- Carved le top Solid, non-weight relieved mahogany back Single-ply cream binding.
- Single-ply cream binding1959 rounded neck profile24-3/4" scale1-11/16 nut width Vintage tulip tuners BurstBucker pickups CTS pots and.
- Bumblebee capacitors2 volume, 2 tone, 3-way selector.
- Thin toggle switch washer and jackplate Nickel hardware ABR-1 bridge and.
- Stopbar tailpiece1-piece mahogany neck with long tenon22-fret rosewood finger board Acrylic trapezoid inlays (accurate shape and color).
Product description
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Wider, ter jumbo frets made the LP a more facile guitar. The
significance of this change wouldn't be felt until the late '60s
when Clapton, Bloomfield, Peter Green, and other emerging
guitarists discovered its warm, thick BurstBucker voice and fast,
smooth and easy-playing neck. In 1959, the Les Paul Standard made
a change to wider, ter jumbo frets which made it a more facile
guitar. The significance of this change wouldn't be felt until
the late '60s when Clapton, Bloomfield, Peter Green, and other
emerging guitarists discovered its warm, thick BurstBucker voice
and fast, smooth and easy-playing neck. Then the Les Paul began
its ascent toward ultimate icon status. Like all VOS (Vintage
Original Spec) Series instruments, the 1959 Les Paul Standard VOS
is handcrafted for comfort and playability in the Gibson Custom
Shop. The construction, neck profile, hardware, and electronics
are period accurate, and a special nitrocellulose finish
gives it the patina of a gently aged vintage guitar.
Includes Gibson Custom Shop case and a certificate of
authenticity. Check the drop-down menu to the right to select
colors and/or other options.
.com
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Gibson's Les Paul Standard model from 1959 is the most highly
accled, widely recognized solid body electric guitar in the
entire world, coveted by both players and collectors as the
ultimate example of playability, attractiveness and tone among
all six-stringed instruments. In an industry filled with
imitations and replicas, the iconic 1959 Les Paul Standard simply
has no equal.
The most highly accled, widely recognized solid body electric
guitar in the entire world.
History
Gibson's legendary Burstbucker pickups and Tune-o-matic bridge.
22-fret rosewood fingerboard outfitted with acrylic trapezoid
inlays matching the size of color of the originals. Named after
Lester William Polsfuss, aka Les Paul--legendary American jazz
guitarist, and true pioneer in the development of recorded
music--the Les Paul model guitar became the "Standard" in July
1958 after company president Ted McCarty and his staff decided to
add the new designation and forego the guitar's traditional
Goldtop finish for a new, brighter finish dubbed Cherry Sunburst,
which allowed the natural beauty of the Les Paul Standard's le
top to be showcased. The company was hoping the changes would
improve its sales of solid body electric guitars, which had been
declining since 1953 when the Gibson shipped 2,245 Les Paul Model
guitars.
Unfortunately, sales of the new Les Paul Standard continued to
dip, and after shipping only 643 guitars in 1959 and another 635
during the early part of 1960, Gibson once again instituted
another redesign of the guitar, abandoning the Les Paul design as
we know it today and creating the SG Standard. No one could have
imagined, however, that those 1,278 Les Paul Standard
guitars--especially the 643 from 1959--would become the most
sought after guitars in the world.
Body
While the full impact of the 1959 Les Paul Standard was still
several years away from being realized, its influence on guitar
design was already well underway. Besides its exceptional tone
and playability, the 1959 version of the Les Paul Standard was
renowned for its two "bookmatched" pieces of le wood that made
up the top of the guitar. While most of the Les Paul Standard
tops in 1958 were considered "plain," some of the le tops in
1959--and into 1960--were "flamed" or "figured," adding a
three-dimensional, cosmetic element never before seen on any
solid body guitar. The beautiful patterns, however, went largely
unnoticed at the time, with Gibson paying no particular attention
to selecting wood with distinct grain patterns. Other cosmetic
changes on the 1959 Les Paul Standard included a slightly thinner
neck profile, a smaller heel, and a change to larger
"jumbo"-sized frets, which are still in use today.
Finish
The guitar's new Cherry Sunburst finish also saw its first full
year of use in 1959, despite problems with the consistency of the
red pigment used to paint it--a problem that wasn't corrected
until late 1960. This caused the finish on many guitars to fade
to some degree of amber, honey or yellow hue, further adding to
the beauty and mystique of the instrument.
Famous Players
One of the first guitarists to recognize the potential of the
1959 Les Paul Standard was The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards,
who obtained a 1959 model in 1964 that had been outfitted with a
Bigsby tremolo tailpiece. Around 1966, emerging British guitarist
Eric Clapton--himself influenced by the early 1950s Les Paul
models played by Freddie King and Hubert Sumlin--also recognized
the Les Paul Standard's exceptional tone and playability, and
began playing them almost exclusively. Before long, the Les Paul
Standards of the late 1950s had found their way into the hands of
future guitar legends Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Duane Allman, Peter
Green and Michael Bloomfield, among others, eventually helping to
reshape the sound of a worldwide musical movement, while forever
changing the standard by which all other electric guitars are
measured.
Near-perfect Recreation
The 1959 Les Paul Standard reissue produced today by Gibson
Custom is true to all of the original instrument's features and
characteristics, including Gibson's traditional hand-carved
"figured" le top and solid, non-weight relieved mahogany body.
The headstock is made from Holly head veneer, as sed to
fiber, just like it was in 1959, and the vintage-style tulip
tuners are ed in a straight line, also as they were on the
original. The 24 3/4-inch scale length neck is made from one
solid piece of mahogany, and attached to the body using a long
neck tenon--one of the Les Paul's more distinguishing
characteristics of the 1950s. The neck is topped by a 22-fret
rosewood fingerboard outfitted with acrylic trapezoid inlays
matching the size and color of the originals. Of course, two of
Gibson's legendary Burstbucker pickups deliver all the subtle
variations of true, classic "Patent Applied For" humbucker tone
by using historically "unmatched" bobbin windings and Alnico II
magnets. Other historical appointments include CTS
potentiometers, bumble bee capacitors, rolled creme-colored
fingerboard binding, single-ply creme-colored binding around the
body, and a period-correct thin toggleswitch washer and
jackplate. The 1959 Les Paul Standard comes in either a V.O.S. or
Gloss finish, and with the standard Gibson Custom case, custom
care kit and certificate of authenticity. They are available in
Faded Burst, Washed Cherry Burst and Iced Tea Burst.