Her signature guitar had been in development for years before Nili Brosh ever held the finished version in her hands. On Jan. 22, she posted a video of herself opening it at her home studio in Las Vegas, while her dog Micah looked on. “Today is my ultimate new guitar day. I’m actually a little bit nervous, but I’m about to unbox my very first Ibanez signature model,” Brosh said.
After dropping an “Oh s—, I mean, sorry” as she took it out of the box, she said, “Fourteen years with Ibanez in five years of research and development. We are finally here.”
Ibanez has hundreds of artists on its roster. But being on that list isn’t the same as getting a signature guitar. That’s a much shorter list. It means you’ve reached a level where your sound and style are so popular, the company believes your name on an instrument will spark sales. Signature players include Steve Vai at one end, and punk guitarists like Noodles Wasserman and Dexter Holland from The Offspring on the other. Kiss’ Paul Stanley plays Ibanez, as well as metal players like Daron Malakian from System Of A Down and Eyal Levi from Dååth.
That’s where Brosh is now.
Her signature guitar, named “The Answer,” is based on the Ibanez RG series (short for “roadster guitar”) and features a purple finish with neon yellow pickups made by Santa Rosa-based EMG. Between the frets, the wood is inlaid with dark exclamation points.
Brosh, 37, was born in Rishon LeZion, Israel, a city that also produced the late singer Shoshana Damari, “the Queen of Hebrew Music.” Brosh began playing classical guitar as a child before her family moved to Boston, where she shifted into hard rock and metal after discovering bands like Limp Bizkit and Iron Maiden and her favorite, Extreme. She attended Berklee College of Music, and after graduating in 2009, released her debut album “Through the Looking Glass” in 2010. She became a first-call touring and session guitarist.
The talk of her getting a signature guitar began during the pandemic, when it was estimated that the guitar wouldn’t be fully developed until 2024. She wanted to make it right and take the time to do so, yet some of the design decisions were locked in early.
“It had to be an RG series because we don’t see too many of those signature models these days,” Brosh said. “I didn’t want to see the RG kind of falling back by the wayside because it’s something that’s very synonymous to people with Ibanez.” She wanted a guitar that’s easy to play, one that could be used for different kinds of styles, different kinds of gigs. “It’s a versatile workhorse that’s able to carry you through a lot of different kinds of situations.”
Brosh has been busy across the live rock music spectrum. Since 2020, she has performed with Danny Elfman, and done several of his annual “The Nightmare Before Christmas” shows at the Hollywood Bowl. She has been with metal band Dethklok for almost seven years, and appears regularly in Cirque du Soleil’s “Michael Jackson ONE” in Las Vegas — with a guitar that shoots fire over 10 feet into the air.
The process stretched across several years, from the first conversations during the pandemic to the final version she unboxed in January. The delays, the prototypes and the back-and-forth all led to a point where the guitar reflects the way she plays and the settings she moves between.
“Eventide,” her fourth studio album — and first in six years – was released March 13. The album includes new material along with reworked versions of “Estranged,” originally released in 2020, and her 2023 songs “Song for Hope” and “Lavender Mountains,” which were written during the pandemic and designed to be played back-to-back.
Outside of gear and touring, Brosh is concerned about the threat of AI in the music industry. Every musician he knows is against using AI to create music. “It’s an impressive thing that it can do and that’s all it is to me. It’s just like, look at what my computer can do. Isn’t this cool? And then I’d leave it at that. It’s like, okay, great. Now let’s write the song.”
Brosh’s signature guitar made its public onstage debut in Dusseldorf, Germany on March 23. The U.S. leg of Dethklok’s tour kicks off in Phoenix on April 15.
Though her signature guitar is not available for purchase just yet, Brosh is already fielding lots of questions from fans, guitarists and gearheads about when they can get their own. She shared a video of her briefly noodling on the upper frets before telling her more than 140,000 Instagram followers, “You’ll be able to get yours really soon.”
Until then, her signature guitar can be seen when she plays May 22 at the Hollywood Palladium.
Source:
jewishjournal.com
