Page 24 - Guitar Classics Magazine - The Les Paul Bible 2019

REVIEWS

ABOVE Gibson’s alnico III nce the beating heart of youth rebellion, rock features as specific to certain model years, but the
Custombuckers are unpotted ’n’ roll is now of pensionable age and the reality is that 1 January 1958 didn’t see Gibson throw
for a more authentic tools that powered its evolution are knocking away its gold paint and immediately start applying
PAF-style sound
O on a bit, too. The Les Paul is a case in point, cherry sunbursts. Of the 434 Les Paul Standards that
but Gibson has chosen the 60th anniversary of its left Parsons St, Kalamazoo in 1958, approximately
OPPOSITE TOP The metal
parts are aged for a most lusted-after incarnation to release what may be half were Goldtops.
suitably vintage look the company’s best, most vintage-accurate Les Paul Production officially switched over to sunburst
Standard since Eisenhower sat in the Oval Office. finishes and two-piece maple tops during July 1958,
OPPOSITE MIDDLE The Billed not just as a tribute, but a ‘clone’, this 2019 but the earliest factory ‘Bursts’, as they’ve become
switch tip is period-correct model incorporates some of the R&D that went known, were serial numbers 8 3087 and 8 3096.
Catalin, while the ‘poker into Gibson Custom’s Collector’s Choice and True According to Gibson’s ledgers, these instruments
chip’ surround is silkscreened
cellulose acetate butyrate Historic lines, saluting the instrument used to such shipped on 28 May 1958 and were logged as having
blistering effect by the likes of Keith Richards, Eric a “special finish”.
OPPOSITE BOTTOM The Clapton, Michael Bloomfield and Jimmy Page. From We encountered 8 3087 – generally regarded as the
butyrate top-hat knobs period-correct hangtags to 3D-scanned top and neck ‘First Burst’ – at Carter Vintage Guitars in Nashville
were originally recreated carves and chemically recreated old-school plastics, in 2016 and it’s a spellbinding instrument. Although
for 2015’s True Historic range the idea is to give Les Paul aficionados a guitar that its three-piece maple top isn’t quite as aesthetically
ticks all the right boxes without costing as much as pleasing as the centre-joined, two-piece tops that
a house. Time to dig a little deeper… followed, in every other respect, it appears that
Gibson already had the formula nailed.
WHY ’59? That said, some small but significant changes were
For most vintage-guitar collectors, sunburst Gibson phased in during 1959. For many, this crystallised the
Les Pauls from 1958-60 are the Holy Grails. Over Les Paul Standards made during the period through
the years, Gibson’s various reissue models have to early 1960 as the high-water mark of electric
encouraged guitar players to think of particular solidbody manufacture. And we’re not referring to

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