Gibson Guitar Buyers Guide (Les Paul)
Perhaps one of the most influential and historic guitar makers in history, Gibson USA has carefully crafted hundreds of unique and incredible sounding electric and acoustic instruments which focus on easy playability and a warm and lush sound. The purpose of this guide is to introduce you the the many types of Gibson electric guitars that exist and give you some information which will hopefully allow you to narrow your search and buy the best guitar.
Gibson Les Paul:
The single best known and best selling model that Gibson USA has created is the Les Paul. For a brief history, Mr. Les Paul invented the electric guitar back in 1950's using mahogany wood, some magnets, and good ole electricity. These early guitars were quickly refined into the modern Les Paul form which you seem today. Essentially, what makes the Les Paul model distinctive is the use of high quality mahogany solid body parts. This results in quite a heavy instrument compared to other popular electric guitars, including the Leo Fender Stratocaster which is probably equally as famous as the Les Paul models.
Gibson has stayed relevant throughout the years by releasing a variety of Les Paul models which appeal to many different styles and tastes. What makes the Les Paul amazing is that jazz, folk, rock, funk, soul, blues, and just about any other style of players utilize the amazing Gibson Les Paul electric guitar.
Types of Gibson Les Pauls:
Goldtop (1952–1957)
): Perhaps the flagship model of all Gibson Les Paul guitars, the Goldtop , has a distinctive all gold look which featured two single coil pickups, the highly valued P90 (p-90) single coils. These pickups were responsible for the amazingly warm and lush sound which is instantly recognizable as a Gibson Les Paul. The original Goldtop electric guitars have become very popular with collectors because the originals are hard to find and still sound amazing.
Custom (1954–1960)
The Gibson Les Paul Custom is a fantastic and staple Gibson Electric guitar based on the fact that it featured an all mahogany top, as opposed to the maple topping cover piece which was found on the Goldtop. The Goldtop opted for a maple top in order to keep the weight of the instrument down. For that reason, the Gibson Les Paul Custom is a heavier guitar. One of the most popular and actually the first type of Gibson Les Paul Custom was the Black Beauty. This all Black Gibson Les Paul Custom was made famous with fine white binding around the guitar along with gold covered hardware. The guitar was also complimented with the same P-90 pickups.
Junior (1954–1960)
Seeing that Gibson USA wanted to start creating more guitars that appealed to different markets, they created the Gibson Les Paul Junior. This guitar was designed for the beginner player who wanted a classic Gibson Les Paul look and feel but wanted to keep the cost of the instrument down. On the electronic side, the Gibson Les Paul Junior featured only one sinlge coil P-90 pickup along with simple knobs and volume controls. Extra design features such as the classic white binding were absent in order to keep the overall cost down.
Special (1955–1960)
The Gibson Les Paul Special models of the late 50's and early 60's further showed that Gibson was interested in differing the size, shape, and look of their flagship Les Paul guitar. The Les Paul Special has a double cutaway body style, P-90 pickups, and full binding and extras.
Standard (1958–1960, 1968–2008)
Perhaps the best selling model of Gibson Les Paul, the Les Paul Standard with it's Sunburst flamed top with electronics PAF humbucker pickups which give it a very round a full sound. On the hardware side, the exceptional Gibson Les Paul Standard features the tune-o-matic bridge and locking Grover Tuners. These high quality hardware components add to the easy playability and even help this guitar stay in tune after serious bending and pulling on these here strings. Some of the earlier model Les Paul Standard guitars allowed for the Bigsby tailpiece allowing for vibrato. The modern Les Paul standard no longer features the PAF humbucker pickups but instead opts for the classic burstbucker pickups.
Les Paul SG
Another great variation of the Les Paul design, the SG was Gibson's answer to the hot selling Fender Stratocaster, which again, was a much more affordable electric guitar and was growing in popularity. Thus, the Les Paul SG got rid of expensive aesthetic touches such as the white hand cut binding and created a much thinner and lighter electric. This cut down on the amount of rich mahogany being used and dropped the price accordingly.
Studio
The Gibson Les Paul Studio was first introduced in 1983 and was an instant hit. Unlike the lower cost SG, the Les Paul Studio was designed to retain most of the nice trim work found of the Les Paul Standard, including the vast majority of the electronic components and the tune-o-matic bridge and Grover tuners. The idea was that this guitar would be purchased for use in the studio, therefore the guitar was built for good record ability, with a lower sound to noise ratio.
Signature models
If you can think of a popular artist, chances are that they most likely have a Gibson Les Paul signature model. Gibson is here appealing to players who have guitar hero's and want to capture the exact sound of their favorite player. Examples include artists such as Slash, Gary Moore, Jimmy Page, Ace Frehley, Sammy Hagar, etc.
Epiphone Les Pauls
When looking at purchasing a Gibson Les Paul Guitar, there is no doubt that you will come across Les Pauls lacking the Gibson name on the headstock. Is this just a cheap imitation? Does Gibson have anything to do with these Les Pauls? The answer is that Gibson absolutely owns and operates the Epiphone Company, which offers mostly the look and a little of the feel and sound of a full blown Gibson Les Paul. One factor which keeps the cost well under $1000, is that these Les Pauls are built outside of this country. The price of these Gibson Les Pauls can range from $300-$650 depending on features. Again, do not expect the same quality woods, hand craftsmanship, hardware, and electronic components. Still, a good value and good look.
Gibson Robot Guitar
One of the most hyped and misunderstood Les Paul of all ttimes, the 2007 Gibson Robot Guitar features an innovative combination of both hardware and electronics that can fully tune a guitar using robotic tuners (we are not making this up) which accurately tune and can switch between multiple advanced tunings with ease.
This computer processor powered Les Paul again shows how the company is not afraid of changing and keeping up with the times.
Conclusions:
As you can see above, there is a price and model of Gibson Les Paul for every budget and style imaginable. Gibson has been busy over the years and has tried hard to appeal to everyone under the sun. Each guitar listed and described above needs to played in order for you to figure out which Gibson is perfect for you. As in choosing a car, sometimes the feel of something is the only way to figure out if you like it. Just because a BMW has an expensive price tag does not mean that it will appeal to everyone. In a similar way, spend time at your local music store in order to finalize your Gibson Les Paul guitar choice.
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1961 1962 Original Vintage Gibson Les Paul ABR 1 Bridge Standard SG ES 335 |  |
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US $599.00 | 5h 12m |
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Gibson Les Paul Standard Plus 2004 Ice Tea | |
0 Bid | US $1,895.95 | 5h 27m |
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Gibson Les Paul Standard Faded Guitar Honey Burst 2005 | |
24 Bids | US $1,325.00 | 7h 15m |
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Gibson Les Paul Standard Plus | |
1 Bid | US $1,795.00 | 8h 22m |
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Gibson Les Paul Standard Traditional Gold Top 2009 with OHSC | |
3 Bids | US $1,500.00 | 9h 19m |
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Gibson Epiphone Les Paul Standard Electric Guitar solid body 6 string RH | |
3 Bids | US $163.05 | 10h 2m |
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Gibson Epiphone Standard 2001 Les Paul Gloss Black Set Neck W HSC | |
0 Bid | US $325.00 | 13h 15m |
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Gibson Epiphone Les Paul Standard Electric Guitar Ebony | |
12 Bids | US $200.00 | 14h 5m |
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Gibson Les Paul Standard Joe Perry Edition | |
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US $2,700.00 | 14h 59m |
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Gibson Les Paul Standard PlusDouble Cut2004AAA Flamed Maple TopNO RESERVE | |
25 Bids | US $923.00 | 15h 57m |
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