All user reviews for the Gibson Les Paul Traditional Plus

Gibson les paul traditional light burst made in the USA in 2011, full body (or almost) but certainly not chambered (mine weighs 4.3 kg) .... original microphone gibson classic 57 and 57 +, I changed to a set seymour duncan slash signature, the rest is THE LES PAUL 80's .... with his very fat and thick ... and run lumberjack holding well in hand ...

UTILIZATION

the handle is a 50's rounded, very round, thick and massive! access to the latest box is a little complicated, but it is a good Les Paul, so buying this model we know anyway ... and then with practice you get used to it and sends solos Slash without problem! if the guitar is quite heavy, but well balanced, with a good strap so it does not feel too ...

SOUNDS

--- This is the sound I was looking for, perfection .... classic microphones 57 and 57 + are really good .... the bridge is 57 + Exceptionally, the intermediate position is also the magic ... position handle is a little worse, a little too serious for my taste ... so I changed my set a few months ago for a set seymour duncan slash signature ... great too, but I still regretted biting the 57 + and the intermediate position "crystalline" ... by slash against the neck pickup is much better than the 57 ...

OVERALL OPINION

I've had almost a year and I'm completely satisfied .... it is a little unusual for guitar as we know it to ring ... just plug it into an amp that deserves .... I'm not ready to part ... I love that sound too fat and thick, huge sustain, and then the mouth, the table is beautiful, I've tried at least 15 other les paul before falling in love with this one in particular ....

see the features on the site gibson

mine is the 2011 Heritage Cherry Sunburst.
Jimmy Page Wiring

UTILIZATION

The handle is very nice, it slides very well. Ergonomics is good, access to acute correct. This is a guitar hanging weight for a Les Paul but this is normal.

SOUNDS

This guitar is a beautiful original sound. Without amp it sounds with amp it sounds. Sounds Les Paul. The pickups are well made (except metal but the LP is not for the metal).

on the other hand I advise to buy new and to try several in-store before making a decision (for my part I tried four, and I took one that was not the most beautiful top, but that sounded the better)

After I have special needs that make a concert to play all songs in the set (there are 50 ranging from rock to blues through the country funk disco and Indian music), the standard config I am not suitable . So it was rewired by Jimmy Page wiring.
So with my config, I get clear sound to the sound of the fat LP with no problem. It's a versatile guitar.

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for several months. This is my guitar work (3 hours / day + 6 hours on weekends). Before taking this one I have tried several. It is better to buy in the store to be sure to take the one that sounds the best.

I love all this scratching (its top, its weight). What I regret is that Gibson continues to put Vintage tulip mechanical and should instead install grover blocage.Quand is changed to a set of strings every week, it's more convenient.

Regarding the value, it is good.

With the experience I would do without this choice problem.

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.

Gibson set out to make a new Les Paul Standard. At the same time, given that the new Standard was quite different than the original, they made a new guitar called the Traditional. The Traditional is basically what the older Standard was the entire time but with a few upgrades. It still has the same things we all know and love -- a mahogany body with a maple top, a set mahogany neck with rosewood fretboard, 22 frets, two humbuckers, two volume knobs, two tone knobs, binding, a hard tail TOM bridge, a pickguard and a three way switch. The main difference is that this is PLEK'd.

UTILIZATION

The Traditional is a very nice guitar, and they helped solve one of the main issues with Les Pauls which was the fretwork. The new guitars have the fretboards run through a PLEK machine. This perfectly levels the frets better than a human can, and it's leaps and bounds above what the normal Gibson luthiers were doing. The guitar still has the "swiss cheese" holes drilled in it that have been present since the 80s, and they don't really affect tone, from what I can tell. The neck is very nice feeling; it's not too thick or thin, and I have a feeling most Gibson lovers will jump right into it.

SOUNDS

I'm not a fan of the stock Gibson pickups, so I generally replace those, along with the pots. This helps make the guitar more versatile give it some more balls. Given that I play heavy metal most of the time, my main focus is to get something that sounds great for that distorted tone. I find that a Duncan JB goes perfectly in the bridge, and the '59 in the neck is just heaven. The volume and tone controls help add some additional versatility to this, too.

