“I discovered how I had full access to the neck”: Why Grace Bowers prefers the Gibson SG to the Les Paul

Teenage blues guitar up-and-comer Grace Bowers' weapon of choice is a Gibson SG, a stunning all-original ’61 model in particular.

Though happy to sometimes drop it if the occasion calls for it, Bowers still favors the model onstage and in the studio, and – thanks to her relationship with Gibson – now owns three of them.

Asked recently by Guitar World why she prefers it to the Les Paul, Bowers explained that her preference was originally based on aesthetics and weight, but her reasons have – as she's grown more seasoned – expanded to feel and tone.

“At first, I started playing SGs because they look cool and they’re lightweight,” Bowers told GW. “But then I discovered how I had full access to the neck, which I didn’t have on a Les Paul. I think they sound good, too; those P90 pickups are something else.”

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Labels like 'the future of rock/blues/blues guitar/rock guitar' are tired, and get thrown around quite a bit (and Bowers certainly never asked for them) but it's hard to ignore her mix of virtuosity and tastefulness – oh, and the plaudits she's gotten from already-established guitar heroes.

“There’s a whole difference in my mind between just shredding, like wanking off, as opposed to melodically conversational-type shredding. That’s what the great players do, like I think Grace Bowers is already at 17,” Heart's Nancy Wilson told Total Guitar earlier this year.

“She has a significant voice. I would pick her out in a crowd of shredders, like, ‘Oh, I know who that is,’ like David Gilmour.”

Susan Tedeschi, meanwhile, told Guitar World earlier this year that Bowers is on her way to becoming a “household name.”

“She’s got this crazy blonde curly hair and she’s very pretty and very sweet – but she can rip it and she has a nice understanding of chords. I think, because she’s so young, she could really get somewhere in the next 10 years.”

To read our full interview with Bowers, which also covers how she turned to the blues, what she's like as a bandleader, and her musical chemistry with John Osborne, pick up a new issue of the mag at Magazines Direct.