When it comes to modern guitar players, few can get a tune out of a Gibson SG quite like young prodigy Grace Bowers. Sitting down with Guitar Center, she’s given some handy pointers for how to get the most out of Gibson’s iconic double cutaway.
Bowers, who has Peter Frampton and a legion of others praising her talents, has made her name in blues rock, but is now looking to move away from the genre – and has also quit YouTube entirely – as she embarks on the next chapter of her career. Her trusty collection of SGs is along for the ride.
“You can get a little bit of everything,” the 19-year-old says of her go-to electric. “My first ever guitar was this uh shitty little acoustic, but my second guitar was actually a knockoff SG. It looked as if you tried to draw an SG from memory and failed. But I've always been drawn to them.”
Bowers’ tone, meanwhile, comes from disregarding convention.
“I barely use the treble pickup,” she confesses. “But it cuts through very well. The pickup [position] I'm on most of the time is the middle, and then I'm always fiddling with the Volume knobs.”
Her preferred rhythm tone dials the bridge pickup's Tone knob to 8 and the bass pickup's Tone to around 4 or 5.
“I use it a lot for soloing, too,” she adds. The neck pickup position, though, is most typically used for holding out chords and is paired with her MXR analog chorus pedal. This, she finds, gives her “a smoother, silkier tone.”
“You can get a little bit of everything if you can work the Volume and Tone knobs enough,” she says.
Yet, speaking previously about the concept of a Gibson SG signature guitar, Bowers has one arguably sacriligeous mod in mind.
Bowers also appears on Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton's blues-coded solo album, and he's hailed her “phenomenal” talents.
“That was the first time we’d met,” he says of their recording session. “She showed up and just ripped, man.”
