Bursting With Pride

As the new Gibson Slash Collection is unveiled at this year’s NAMM show, we grab a moment away from the crowds with the man himself to chat about his latest collaboration with Gibson…

- Richard Bienstock

On a sunny California afternoon, Slash is holed up in a hotel room near the Anaheim Convention Center, where the NAMM show is underway, and where his guitars are causing a stir. Unlike other one-off collaborations with the guitarist who, with Guns N’ Roses, went a long way toward single-handedly putting the Les Paul back on the map in the late 80s, Gibson’s Slash Collection encompasses a full line of instruments. At launch, the range offers four new electrics – the Slash Les Paul Standard in November Burst and Appetite Burst, as well as limited-edition Anaconda Burst and Vermillion Burst – alongside two Slash J-45 Standard signature models (in November Burst and Vermillion Burst).

For Slash, one of the key selling points of collaborating with Gibson on a project of this scope was that the Slash Collection guitars would be part of the Gibson USA production line, and therefore more readily available and affordably priced than limited-edition Custom Shop models.