JASON UNRAU
Globe and Mail Update Last updated on Monday, Mar. 30, 2009 03:47PM EDT
Robot Guitar; $4,000
When was the last time you ripped open a package that didn't proclaim itself "new" or "improved" or "better than ever" but instead was simply "already great"? How many things in life—an Oxford shirt, springtime in Paris, a 1961 Bordeaux—have you declared to be beyond reproach, timeless, a classic, ageless, abiding and unfailing in their perfection? Not many, we're sure. We asked some of the most discerning folks we know to tell us what items they wouldn't change for the world. Like this Gibson Les Paul guitar, a conduit through which modern rock 'n' roll has been channelled since the instrument made its electric debut in 1952. Apart from a few bridge modifications and the application of "humbucker" pickups in 1957, the guitar's solid-body curves have remained virtually unchanged. Ask anyone who's slung one around their neck—Jimmy Page, Neil Young, Slash, Les Paul—there isn't a thing you could do to make it any better. Or is there? In 2007, Gibson introduced the Robot Guitar, styled in traditional Les Paul fashion, with the unique ability to tune itself. It appears that perfection knows no bounds.
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