Review: 'Solidbodies: The 50 Year Guitar War' DVD

by Staff.

Lightning Lab Productions has produced a new DVD, Solidbodies: The 50 Year Guitar War, that offers a captivating look at the history of the two most significant solidbody guitars in history: the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul. For over 50 years, Fender and Gibson guitars have dominated the electric guitar market. Despite the hundreds of other guitar builders pursuing the better mousetrap, the Stratocaster and Les Paul continue to dominate. Solidbodies reaches back to the days when Leo Fender and Ted McCarty pushed the envelope of electrified and amplified sound to build guitars for jazz players (Gibson) and country swing guitarists (Fender). Images from the '60s of Eric Clapton, Mike Bloomfield, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix flash past while we’re told of the time when these instruments began their climb to icon status thanks to the brutal force of rock ‘n’ roll.

Solidbodies: The 50 Year Guitar War repeatedly delivers guitar eye candy with historic and contemporary visuals of Strats and Les Pauls and an equal dose of ear candy as featured guitarists crank out riff after riff of crunchy Les Paul grinds and that glassy Strat tone. One interesting scene has two guitarists side-by-side highlighting the distinct character of each guitar’s signature sounds.

Featuring some of the best guitar hot rodders around such as Derek Trucks, Joe Bonamassa, Gary Hoey, John Roth, Henry Garza, Wes Jeans and Steve Selvidge, Solidbodies straddles both the past and present. Guitar experts, including vintage guitar guru George Gruhn, weigh in with opinions on the ongoing Stratocaster versus Les Paul debate.

Producer Guy Hornbuckle saw a gap in his guitar video library and set out to chronicle the parallel histories of Fender Stratocasters and Gibson Les Paul guitars. Starting from the pre-solidbody era with Leo Fender working as an accountant and Les Paul’s initial failure to gain any interest in his own solidbody prototype, Hornbuckle moves us note by note from the debut of the innovative guitars to today when all guitars are measured by how well they measure up to these 50-year-old designs.

Solidbodies: The 50 Year Guitar War is sectioned off in several historically sequenced chapters including: Fretted Frontier, Rock Rebellion, Battle for Britain, Southern Guitarslingers and others that highlight milestones in this guitar war history. The chapters would also serve as perfect launch points for future in-depth DVDs about the ultimate guitar war. But, for now, this new video offers great footage, a gripping soundtrack and enough information about the history of these great axes to satisfy fans. A Solidbodies trailer is available at the link below.

DVD: Solidbodies: The 50 Year Guitar War
Producer: Guy Hornbuckle, Lightning Lab Productions, LLC
Duration: 50 minutes
Audio: 2.0 Stereo or 5.1 Surround Sound

Chapters:

1. Main Titles
2. Prologue
3. Fretted Frontiers
4. Rock Rebellion
5. Battle for Britain
6. Southern Guitarslingers
7. Six-String Superpowers
8. The Crusaders: Fenderites and Gibsonites
9. End Credits

Extras:

1. Guitars Featured in Solidbodies
2. Collectible Guitar Values: Then and Now

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