I suppose that most of us, whatever guitars we currently own, would admit that at least at some stage in our careers, the instrument we craved was one made by one of the giant American makers. Gradually we work our way up towards one as our playing progresses, moving from those guitars suited to beginners until we own our first 'real' guitar. These days, international finances being what they are, that means a semi-professional class Japanese guitar. These instruments are often excellent value for money and will satisfy us with their qualities for a considerable time. Probably it isn't until we get really skilled (or rich, or both) that we begin to realise that our ultimate dream, a guitar made by one of the giants of the instrument, is not a dream any longer, but now has become a necessity.

But due to a variety of circumstances those U.S. guitars of our dreams have in recent years become increasingly beyond the reach of British players. Whose fault this is can be debated endlessly — some people blame the alleged greed and inefficiency of the makers, others the sinking Pound against the Dollar but, whatever the reason, that dream-machine from Gibson, Fender, Martin, Rickenbacker or whoever has become increasingly a distant echo of reality for most of us.

The Japanese, seizing the opportunity to move into the vacuum created by rising American prices, have created their own Professional class guitars, instruments to rival the very best — Yamahas, Arias, Westones, Ibanez — all guitars which would satisfy the professional player who demanded the best, and most of them still selling below current American prices.

Fender, as regular MUSIC U.K. readers will know, have retaliated against this move with all-U.S. instruments at affordable prices. But how about their fellow Americans, Gibson? Until I set eyes on the latest models from them, I had begun to believe that they had finally reached a price level which would ultimately restrict their sales to wealthy players only, leaving the rest of us stranded.

Thus it was that Doug Ellis (Rosetti's Gibson expert) called me up one afternoon and offered to bring round one of the several new American designed and built Gibsons which, he said, would surprise me. I've known Doug a few years now and grown to respect his opinion and appreciation of Gibson guitars.

When he told me that I was about to be surprised I expected yet another fine luxury Gibson, a guitar I would drool over and crave, but which short of selling my numerous shares in Shell oil — ho ho!) I would be unable to afford. Anyway, Doug duly delivered the guitar and, telling me that it was called the Challenger 1, left me to my own devices with it.

I opened up the case, and inside was a plain, almost austere looking guitar with a black body (very similar in shape to the classic Les Paul style) with a bolt-on maple neck, with the standard Gibson 24¾" scale. I have to confess that the first sight of the bolt-on neck didn't inspire me. I've nothing (much) against them in principle but, being a Gibson, the guitar should, I felt, have had a glued neck to justify what I still suspected was going to be a typical 1983 Gibson price — around the £700-£800, I guessed.

Still, I plugged the Challenger in and started to play. Yes, it was very much the archetypal Gibson; a sturdy neck, bordering on the chunky for those who prefer skinny blonde Strats, but immaculately fretted with nice fat frets laid into the rosewood fingerboard. A plastic nut, Schaller bridge with adjustment for intonation but (as ever) not individual string height (Gibson and I still don't seem to see eye to eye over that!). The profile of the fingerboard was fairly flat, possibly a little flatter than I would, personally, like, but that's just for me — others may prefer their necks like this.

The rest of the hardware was fine. The nut was plastic, the single volume and tone controls typical Gibson, and the pickup (a new Gibson type called the Alnico V) was plain, encased in black plastic but seemed O.K. visually. The enclosed machines were pretty decent too.

It was while I was noticing a few finishing details that I stopped to check on the price. Double-take time. The Challenger 1 was out with a recommended retail price of £325 inc. VAT! That meant that, with the haggling that seems to go on these days, this guitar had done some sort of bizarre timeswitch and reverted to the sort of prices I could remember coming from Gibson back when a Japanese guitar meant something pink, plastic and sold in Woolworths (possibly with a pic. of Elvis Presley transferred on its front).

Having said that, of course, there had to be trade-offs to get the price down to this sort of level. The neck fit could have been better, the body finishing just a shade denser and the scratchplate (a thick black plastic) could have looked neater too. But what the hell! This guitar was playing like a real Gibson and the sound — well I haven't got round to covering that yet but it's impossible not to recognise it from the moment you hit your first experimental riff or chord — this is a Gibson, and the sound is fat, warm, alive, vibrant — all of those characteristics which go with this marque; only this time you don't have to sell your soul to get it.

Certainly there are points which you'd be justified in carping over if the Challenger retailed at £800 — but your Grandfather was Scrooge himself if you feel you have any right to quarrel over minor detail points when a guitar with a sound like the Challenger's, with a feel like the Challenger's costs you less than many inferior guitars.

