Gibson Les Paul Traditional Plus

The Les Paul Standard is what people imagine when you say Les Paul. This guitar is right in the middle of the Les Paul line and it is a classy work horse. The Traditional line of Standards brings you guitars based off of certain eras. This is supposed to be an earlier Les Paul. This guitar is a more traditional type of Standard. This guitar has mahogany body with a maple top and a lovely Honey Burst finish. The set neck is mahogany and has the beefy 50s profile to it. The fretboard is rosewood with 22 frets. The tuners up top are tonepro Kluson imitation tuners for a more old school look. The bridge is a standard tune-o-matic. The pickups are Classic 57s front and back. The controls are standard Les Paul with a volume and tone for each pickup and a 3 way toggle on the upper horn.

UTILIZATION

You will love playing this guitar if you love playing 50s Gibsons. It feels like a 50s Gibson when you play it. It has the 50s baseball bat profile neck which some people love and some people hate. I have big hands so I can play it but It is pretty uncomfortable for me. The bigger neck does help improve the tone though. This guitar has the PLEK process done on it. With this you put the guitar in a machine and it uses lasers to level the frets. This means when you get the guitar it should be fully setup and ready to go. Since Gibson uses standard frets they will eventually wear and out this setup will go off. Using stainless steel frets would make this perfect initial setup last forever.

SOUNDS

57 Classics are my favorite Gibson pickups. I dont like when they put super hot or ceramic pickups in their guitars because they give a tone that is not what I think of when I think Gibson. When I think Gibson I think warm creamy tones with super msooth overdrive. This is what you get in the 57 Classic. It is pretty much just a modern PAF. There are many PAF reproductions out but this one is from Gibson and I think they know the pickup the best. The 57's have just the right amount of sag in the tone so you can really work the dynamics like you would with a set of real vintage pickups. In the neck position is super smooth and when you throw in some tone knob you can get that sour tone like you have a parked wah on. In the bridge position it has a little more bite and spank to it. With some gain you can get good classic rock tones from the bridge pickup. These pickups can handle more gain than a set of PAF's could. Because of their modern design they retain their composure longer than a set of old pickups could. These pickups help complete the vintage 50s image and tone that this guitar provides.

OVERALL OPINION

The 50s Les Paul Standard is the Holy Grail of guitars. Real examples sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars because people believe they are the best sounding guitar. With the wood and the inconsistancies of 50s guitar production even if you found a real 50s Les Paul Standard there is no promise that it will sound good. With these new models you get all the consistancy in the world with a tone that will fool anyone in a blind fold test. The Classic 57s in this guitar are my favorite Gibson pickups and they provide a real Gibson sound. The finish on this guitar is lovely as well and that is important to a lot of people. If you are looking for a 50s style Les Paul there are many but I think this one combines the best features for the price. You can really go crazy buying 50s style Gibsons nowadays.

Gibson guitars is one of those companies that is just as iconic as many of the famous artists who have played them. These guitars have revolutionized rock an roll. They took what Fender build and compounded upon it to create a much better and more practical machine for the new age of distortion and overdrive guitars tones. To get the overdriven guitar tones of the 60's and 70's you could not achieve that with a Fender guitar and their classic single coil pickups.You much fort play it with humbuckers and then you need a heavier thicker body and preferably used mahogany wood as your base body wood.

This guitar is a page right our of Jimmy Paige's book of guitars. This guitars looks exactly like one of his famous Gibson Les Paul's from back in the 70's It has that vintage looking red cherry sunburst that just gleams with attitude and flare. This is the guitar you would want to have if you were out playing gigs and needed a strong workhorse guitar. This one has a great maple fingered top which just adds to the allure of this guitar. This guitars look exactly like the guitar that Jimmy used to play back in the day.

UTILIZATION


Gibson Les Paul Standard Traditional Plus Heritage Cherry Sunburst:


* Body Wood: Mahogany, non-chambered weight-relieved
* Top wood: Figured maple
* Scale Length: 24-3/4"
* Neck Joint: Set-in
* Neck Wood: Mahogany
* Fretboard: Rosewood
* Plek'd on Gibson Plek Machine
* Neck Shape: '50s rounded
* Frets: 22
* Nut Width: 1.695"
* Fretboard Radius: 12"
* Bridge: Nashville Tune-O-Matic
* Tailpiece: Stopbar
* Pickup Bridge: '57 Classic Plus humbucker
* Pickup Neck: '57 Classic humbucker
* Controls: 2 volume, 2 tone, 3-way pickup selector
* Vintage speed knobs
* Tuners: TonePros Kluson-style
* Hardware color: Chrome
* Binding: top and neck
* Finish: Lacquer


SOUNDS


Play this guitar with a nice Marshal or British flavor amp and you'll see what rock n roll was back in the 70's. I like the sound of this guitar over the chambered guitars like the studio guitar. This guitar combined with a voicing of that famous British tone is just a match made in heaven. The tonal bliss of striking that first chord and letting it ring out in a blaze of heavy saturation gain is a thing or pure beauty. You won't want to put this guitar down for one second as soon as you get it home.

Every time I look at this guitar I think about ripping up some Ramble On or perhaps some dazed and Confused. This guitar just screams vintage classic rock and roll. This is a blazing guitar with a great feel and an exciting tone. The guitar just begs to be rode hard and put up wet. This is defiantly a players guitars and needs to be knocked around a while.


