Chords for ESP Guitars: George Lynch's 25 Years with ESP (日本語字幕)

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_ [Eb] [Abm] How did I first hear about ESP?
[B] Well, I was on tour with [Eb] Dockett in New York, and I think we were playing some place huge, Giant [Ab] Stadium or something.
I was [Ab] interested in getting a specific kind of guitar built to [B] specific dimensions.
[Bbm] We were advised that if we [Eb] wanted something really custom like that,
we should go talk to the people at ESP [Abm] while we were in Japan on tour, which we did.
And we [B] set up a meeting.
We [Eb] started talking about, okay, well first I wanted a specific neck made,
and then that evolved into this whole guitar which became the Kamikaze,
[Eb] which we ended up designing within a few hours right on the spot in this music store.
And they were so into it that you couldn't help but just go with the flow.
The ESP guys were just [Db] jumping over themselves to get it done.
It was really fun, actually, so we came up with everything,
and every specific dimension and all the [Gb] windings on the pickups and the fret size
and the radius [Db] of the neck and the wood materials and so forth and et cetera, and the graphics, obviously.
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The process of getting the guitars from an idea [F] to a physical [Am] reality is actually very [Gb] enjoyable.
I love the process of taking an idea of a guitar and then getting it to the point where it's actually something manifest and [G] real.
But in recent years, I've been getting more involved in every aspect [Bm] of it,
meaning that I'm more [Eb] aware of how pickups [E] are made [Gb] and what different types of woods do to the sound of [Gbm] the guitar and so forth.
[Bm] And knowing those things or being partially aware of some of those things has opened up a lot of avenues for [Gb] me
as far as really fine-tuning how the guitar is built.
It's a learning process, a learning curve, but I'm surrounded by really wonderful people that know a lot more than I [D] do here at ESP
so that I learn from them and then I take credit for it.
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[E] So I think represented here, you have 25 years [B] of the evolution of [D] the relationship between myself and ESP,
and I think what's [Gb] ironic about it, which I've [E] seen in a lot of areas of my life and other people's lives,
is sometimes you [B] end up where you started out.
[D] So it's been a wonderful journey, and what I've sort of [Gb] learned from the whole process
is that at the end of the day, we got it right, right from the start, which [Em] is the first couple guitars we built
have stood the test of [E] time, which I think says a lot.
I think that's [Em] a wonderful testament right there to the implementation of a good idea
and then standing behind it and building something that [G] lasts and [A] continues to make people happy.
For decades, I think we've [Ab] accomplished what we set out to.
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_ [Ab] _ [F] The guitar I've had for, I think now over 30 years, that I actually put together, bolted together out of parts,
back in 1978, I believe, is my original M1 Tiger.
And I say put them together because I'm not [E] a luthier, but I would bolt necks, install [N] pickups and bridges and things like that,
just bolt them together and paint them.
But I had guitar students as I taught lessons at little music shops and so forth,
and I would bolt these things together for my students, and that's how I would supplement my income.
[Eb] And I learned a lot about how [F] guitars are made and how to make them sound [E] better and play better by doing that.
But [B] the Tiger was the first [Bb] guitar I put together, which is obviously [F] the basis for the M1 Tiger, the Bengal,
the LTD version and so [Em] forth, and that one has been around the longest.
[Eb] And it's a very simple guitar, and it's solid maple, it's very heavy,
[B] and you would think [Fm] because of that it would be very bright and [Eb] not warm sounding, but it is.
It's very warm sounding, and usually today everybody likes light guitars and chorus wood and open grain and all that sort of thing.
The Tiger has gone through so many changes and it's been so abused, but it still sounds amazing, better than ever actually.
I mean, the older it gets, the [Cm] better it sounds, because it's painted with nitrocellulose [E] lacquer,
and as that off-gasses and the vapors evaporate over years and years, it sounds better and better,
and the wood dries out and gets older.
[G] I mean, it's had probably half a dozen necks on it, it's had [Gb] innumerable different pickups on it,
and I've changed the position of the pickup.
