Trews Debut Dark Fire

The Trews debuted the new Gibson Dark Fire Les Paul guitar at Toronto's Gibson Showroom on Monday night with a solid three-song set exhibiting the shredding capabilities of both the guitar and guitarist John-Angus MacDonald.

Gibson introduced MacDonald as "Canada's brightest guitarist, who shreds like crazy and looks good, too." MacDonald tore through "Poor Ol' Broken Hearted Me," "Paranoid Freak" and "Tired Of Waiting."

It was easy to see why he was chosen to premiere Gibson's latest beauty. With all due respect, Randy Bachman could've matched the extended guitar solos, but nobody would have wanted to see the BTOer attempt MacDonald's rocking jumps off the drum set.

"If you make a better salary than a guitar player, you can afford one, so bankers and brokers line up," MacDonald joked during the demo. The guitar clocks in at a hefty $5,000. Just 2,000 are being distributed throughout the world, 100 of them in Canada.

The second-generation robot guitar is strikingly gorgeous and surprisingly lightweight. It comes with 24 pre-set tunings and eight pre-set tones and can automatically tune itself. The tunings can be altered using a computer program and then synchronized with the guitar just like an iPod.

"The only thing that really takes some getting used to is to strum it and watch the knobs tune themselves," MacDonald says. "It's very futuristic. I don't know if Les Paul would have anticipated the guitar would come to this."

The revolutionary guitar caught the attention of a plethora of Canadian musicians. Members of Hedley, Goldfinger, Hello Operator, The Beautiful Unknown, Enter The Haggis and Frankie Whyte And The Dead Idols, among others, were all in attendance.

If you can afford it, the guitar hits stores on Dec. 22. If watching someone who's played it is more in your budget, The Trews play Toronto's Phoenix Concert Theatre on Thursday with Mobile.