OVERALL OPINION

These guitars are just great rock n roll machines. You can find these guitars pretty much anywhere. At new these guitars come in right at around $2299, which isn't bad for a solid sound great rock n roll Gibson Les Paul. You will have a lot of fun playing this guitar in a band or at home. It is a sweet sounding and beautiful looking guitar.

They have taking a classic American guitar and compounded upon its glory. This is a guitar that has the look and the feel of a classic instrument. If you have ever played a Gibson Les Paul or just picked one up at a local shop or store you have felt a sturdy piece of wood. This guitar has a classic honey burst paint coat on the top and added into it the nice fingered maple top. This is just one gorgeous looking guitar.


Gibson Les Paul Traditional Plus Solidbody Electric Guitar with Plus Top Features:

* Color: Honey Burst
* Body: Non-chambered, weight-relieved mahogany
* Top: Maple plus top
* Neck: Mahogany, '50s rounded style
* Fingerboard: Rosewood
* Pickups: '57 Classic Plus (bridge) and 57' Classic (neck)
* Controls: Two volume, two tone, 3-way pickup selector switch
* Bridge: Chrome Nashville Tune-0-matic
* Tailpiece: Chrome stopbar
* Tuners: TonePros Kluson-style
* Case - Black snakeskin

UTILIZATION

Detail
Body Material Mahogany
Top Material Maple, Figured
Body Finish Nitrocellulose
Color Honey Burst
Neck Material Mahogany, Set
Neck Shape '50s Rounded
Scale Length 24-3/4"
Fingerboard Material Rosewood, 12" Radius
Fingerboard Inlay Figured Acrylic Trapezoids
Number of Frets 22
Nut Width 1-11/16"
Bridge/Tailpiece Nashville Tune-O-Matic/Stop Bar
Tuners Kluson-style Tone Pros with Green Tulip Buttons
Number of Pickups 2
Neck Pickup '57 Classic Alnico II Humbucker
Middle Pickup No Middle Pickup
Bridge Pickup '57 Classic Plus Alnico II Humbucker
Controls 2 x Volume, 2 x Tone, 3-way Pickup Toggle

SOUNDS

What I like about these guitars is that they are not chambered like many of the last few guitars from previous years have been from Gibson. I hate the sound of the chambered Les Paul's and I am starting to wonder if Gibson had gotten enough flack from people not liking the sound of the new Les Paul's and they have change the build process to these weight relived mahogany bodies. They keep the tone and girth intact with this build process rather than the light tone of the chambered guitars. They still make the chambered but I believe it is only the studio and classic Es pals and not the standards and heritage series guitars.

What I love about the Gibson Les Paul is the ability to play in almost any type of music. Much like the Fender Stratocaster these guitars are able to jump around from genre to genre and still be able to perform quite well under different flavors of music. They have the ability to stay true to their tone but the great versatility to branch out past the original music that they were made for back in the 50's and 60's. They have continued through time and much of the music has changed but very little to these guitars.

OVERALL OPINION

These are absolutely wonderful guitars. The are not cheap but not that bad of a price for what you get. At new these guitars come in right at around $2300. Not a bad price for a quality sounding and built guitar. Some of these guitars can be hit or miss so I would try one out to see if you like the feel first before buying. $2300 is a lot of money to throw down on a guitar that you just don't jive with.

Gibson guitars is one of those companies that is just as iconic as many of the famous artists who have played them. These guitars have revolutionized rock an roll. They took what Fender build and compounded upon it to create a much better and more practical machine for the new age of distortion and overdrive guitars tones. To get the overdriven guitar tones of the 60's and 70's you could not achieve that with a Fender guitar and their classic single coil pickups.You much fort play it with humbuckers and then you need a heavier thicker body and preferably used mahogany wood as your base body wood.

UTILIZATION

Gibson Les Paul Standard Traditional Plus Features:

* Body Wood: Mahogany, non-chambered weight-relieved
* Top wood: Figured maple
* Scale Length: 24-3/4"
* Neck Joint: Set-in
* Neck Wood: Mahogany
* Fretboard: Rosewood
* Plek'd on Gibson Plek Machine
* Neck Shape: '50s rounded
* Frets: 22
* Nut Width: 1.695"
* Fretboard Radius: 12"
* Bridge: Nashville Tune-O-Matic
* Tailpiece: Stopbar
* Pickup Bridge: '57 Classic Plus humbucker
* Pickup Neck: '57 Classic humbucker
* Controls: 2 volume, 2 tone, 3-way pickup selector
* Vintage speed knobs
* Tuners: TonePros Kluson-style
* Hardware color: Chrome
* Binding: top and neck
* Finish: Lacquer



SOUNDS

Play this guitar with a nice Marshal or British flavor amp and you'll see what rock n roll was back in the 70's. This guitar combined with a voicing of that famous British tone is just a match made in heaven. The tonal bliss of striking that first chord and letting it ring out in a blaze of heavy saturation gain is a thing or pure beauty. You won't want to put this guitar down for one second as soon as you get it home.

I think the fingered maple top on this guitar adds a nice element to the overall tone of this guitar. The mahagony wood can wood very warm and dark and with the maple you get some nice highs that help round out the overall feeling and tone of the Les PAul.

OVERALL OPINION

I wold recommend this guitar to anyone who wants something that is a little better than a studio in its construction and the aesthetics. The cosmetic of this guitar are just beautiful. The top notch maple burst on top adds a great look to a fantastic feeling guitar. At new these guitars come in right at around $2299, which isn't all that bad for what you get. This is a AAAA maple top or anything but a very light and mild fingered top that is gorgeous.