WILDBILL 212 « EXCELLENCE »
Published on 06/19/20 at 00:38
Value For Money :
Correct
Audience:
Advanced Users
I just got a 2019 GIBSON Les Paul CUSTOM Black-Beauty, it is the Guitar of a Life-Time for a Guy like me.....and I must say waiting the 38 yrs to replace the one I had in 1978, that got stolen, was worth the wait.
Overall this Guitar is just flat-out AWESOME, a complete BEAST ! One of the best parts about this Guitar is the Pick-up's. This Guitar is/was an EXCLUSIVE GUITAR sold only by an on-line retailer and it is the only 2019 LES PAUL CUSTOM shop Lester w/CUSTOM-BUCKER Pick-up's...the other LP CUSTOM's have the crappy 490R & 498T combo and, DIG THIS, the 490 series Pickup's are the cheapest P-Up's GIBSON manufactures and are usually found on SG FADED'/Studioo's etc etc...and GIBSON had the nerve to put them on a CUSTOM ? I could not spend the kind of $$$ I was spending and get 490 series P-Up's so when I saw this one, w/CUSTOM-BUCKER's, I jumped on it...I do wish they were covered w/GOLD Covers but its not the end of the day or a dealio breaker and the TONE more than makes up for it!.. PLUS, the covers can also be added later. It seems as if the sound just drips off of my fingers...Mine weighs in @ 9 Lbs. 10 Ozs. and is my heaviest guitar....w/Italian Leather Strap and Gold Schaller strap locks its over 10 LBS and is quite the handful.
The Neck is a MAN's neck, EE-GAD MON..... and is still making my hand cramp up playing Barre chords around the 8-14 Frets, it will take some time to get used to it....in comparison to some of the GIBSON USA STANDARDS I have , THIS NECK IS A MONSTER, the EBONY FRET-BOARD has perfectly level Mother-of-Pearl IN-LAYS (A MUST HAVE )AND A PERFECT BINDING...IT IS SWEET ! THE HEADSTOCKS DOUBLE-CUT DIAMOND IN-LAYS WAS ANOTHER MUST HAVE ! The Custom Shop '59 Re-issue Standards do not have them and you can not tell if the Guitar is a STANDARD or a CUSTOM, but with the DCD In-Lays there is no mistaking this Guitar for a STANDARD, it is a GIBSON CUSTOM SHOP Les Paul AND IT IS BAD-A$$. The Grover Tuning Machines are fine as wine, as usual !
I play the Guitar thru a Stereo Rig, the left channel is a 20 Watt Marshall 2525Combo SILVER JUBILEE RE-ISSUE AMP, the right Channel is a 20 Watt VOX Night-Train. BOTH tube amps w/EL34 & EL84 Power Tubes, respectively. Both have 12" SPEAKERS AND RUN OUT TO A MARSHALL 2X12 STEREO SILVER JUBILEE RE-ISSUE CABINET...so its basically 40 Tube WATTS going thru 4 12" Speakers, in stereo...the effects loops have identical Reverb & Delay & Octave Pedals while thru the front is an MXR Compressor, EHX SOULFOOD, MXR Custom Bad-Ass '78, Fulltone OCD, TCE 'SPARK' Mini-Boost, MXR Phase 90, Catlinbread Treble Boost and the STEREO CHORUS out is an early '80's ARIA Pedal I have had for almost 40 years and it still is sweet......I built the Rig and then got this Guitar FOR IT !
I wanted the '57 CUSTOM Re-Issue or the '68 CUSTOM Re-Issue Black-Beauties but they are priced over $6300-$7250, and the only real difference between the 2019 LES PAUL CUSTOM and the '68 Custom Re-issue is that the 2019 is 9 Hole weight relieved, while the '68 is not WR'd....minor note: the '68 has Gold P-Up covers too...BUT THAT IS IT ! and for $2100 less, just under $4,000 for this perfect piece of CUSTOM SHOP History, it was/is well worth the $$$ I paid for it...My 2019 LES PAUL CUSTOM VOS 'Black-Beauty' is, OMG, PERFECT...I haven't one complaint about it !The TONE this MONSTER delivers is un-matched by any of my other GIBSON Standards, 'REX' (Great name ,eh?) even sounds better than my ES-335 as well...Clarity, Heaviness of Tone, ease of playing are just beyond anything I ever played. IT IS PERFECTION Personified.
W/this BAD-BOY in my hands, MY RIG JUST SCREAMS on a completely different level !!! Clarity on the clean channels is UN-MATCHED by even my ES-335 or Les Paul/SG STANDARDs....CUSTOM SHOP GIBSON's are just BAD-A$$, really a cut above the GIBSON USA line of Guitars !!!! it is always a good idea to wait until the end of the production year, as w/cars, when retailers start lowering prices...I got this Lester 4 just under $4,000 w/TAX, Leather Strap and Schaller Strap Locks....well worth it too as it sounds better than anything I have ever played.
