Gibson 50th Anniversary 1959 Les Paul Standard

For the 50th Anniversary of Gibson, they decided to release a slightly different color than what is normally associated with Gibsons. This was a Lemon Burst model, and it was pretty cool looking. The guitar features a mahogany body with a maple top, mahogany neck with a rosewood fretboard, 22 frets, trapezoid inlays, pickguard, binding, hard tail bridge, two humbuckers, two volumes, two tones and a three way switch.

UTILIZATION

The first thing you notice is that the flame stands out more than some of the other models. They seemed to have used higher quality flame tops on these vs other Gibsons. The guitar was put together in a fairly nice manner. There were no issues with the nut. The best way to tell is to simply play it. If you keep noticing you're going out of tune and it "pings" when you tune, that means the nut is cut improperly. The fretwork was also pretty good on this. I was able to achieve relatively low action without any real issues. The binding work looked nice, and the chrome hardware didn't have any tarnish on it.

SOUNDS

I wasn't a huge fan of the stock pickups in this thing. Then again, I'm not the biggest fan of Gibson pickups to begin with. The bridge was powerful, but it lacked what I usually look for in a bridge pickup. I like the pickup to be clear and tight, but it seemed to be voiced more towards the vintage side of things. The neck sounded decent, but I'd like it to be more powerful and smoother sounding. I'm a sucker for those ultra smooth guitar tones for leads, but that's probably because I use them as a bit of a crutch for lead playing.

OVERALL OPINION

These are a bit harder to find, but they're really cool guitars. They look better than most other Gibsons out there due to the higher quality flame maple top, but they're really no different from any other Gibson out there. If you're into the nicer looking guitars, check this out. Otherwise, get a Standard.