I was at both shows, and both were some of the best of his I’ve seen (I’ve seen 25 or so). Last night was a perfectly assembled JI400
Set, tonight was a Neil Young and Crazy Horse-style guitar band assault. Tonight there were three Jason / Sadler extended rawk jams: King of Oklahoma, Never Gonna Change, and This Ain’t it. Both were beautiful in their own ways. Predicting a live album.
He did a 95 minute set with DBT. Pretty sure it was his first full set with them since they kicked him out in 2007. Outfit, TVA, Decoration Day. Hood was emotional.
A bit of arcane Gibson history here: in 1985, at the very end of the Norlin era, Gibson wanted to take advantage of the popular interest in heavy metal by revamping their Flying V design to compete with Jackson Charvel's, Kramer's, and BC Rich's flashy designs. The V was not a popular seller and had not been for years. They eliminated the pick guard and added super hot (Dirty Fingers) pick ups and a Kahler tremelo. With new ownership in 1986, they dropped this design, so 1985 was the only year Gibson's Hair Metal V was produced. This is mine, which until a few days ago had been in storage for 15 years. I believe there were only 6 or 7 hundred made, most of them in Cherry Red.
From Gibson: The Metal Years. I bought this guitar new with dishwasher money over 40 years ago. For the last 15 or 20 it had been sitting in storage in its case. It had not seen daylight until yesterday when I pulled it out, polished it, oiled the neck, and put new strings on. It plays beautifully. One question: can anyone identify these pick ups?
