There's a good interview in the latest issue of GuitarWorld magazine featuring Paul Stanley of KISS talking about his latest guitar, the Preacher series from Washburn. Stanley helped provide input into the design of the Preacher and he comments on the classic elements that make a good rock guitar.
"Too many guitars are either poorly deisgned or just goofy looking. They're different for the sake of being different, but they don't stand up in terms of design...
"For me, a great pickup means you can hear each string when you strum a chord. I never liked pickups that just put out this blaring, white noise distortion. All the guitar players I love, when they hit a chord, you heard each string. So I prefer either a real vintage pickup or one that's just a little souped-up. But when you get into superdistortion, super-duper-distortion and super-unbelievable distorion pickups, I'm not interested. They're not musical pickups. They serve a certain kind of music well, but they don't suit what I do..."
The high-end PS9200 model guitar features a mahogany body, Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates pickups, set neck with ebony fretboard, Grover tuners and gold hardware. Coming in at just under 4 grand, it's an expensive guitar, but it looks absolutely stunning and is available in black or white. Other models in the series, including the PS7000 and PS7200 are a bit more modest in their specs, but still feature the mahogany body, Grover tuners, but use Egnator pickups and come in at a more affordable $1249. Still not cheap compared to the average Strat or Les Paul.
Stanley used the PS9200 guitar on his latest solo album "Live to Win" and on tour in 2006 and 2007. It's a good album and if you like late stage KISS with an updated sound, you'll feel right at home with it.
Unfortunately, the GuitarWorld article is not yet available online and Mr Stanley keeps blowing me off every time I try to get a confirmed interview schedule. Ok, so I admit, I'm jealous that GuitarWorld has more pull than I do. You can't fault me for tryin!
- Washburn: Paul Stanley Series Guitars, Paul Stanley Press Release
- Official Sites: Paul Stanley, KISS
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