Scorpions & Kansas guitarists to appear at music retailers convention

The guitarists from Mountain and Triumph might not seem to have a lot in common, but they're both making personal appearances for a guitar company this weekend. Leslie West and Rik Emmett will both be at the Dean Guitars display at the annual NAMM music instrument retailers convention in Anaheim, California. Emmett's got the new Dean Rik Emmett Allied Forces Flying V, which is a hand-crafted replica of the guitar he played for many years, and West has a signature model based on Dean's Soltera model guitar.

West played a Gibson Les Paul Jr. on Mountain hits like "Mississippi Queen," but Gibson never offered him a deal, and he told us he's so glad to be with Dean now: "Everybody said to me, 'How come you never had a (signature) model?' And it took me a while, with Dean Zelinsky from Dean Guitars, and we came up with a new version of that (Soltera) guitar called the Leslie West Signature, and the volume knobs go to 11. It was worth waiting for, you know? And it's funny -- at the NAMM show (last summer) in Austin (Texas), people from Gibson come over and says, 'You know, we were thinking of doing a guitar with you.' I said, 'A little late?' (chuckles)"

The Dean booth will also host former Kansas guitarist Kerry Livgren and Scorpions guitarist Rudolf Schenker, among others.
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