I can see how Gibson have been forced to take a few short cuts to get the price of this guitar down. The neck is shaped from just one piece of maple (that gets it out of one plank of wood and cuts the costs of laminating), they've not specified a body wood (which probably implies that they'll use whatever is the best timber they can lay their hands on at the time) and some of the finishing work has had to be sliced back. But I honestly couldn't care less. What matters to me (and will matter to most players, I suspect) is that the Challenger plays beautifully well, has a sound with all the thoroughbred style and quality its parentage suggests it will and, moreover is a professional feeling guitar with a fine balance and prodigious sustain.

So enthralled was I with the Challenger that I stuck with it, exploring just how far I could go with that sustain, seeing what sounds could be squeezed out of it — in the end it beat me and I had to give up; the Challenger was a professional guitar at a semi-professional price.

This guitar has all that muscle and bustle which punches its way through the bass and drums and demands that it's heard and admired.

The tone of this latest design pickup is a strong, punchy, attacking, rather thick one. It combines with excellent sustain to overdrive an amp — making the Challenger 1 (a 2 pickup model is also being offered) ideal for raunchy, thick chords and 'hang-on forever' solos.

A final point in the Challenger's favour at the price is that it will, inevitably have a resale value when the time comes (if the time comes) when you feel like moving up the range. Everyone knows the name, the guitar is a winner all the way and it will hold a price which will help towards that Les Paul or whatever it is that you'll end-up with. Inevitably talk at the Magazine got round to trying to assess just how good this guitar was in terms of its value for money. Here we were, holding a genuine American-made guitar with a sound worthy of a Professional price, with a feel of ultimate quality in its design and layout, the only compromises having been made quite consciously and quite rightly to make it affordable for the player in the street. Didn't that mean it qualified for a MUSIC U.K. STAR BUY AWARD? We felt it did.

GIBSON Challenger 1 (RRP £325 inc. VAT)

---

MUSIC U.K. STAR BUY AWARD WINNER NO. 5 GIBSON CHALLENGER 1.

Readers new to the concept of MUSIC U.K. STAR BUY AWARDS will possibly be wondering what it is that qualifies one instrument over another to win this award — and what it all means.

The idea of this award was first announced back in Issue No 4 of MUSIC U.K. It had always seemed to us (as we're often saying in these pages) that there are very few really bad products on the market today. Some are average, but even average today means that things are pretty fair value for money. Business has just been too tight for the past few years for all but the most dumb manufacturers to risk selling bad goods — the Public and the retailers would just throw them back. Accordingly, when most things are reasonable value, and some things are very good value, how do you draw your readers' attention to those truly outstanding products? The answer, for us, was to make a special award to the individual products which we reckoned to be outstanding in terms of sheer value for money and quality. When an instrument is judged by our staff to qualify for the MUSIC U.K. STAR BUY AWARD certain rights are given to the manufacturer but (of course) no money changes hands and we will not, under any circumstances at all, allow considerations of advertising revenue to enter into our judgements.

The winning product is allowed to carry an exclusive swing ticket acclaiming it to be the winner of this award. The manufacturer has the right to reproduce the MUSIC U.K. STAR BUY AWARD logo in his advertising literature and advertisements in any publication whatsoever. He may, however, only apply it to that particular product. There is no charge for this and no prior consultation with the manufacturer or distributor. It is entirely free and the award is made without any prejudice whatsoever.

The reason we have given this award (the first we have ever given to an electric guitar) is because, in our opinion, the Gibson Challenger 1 deserves consideration as being among the finest value for money available. It has its limitations in terms of its presentation but it carries a price tag which undervalues its sound qualities, its feel, its re-sale value, its construction and, perhaps above all, that great intangible; its class and its character. In an age of faceless guitars at the £300 level, the Gibson Challenger 1 is a guitar with a real personality and character, and the makers are to be congratulated on that vital achievement almost above all else.

Judging by those previous recipients of the MUSIC U.K. STAR BUY AWARD (the V-AMP VA30 combo, the PRO-AMP Venom 100 combo, the PILGRIM 6 string acoustic and the Axess SESSIONETTE 75 combo) our judgements about the best value products seem very much to reflect public tastes. Sales figures of these products have confirmed what we have thought of them. We're sure that this will also prove to be true of this latest Gibson, the Challenger 1. Congratulations, Gibson, and your importers Rosetti and Co. — you've helped overcome a major problem in the U.K. market with the price and quality of this fine guitar and we're delighted to make this award to you!