It started out as a fixed bridge and then it went to a Floyd, obviously.
I've dropped it down flights of concrete stairs, it's fallen out of planes.
The first time I took it out of the country, I just freshly painted it and wrapped it in a blanket with bungee cords,
put it in the hold of a charter plane, and we flew to Reykjavik, Iceland in the winter,
[F] so it was probably like 30 degrees below zero or [Gb] whatever it was, and it just finished checked,
because the paint wasn't dry, and I was really bummed at the time.
Of course now I think it's beautiful, because you look at the surface of the guitar up close and it's all checked,
it's cracked and separated, but [Eb] it's [Cm] beautiful. _ _ _
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_ [C] _ The original Tiger led directly to the Sunburst Tiger,
which is basically [G] kamikaze with the Tiger graphic with the sunburst around the edges, obviously.
Reverse banana [E] headstock, but it's maple, just like the Tiger, but it's got the single coil pickup, which is nice.
You know, it's something that I've always wanted to put on my Tiger, but I just don't want to mess with the guitar, so I haven't,
but it's something I use a lot.
Clean parts, so that the guitar isn't such a one-trick pony, so you can do other things with it.
You know, fluid legato kind of solos, violin tone, with the neck position single coil pickup,
[Eb] sparkly clean stuff.
It's [E] a kamikaze with a different paint job and a rosewood fingerboard.
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Yeah, I love the GL-56.
The [Em] first one we did in the early [Gb] 90s, I think it was,
all single coil, distressed, tobacco with [Ebm] a traditional [Em] pickup on it, tremolo [G] pickup, but not a Floyd.
We sidelined it for a while and then brought it back, and we changed it.
We put a humbucking in the bridge, kept [C] the traditional stock bridge,
but like the old pre-CBS bent metal bridge, but really [E] high quality metal,
and [Gb] shallower keys, and very versatile guitar.
[Fm] And I've been able to use it for everything [Gb] from quasi-metal to obviously blues and clean stuff,
and everything in [B] between, and it's just got a great neck on it.
This is just a magical guitar, and everybody that's played it falls in love with it and very [C] happy with it. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Ab] _ _ [C] _ This is the Skull and Snakes, which I call the Haji.
I'm not sure why.
This is basically [Gb] the graphic from [C] the Lynch Mob Wicked Sensation album.
It's great artwork, so we figured why not utilize it.
It's the guitar that I used on that record as well.
Double blade, single coil, a Screamin' Demon, and a recessed Floyd, and these really cool inlays,
rosewood neck, and I believe an alder body.
It's a very warm sounding guitar.
It doesn't have a lot of top to it,
but it's very smooth and very warm, and big frets, and a reverse headstock.
It's just one of my main standbys that I always go to.
It's either that or the [Ab] Tiger or the GL-56.
That's my big three. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Db] So the last guitar on the rack is the [Gb] Super V.
It's something we came up with [Eb] a couple of years ago, and it's all mahogany, high quality mahogany.
It's got a P90 pickup [Gb] in the neck and a [Db] custom-wound humbucking in the bridge.
[Eb] It's got a Tunamatic bridge and a Hooker headstock, which is something I came up with.
[E] It's kind of my own design [Ab] for a headstock that [Abm] I ripped off from someone else, I'm sure.
And it's a dark sounding [Eb] guitar, really warm, because of the mahogany.
It came in two finishes, a flat black and a translucent [Ab] cherry red.
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_ _ _ [Eb] _ Well, the reason I stayed with ESP for over 25 years [Ab] now,
there's something about me where I [G] love staying committed to relationships, [Eb] to situations and people,
whether it's my band, label, anybody I work with in the business.
And it's the same with ESP, and actually they've given me [Db] a lot of leeway as far as designing guitars.
We've had a lot [G] of success and made a [G] lot of people happy building really cool quality guitars
that have [Bm] endured for decades, which is quite an [Db] accomplishment. _ _
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