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Gibson Les Paul Custom

Name: Les Paul Custom
Brand: Gibson
SKU: 984
Rating: 4.2 (38 reviews)

LP-Shaped Guitar from Gibson belonging to the Les Paul series

38 reviews

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4.2/5

(38 reviews)

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tonmazz

Gibson Les Paul - Great guitar period!

Published on 08/08/12 at 10:52

This review is for a USA made Gibson Les Paul I bought from a local music store. Mahogany neck and body with a maple top and rosewood fingerboard. Black with gold hardware, Gibson 490R and 498T humbuckers. 2 humbucker, 3 way selector switch and all the rest of your typical Gibson Les Paul features. Got this for a great price as the dealer was on hard times and needed to move stock. Wasn't in the market for this but couldn't resist.

UTILIZATION

I have to say that newer Gibsons get a bad rap from many guys I know. Maybe with the new fret boards I can see that but this thing is a great playing and extremely well made guitar with the old wood. I have another custom shop Les Paul and it definitely gives it a run for the money. Very good attention to detail compared to some I see sitting in some of the chain music stores for sure.

SOUNDS

The guitar plays perfectly but I will say this, I hate stock Gibson pick ups. Maybe for some styles of music, these are sufficient but for hard rock or metal, I definately needed something hotter than the stock pick ups provide. I swapped them out for a MotorCity Detroiter in the bridge and an Suhr Aldrich in the neck and holy moly this thing rips! I like the fact that it is significantly lighter than my other Les Paul but does not lose any of the great sustain and tone I can get from it with exactly the same pick up configuration.

OVERALL OPINION

Love everything about the look and feel. For the price I got it for, it was absolutely perfect and worth the money. I would never pay the $3,999 price tag that usually comes with these as no guitar is worth that kind of money. Being that I got it for a fair price, I will say it was well worth it. Having played many Les Pauls in the past, this is right up there with the best of them so in my own mind I put to rest the bad things that are said about newer Gibson products. As I said before, the pick ups weren't my thing so I swapped them out and now the thing is near perfect. In my case, I would easily recommend this guitar to anyone looking for a solid axe to play.

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heads on fire

Classiest solidbody electric around.

Published on 12/27/11 at 21:42

Made in Nashville, TN, USA (older models made in Kalamazoo, MI, USA)
Color: Ebony, Alpine White, Wine Red, others
Body Type: Solidbody
Neck Wood: 1-piece mahogany, set and glued into the body
Neck Shape: rounded profile
Top Wood: Carved maple top
Back Wood: Solid mahogany back
Machine Heads: Metal tulip tuners
Fingerboard: Ebony
No. of Frets: 22
Scale Length: 24-3/4"
Position Markers: Pearl block inlays
Pickups: 490 Alnico (R) and 498 Alnico (T) humbucking
Controls: 2 volume, 2 tone
Pickup Switching: 3-way selector switch
Bridge/Tailpiece: Nashville TOM/Stopbar bridge/tailpiece
Hardware: Gold
Custom Shop case included
Bound fretboard, body top, and body back

UTILIZATION

This is a perfect guitar. For anyone that likes the Les Paul style, this is the bee's knees, the cream of the crop, the top banana. Nothing sounds, feels, looks, or plays quite like it. From year to year, there are little quirks, little tiny idiosyncrasies that one can look for, but for the most part, this is a guitar that has remained unchanged in design since the late 1950s. The neck plays like pure, silky butter.

SOUNDS

Singing, smooth, sensuous sustain meets biting, bold, bright bombast. This guitar can play anything well, from rock, metal, jazz, reggae, ska, country... There are 3 basic tones out of this, as well as variety of variations with the tone pot, volume knob blending, etc, but this guitar can literally sound great in any style of music. I've played this guitar in all manner of setups, in Marshalls, Fenders, Mesas, Bogners, digital amps, solid state, through all kinds of pedals, and no matter what, this guitar's perfect tone soars through.

OVERALL OPINION

This guitar is the classiest solidbody guitar ever made, period. I don't think it's possible to compete in the solidbody realm in terms of sheer elegance mixed with simplistic design - this is a perfect guitar. Anyone that hasn't tried one out yet is committing a grave personal offense to themselves!

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Hatsubai

Norlin era version

Published on 10/24/11 at 15:05

During the Norlin era, they made some of my favorite Les Pauls. However, they also made some of the worst ones as well. This particular guitar actually has what is known as the "pancake" body, and it's a huge step back in tone, in my opinion. The guitar features a mahogany body with a maple top, a mahogany neck with an ebony fretboard, 22 frets, trapezoid inlays, binding, a TOM style bridge, two humbuckers, two volumes, two tones and a three way switch.

UTILIZATION

This guitar was heavy; pig heavy. It had like 11 pieces of wood all glued together or something. I couldn't believe how many pieces of wood they threw on this guitar. It was, no joke, in the 12+ lb range, and it just killed my back to play this thing. That's the biggest issue with these pancake body guitars. There are some good ones out there that, despite looking kind of ugly, have a great tone. However, there are ones like these that just can't sound good no matter what you do. It's like a boat anchor. The fretwork on this was average, and considering it wasn't played much, there wasn't a ton of fretwear. The nut needed to be recut, but that's a pretty minor issue considering the rest of the guitar.

SOUNDS

The guitar didn't resonate like a normal Les Paul normally does. For those that don't know, a heavier guitar is not necessarily a better guitar. I find that the lighter ones tend to be a bit more resonant, and it's the lighter ones that tend to be the best in terms of overall tone. These super heavy ones seem to have a very dull tone that doesn't sparkle like the lighter ones do. This particular guitar had the Gibson Dirty Fingers in the bridge but the stock pickup in the neck. The Dirty Fingers is ridiculously high output, and it has tons of sustain, but it seemed to be hampered in this guitar. The neck pickup was too bright for me, and I found myself turning down the tone knob when I was playing leads or cleans.

OVERALL OPINION

Some of these guitars are awesome, but this is an example of one of the bad ones that left the factory around this time. This is also an example as to why people tend to not like the Norlin era guitars. They were very inconsistent, but considering how inconsistent Gibson is today, I guess it's not as much of a shock anymore... If you buy used, be sure to be ready to flip it for that "just in case" moment.

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Hatsubai