'Why settle for second best?' — that's my motto. It's all well and good saving a few pence by walking instead of catching the bus, managing to disappear into the Gents when it's your round, but when it comes to music, that's where I put my foot down. Luxurious tastes, though, have a nasty habit of costing money, and half of lager is more my style than a bottle of Moet. This was the cause of a considerable dilemma when I finally decided to trade in my faithful old 5th-hand nameless monstrosity for something a bit more like a musical instrument. It would help, I reckoned, if my next guitar played in tune above the fifth fret!

If, like me, you've always dreamed of owning a real guitar then how do you reconcile that dream with the awful reality that your heart's desire is about as far away from you as the moon? Or, at least, that's what I thought until I set my eyes on what those good people at Gibson have been up to lately!

A genuine Gibson has always been a dream of mine. After all, just look at the legendary players who've used them. They can't all be wrong! But, even though I knew what I wanted, I really thought that the real thing was beyond my resources until I saw the latest models in all their finery at my local music shop.

The looks of these new Gibsons had me fooled straight away. As far as I could tell just by ogling them, they were typical Gibsons — rich finishes, ultimate craftsmanship, looking like a million dollars. Cautiously I took one down and started to play it. What a shape! And the neck — it was just what I'd always thought a Gibson would be like. The model was called the Corvus I and it was the sharpest thing I've seen since I first nicked myself shaving!

Anyway, I plugged the Corvus in and started to play. It was all there — that sound, that unmistakable Gibson richness of tone, with a sustain which rang on and on and a perfect camber to the fingerboard which made for really speedy playing.

The Corvus I had a single humbucking pickup (an Alnico 5 I later found out), but there were other Corvus models there too; a Corvus II with twin humbuckers and even a Corvus III, which had three single coil pickups and a 5-way selector switch. I was spoiled for choice!

Then I spotted even more unfamiliar new Gibsons — one was a bit like a Les Paul in shape (that was the Challenger), another had twin cutaways (the Spirit), there was yet another like the Corvus — called the Futura and a final newcomer, sort of S.G. shaped, called the Special. Now all I had to do, I reasoned with myself, was plan a bank raid before deciding which one I wanted. By that time I'd made up my mind that one of these new beauties was going to be mine!

The shock, when I asked the price, was almost as great as being told I'd been nominated for Brain of Britain. The prices were so much less than I had expected (starting at around £300) that I thought the man behind the counter was some sort of demonic sadist — enjoying winding-up impoverished young guitarists by telling them that top class Gibsons cost the same as lesser breeds.

'No,' he told me. 'There have been a lot of changes at Gibson lately — and all of them in the right direction.' He wasn't kidding! The price of these new models were even possible for me. Now all I had to do was make up my mind which one I wanted. Here's what I've managed to find out about these new additions to the range.

THE CHALLENGER

This is the vaguely Les Paul-like model I was telling you about. What a guitar! MUSIC U.K. magazine gave it one of their coveted STAR BUY AWARDS (which they hardly ever give to anything, I was told) and I can see why! The Challenger comes in two versions, the Challenger I and II. The first model has just the one humbucking pickup (that Alnico 5 again), a bolt-on neck (and a really good one), the standard Gibson 24¾" scale, 22 frets on a rosewood fingerboard and a sound like sweet fire! The Challenger II is the same but has one Alnico 5 and one potted humbucker. Both models come in a great range of colours like silver, antique natural, fire red, yellow mist, electric blue, tangerine and ebony.

THE CORVUS

This guitar has the most futuristic shape since I don't know when. Yet somehow it's really comfortable to hold and play. This has a bolt-on maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard and comes in three versions with either one humbucker or two, or three single coil types. The colours are the same range as those on the Challengers and the guitar — well, it's got to be the best looker to come out in a long while. Plays like a stunner, too!

THE SPIRIT

This is a real classical Gibson-looker, a sophisticated dream-machine with twin cutaways, a 3 piece fitted maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard, de luxe Gibson machine heads and all the sheer class in the world. The Spirit can be had in either single or twin pickup versions (the Spirit I or II) and there is a tremendous range of finishes available including silver, antique sunburst, ebony and vintage wineburst. For real luxury-lovers you can even have a Spirit with a curly maple top — either in vintage wineburst or antique sunburst.

THE SPECIAL

This model is a real Gibson-lover's Gibson, looking a fair bit like the S.G. — and such a good rock guitar that you'd never want for anything from its sound. The Spirit has a three piece fitted maple neck with rosewood fingerboard and exposed coil humbuckers, a single one on the Special I and two on the Special II. The Specials have all that neat styling and speedy feel which have made Gibson guitars what they are today — and yet the prices, as with all these latest models, are really sensible for the times we live in. There have been no trade-offs on quality, either!

THE FUTURA

This luscious little beauty shares its body shape with the Corvus models but there are a lot of differences which make it a real winner of a luxury-class guitar. The Future has a fitted neck, two humbucking pickups with concealed magnets and really high outputs. The fingerboard is made of ebony and you can even get one with a new design of tremolo arm, gold plates like the rest of the Future's hardware. You can see why they've called it the Future — it's got to be tomorrow's legend!

Having played all these new guitars in the shop (and finding that I'd been in there all day) I realised that I now had a different sort of problem altogether. It wasn't any longer a question of whether I could afford a real guitar — it was a question of which one of these new Gibsons I was going to buy Thinking of the prices I even decided to treat myself and catch the bus home. What luxury — transport and a new Gibson!

You can find out all you'd want to know from your local stockist, or the Gibson distributors Rosetti Ltd are always happy to help. Contact them at (Contact Details).