TO GET YOUR JAM ON WHILE TRAVELING

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HITTIN’ THE ROAD

I recently went out of town for work for a month. My first concern, before wondering about sleeping conditions and food opportunities, was how to keep up with playing, primarily with respect to the new songs I had to learn for my band. I was hauling a lot of gear for my job, so whatever I brought had to be compact, easily transportable, and rugged in order to survive any mishaps. Furthermore, I needed a way to hear my guitar and be able to play along with the songs I needed to learn.

TRAVEL GUITARS

I had two travel guitars prior to this journey. My Baby Taylor is perfect for taking to the park, the beach, or even plunking on at home on the couch. When acoustic is the flavor of choice, it’s compact enough and resides in a nicely padded gig bag that’s ideal for travel, but it didn’t meet my needs for this trip. Though durable for an acoustic, I didn’t want to subject it to being knocked around. I was going to be spending a lot of time in airports and on buses and wanted something that wouldn’t disturb others. Finally, learning the solo to ‘Flirtin’ With Disaster’ just wouldn’t have cut it on any acoustic.

My Aria Sinsonido is super compact and also comes in a nicely padded gig bag. It’s been all over the world with me, proving itself as road-worthy time after time. The headphone output meant I’d be able to play anywhere, anytime, without drawing attention. But it’s a steel string model – not so friendly to high register pitch bends and other electric-style gymnastics.

My neighbor had an electric-style guitar from Traveler Guitars that he really enjoyed so I got in touch with them and told them of my plans. They sent over the very appropriate EG-2: full-scale neck, compact and solid, yet small framed and short in length with the tuners built into the body, and both standard 1/4″ guitar and 1/8″ headphone jacks. Add to that a well padded gig bag with extra pockets and carrying handles and straps. Guitar – check.

PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC, WHITE BOY!

My next challenge was figuring out how to play the song list for my band and jam with it at the same time. I had all the songs on my trusty iPod Touch, but had no way of looping sections for practice. I was also figuring out how to listen to the songs while playing along at equal volume. IK Multimedia’s Amplitube app and iRig interface to the rescue! Uploading the songs to the app, I was able to loop sections and adjust playback speed. With the iRig, my guitar interfaced perfectly with the app, allowing me to set playback and guitar levels, dial in killer tones through the amp modeling, and further shape my sound through pedal effects. With the inclusion of the built-in tuner and metronome, I had the perfect all-in-one practice solution on a pocket-sized device. This setup was just what I needed and served me well, but when I was holed up in my hotel room, I wanted to break free of the headphones and extra cabling and rock out in the open (as much as rocking out in a hotel room will allow).

THIS ONE GOES TO 11! (but won’t disturb the neighbors)

I took a quick trip to Guitar Center (they’re everywhere!) and scoped out the micro amps. There was good variety and I tried every one, excitedly settling on a Danelectro HoneyTone. It had the best sound of all the amps, it was perfect in size (easily tossed into a backpack) and power (quiet enough to rock and not get kicked out of the hotel, to loud enough to rock and get kicked out of the hotel), and looked damn cool. Done!

I had my Mac laptop with me. One of my favorite practice tools is software by Roni Music called ‘Amazing Slow Downer’. Similar to Amplitube, it allows looping sections of music and adjusting playback speed, but also includes equalization, mix control, saving loop presets, and more. I initially balked at the $50 price tag, but it has become one of the best purchases I’ve made and I use it on a daily basis.

With the songs playing through my laptop’s speakers, and my EG-2 through the HoneyTone, I wailed to my heart’s content. The laptop, guitar, and micro amp were enough, but incorporating Amplitube into the mix really made for a fun time as I ran the guitar into the iRig, through the app’s amp modeling and pedal effects, and out to the HoneyTone. Now I was cookin’!

GO FORTH INTREPID TRAVELER!

With all the great, innovative, travel-friendly products on the market, there is no longer concern as to how to keep up with your six-string while on the road. With the gear mentioned above, I had everything I needed for full-on practicing and jamming: one small, compact padded gig bag for the guitar, and one laptop bag which easily held my computer, iPod Touch, HoneyTone, cables, picks, guitar magazines…

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Dan Coplan is senior staff writer at SMG. Dan is a Los Angeles based cinematographer and self-admitting guitar junkie. Email: dancoplan@sharemyguitar.com

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SMG CONTEST: WIN A CLASSIC VIBE JAZZ BASS® ’60s with HYPER-MOD!

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WIN A CLASSIC VIBE 60s JAZZ BASS!

Are you familiar with a company called AweSome Musical Instruments? They make an assortment of killer products to mod your favorite guitars and basses and in particular, I am very fond of this AMAZING controls mod for the Fender Jazz bass called the JCP-T2 Pickup Tone Multiplier Board Hyper-Mod that they gave us to review! We just reviewed the mod and installed it on a brand spankin’ new Olympic White Fender Classic 60′s Vibe Jazz Bass and it ROCKS!!! Now that the review is complete, it can be all yours. You can enter our contest to WIN IT!

If you’re interested in reading the review you can CHECK IT OUT HERE.

Please by forewarned, this bass BLEW OUR MINDS! The Fender Vibe is truly an unbelievable bass for the price and the controls mod actually DOUBLES THE ANALOG TONES that you would get with the stock setup. We are giving this modded bass away to one random person. Enter now for your chance to score this BAD ASS bass package, which includes a brand new Olympic White Fender Classic Vibe 60s Jazz Bass,  an AweSome Musical Instruments’ Jazz Hyper-Mod (pre-installed) and a brand new Road Runner soft case. ENTER HERE!

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