![Gibson Les Paul Custom Silverburst [1978-1983]](https://img.audiofanzine.com/img/product/normal/3/3/33146.jpg?fm=pjpg&w=300&h=218&fit=max&s=8f3482646646b205235b3f4bad16500b)
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Hatsubai « One of the more coveted finishes »
Published on 10/24/11 at 15:00Thanks to Tool, these guitars are probably some of the more coveted Gibson Les Pauls out there. Ever since he started talking about how amazing they sounded, people have been buying them up like crazy, and the prices are going up. 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
The finish on this has aged quite a bit. When these first came out, they were vibrant silver with a black outline. However, most of these have since changed colors, and I forget the exact reason why. I believe it has to do with the clearcoat, but some people say it's the metallic flake changing colors... Regardless, this is more of a yellowish to brownish kind of color. The neck on this was very nice, and while the finish was starting to come off a bit, it played quite nicely. The guitar has been refretted as it doesn't have the standard binding on the frets, but it could probably use another refret as there were some strong wear marks around the first few frets, and the frets were already more of a medium size (I prefer jumbo).
SOUNDS
The guitar had the stock Gibson pickups in it. I'm generally not the biggest fan of Gibson pickups, but they were decent in this guitar. The bridge pickup had some nice bite, and it sounded awesome through the JCM800 we have in the store. Throw a boost in front of that, and you got a killer metal sound that can hang with the best of them. It did a pretty cool blues tone once you rolled down the tone knob a touch. The neck pickup was much the same way, but I wish the neck pickup had a bit less treble and a bit more output. I tend to have a more legato-ish style, so these brighter and lower output pickups make me struggle a bit to play certain lead lines that I normally play with ease on other guitars.
OVERALL OPINION
If you can find one of these at a decent price, jump on it ASAP. The prices on these guitars keeps going up, and the more people who push for the silverburst look (that includes the guys from Mastodon) will probably keep these guitars in the higher price bracket compared to the other ones. I don't think that they have a special or unique sound when comparing these to the other guitars from this year, but that's just me.
UTILIZATION
The finish on this has aged quite a bit. When these first came out, they were vibrant silver with a black outline. However, most of these have since changed colors, and I forget the exact reason why. I believe it has to do with the clearcoat, but some people say it's the metallic flake changing colors... Regardless, this is more of a yellowish to brownish kind of color. The neck on this was very nice, and while the finish was starting to come off a bit, it played quite nicely. The guitar has been refretted as it doesn't have the standard binding on the frets, but it could probably use another refret as there were some strong wear marks around the first few frets, and the frets were already more of a medium size (I prefer jumbo).
SOUNDS
The guitar had the stock Gibson pickups in it. I'm generally not the biggest fan of Gibson pickups, but they were decent in this guitar. The bridge pickup had some nice bite, and it sounded awesome through the JCM800 we have in the store. Throw a boost in front of that, and you got a killer metal sound that can hang with the best of them. It did a pretty cool blues tone once you rolled down the tone knob a touch. The neck pickup was much the same way, but I wish the neck pickup had a bit less treble and a bit more output. I tend to have a more legato-ish style, so these brighter and lower output pickups make me struggle a bit to play certain lead lines that I normally play with ease on other guitars.
OVERALL OPINION
If you can find one of these at a decent price, jump on it ASAP. The prices on these guitars keeps going up, and the more people who push for the silverburst look (that includes the guys from Mastodon) will probably keep these guitars in the higher price bracket compared to the other ones. I don't think that they have a special or unique sound when comparing these to the other guitars from this year, but that's just me.