The Guest: Lips (Anvil)

This is pretty awesome. Anvil is a legendary band from Canada. If you don’t know their story, check out the rockumentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil on Netflix. The band has been around for decades, and I would say that they are one of the most passionate bands out there. These guys have done it all and never given up despite the hardship they have endured through the years.

I sent a mail to vocalist/guitarist Lips to invite him to do this guestpiece, and I’m so stoked that he said yes. Here are some wise words about guitars from this living legend. enjoy!

Hi Everyone!

Being a guitar player for over 50 years you end up owning a huge amount of guitars. It seems there's never enough!! 

Not too long ago I discovered that there's companies that exist in China that make knock off Gibson guitars. Amazingly they get away with it and I thought Id order one to see for myself what exactly they are.

I have always been a Ted Nugent fan and got to know his guitar technician in the past little while. He owns a Gibson Byrdland exactly like Ted's. He came down to one of our gigs a while ago and let me try the guitar in my Fender Twins. Of course the sound was exactly the same as Ted's and I also discovered extremely similar to my semi hollow flying V’s.

I ordered the Chinese made Byrdland and it took about 3 months to arrive!! It looked exactly like a Gibson including the logo on the headstock. Unfortunately the bridge pick up was mounted in the wrong position and the guitar couldn't be adjusted to play properly. I had my guitar technician reposition the pick up and supplied some new pick ups made by Ted Nugent's pick up maker.

The guitar is now pretty good but my advice is don't buy one unless you have the means to fix it up.

Lips