Overall this Guitar is just flat-out AWESOME, a complete BEAST ! One of the best parts about this Guitar is the Pick-up's. This Guitar is/was an EXCLUSIVE GUITAR sold only by an on-line retailer and it is the only 2019 LES PAUL CUSTOM shop Lester w/CUSTOM-BUCKER Pick-up's...the other LP CUSTOM's have the crappy 490R & 498T combo and, DIG THIS, the 490 series Pickup's are the cheapest P-Up's GIBSON manufactures and are usually found on SG FADED'/Studioo's etc etc...and GIBSON had the nerve to put them on a CUSTOM ? I could not spend the kind of $$$ I was spending and get 490 series P-Up's so when I saw this one, w/CUSTOM-BUCKER's, I jumped on it...I do wish they were covered w/GOLD Covers but its not the end of the day or a dealio breaker and the TONE more than makes up for it!.. PLUS, the covers can also be added later. It seems as if the sound just drips off of my fingers...Mine weighs in @ 9 Lbs. 10 Ozs. and is my heaviest guitar....w/Italian Leather Strap and Gold Schaller strap locks its over 10 LBS and is quite the handful.
The Neck is a MAN's neck, EE-GAD MON..... and is still making my hand cramp up playing Barre chords around the 8-14 Frets, it will take some time to get used to it....in comparison to some of the GIBSON USA STANDARDS I have , THIS NECK IS A MONSTER, the EBONY FRET-BOARD has perfectly level Mother-of-Pearl IN-LAYS (A MUST HAVE )AND A PERFECT BINDING...IT IS SWEET ! THE HEADSTOCKS DOUBLE-CUT DIAMOND IN-LAYS WAS ANOTHER MUST HAVE ! The Custom Shop '59 Re-issue Standards do not have them and you can not tell if the Guitar is a STANDARD or a CUSTOM, but with the DCD In-Lays there is no mistaking this Guitar for a STANDARD, it is a GIBSON CUSTOM SHOP Les Paul AND IT IS BAD-A$$. The Grover Tuning Machines are fine as wine, as usual !
I play the Guitar thru a Stereo Rig, the left channel is a 20 Watt Marshall 2525Combo SILVER JUBILEE RE-ISSUE AMP, the right Channel is a 20 Watt VOX Night-Train. BOTH tube amps w/EL34 & EL84 Power Tubes, respectively. Both have 12" SPEAKERS AND RUN OUT TO A MARSHALL 2X12 STEREO SILVER JUBILEE RE-ISSUE CABINET...so its basically 40 Tube WATTS going thru 4 12" Speakers, in stereo...the effects loops have identical Reverb & Delay & Octave Pedals while thru the front is an MXR Compressor, EHX SOULFOOD, MXR Custom Bad-Ass '78, Fulltone OCD, TCE 'SPARK' Mini-Boost, MXR Phase 90, Catlinbread Treble Boost and the STEREO CHORUS out is an early '80's ARIA Pedal I have had for almost 40 years and it still is sweet......I built the Rig and then got this Guitar FOR IT !
I wanted the '57 CUSTOM Re-Issue or the '68 CUSTOM Re-Issue Black-Beauties but they are priced over $6300-$7250, and the only real difference between the 2019 LES PAUL CUSTOM and the '68 Custom Re-issue is that the 2019 is 9 Hole weight relieved, while the '68 is not WR'd....minor note: the '68 has Gold P-Up covers too...BUT THAT IS IT ! and for $2100 less, just under $4,000 for this perfect piece of CUSTOM SHOP History, it was/is well worth the $$$ I paid for it...My 2019 LES PAUL CUSTOM VOS 'Black-Beauty' is, OMG, PERFECT...I haven't one complaint about it !The TONE this MONSTER delivers is un-matched by any of my other GIBSON Standards, 'REX' (Great name ,eh?) even sounds better than my ES-335 as well...Clarity, Heaviness of Tone, ease of playing are just beyond anything I ever played. IT IS PERFECTION Personified.
W/this BAD-BOY in my hands, MY RIG JUST SCREAMS on a completely different level !!! Clarity on the clean channels is UN-MATCHED by even my ES-335 or Les Paul/SG STANDARDs....CUSTOM SHOP GIBSON's are just BAD-A$$, really a cut above the GIBSON USA line of Guitars !!!! it is always a good idea to wait until the end of the production year, as w/cars, when retailers start lowering prices...I got this Lester 4 just under $4,000 w/TAX, Leather Strap and Schaller Strap Locks....well worth it too as it sounds better than anything I have ever played.