OVERALL OPINION

If you're on the hunt for a new Les Paul, I highly recommend looking into this model over any of the other models. Some stores also offer a "Pro" model which has a standard maple top, zebra pickups, coil splitting and a few other things. Those are awesome guitars as well, and they're also cheaper. Either way, this is probably the Les Paul you want to look at rather than the Standard.

This guitar is a 2010 Gibson USA Les Paul Traditional Plus in the fantastic "Honey Burst" finish. It's reportedly built to emulate the late model Gibson USA LP Standards from the mid eighties to 2008 (when the updated and revised Standard model was released), and it definitely feels like a Les Paul. The specs are as follows:

Mahogany body with flamed AAA maple cap and "weight relief"
Mahogany neck with rosewood fretboard, 22 frets and the '50s neck profile
Tune-o-matic bridge/stopbar tailpiece
Kluson Deluxe tuning machines
Gibson '57 Classic humbucker (neck) and '57 Classic Plus humbucker (bridge)
300k volume pots, 500k tone pots, 3 way toggle switch

The guitar is definitely an outstanding model from Gibson. On paper, the specs looked perfect for me (non-chambered, the thicker "50s" neck profile, the more vintage '57 Classic/'57 Classic Plus humbuckers, and so on.) Because of these more vintage specs, I find that the guitar feels more akin to the vintage Les Pauls from the days of yore (when compared with the newer "2008" Standards and the Les Paul Studios.) The '50s neck profile is very substantial, so I feel like I am able to really dig in when I want to go for a wild bend (though it does not impede my fingers when I want to play some shred type stuff either), and the non-chambered body makes for a guitar that feels much more "real" than the lighter weight chambered LPs. I do have a few caveats about the features that Gibson offers but they are fairly minor. I'm not very impressed with the electronics as a whole. The 300k volume pot does not allow for a smooth volume rolloff when I wish to roll my volume down, and I find that the tone controls are very boxy, and just seem to add more bass as you turn them down (as opposed to having an even frequency response.) Also, the nut that Gibson uses is rather poor in quality. I would definitely spring for a bone or graphite one, as the Corian nut that comes stock can cause strings to bind and thus, tuning to slip. That all being said, I find the guitar to have the best overall feature-set in the USA line for someone who just wants a traditional Les Paul.

(Yes, the pun was intended.)



UTILIZATION

The Les Paul Traditional is essentially designed to recreate the classic Les Pauls of yore, so it is little wonder that Gibson chose not to deviate from the older designs (and this case, why would they?) What you sacrifice in ergonomics and things like upper fret access (to an extent anyway), you get back in things like the feel and the sheer TONE that only a guitar like this can produce. When I purchased mine, it took me a little while to fully get used to the trade-offs (coming from playing various lightweight superstrats), but in the end I found a guitar that was actually BETTER suited to what I wanted to do. The guitar is able to go from jazz to blues to classic rock to heavy metal/shred very easily, and after I realized this I knew why these guitars were used in so many genres of music by so many diverse artists. The Traditional has the edge over the other models because it uses the "weight relief" system (as opposed to chambering on the other USA LPs.) The weight relief system simply carves a few holes in the mahogany body before the maple top is applied to lessen the overall weight slightly. However, because it keeps more wood there than the chambering, there is more resonance, and the heavier weight gives it more sustain and density. In comparison, the "2008" Standards that I tried almost had more in common with semi-hollow body electrics like the Gibson ES-335 or 137 because the Standards were almost fully hollow guitars. I knew that when I was shopping for a Les Paul that I wanted a Les Paul... I found the Standard to lose some of the classic LP characteristics because of the chambering personally. The Traditional has the whole package to me... sound, looks, feel and the vibe of a real Les Paul, so that in the end cemented my choice.

SOUNDS

The sounds of this guitar are definitely one of the high points. I've used it with many different amps, (Mesa Boogie Mark Five, Splawn Quick Rod, Orange Rockerverb 50, various Peavey tube amps) and I have never once been disappointed in its tones or tonal variety. I've had it for almost a year now and used it in countless rock, blues and jazz settings and it's equally adept at any style in my opinion. The '57 Classic and '57 Classic Plus humbuckers are truly something special in this guitar. When I first purchased it, I thought that I would end up changing the pickups to something a little bit higher output, but after almost a year the stock pickups remain. These pickups are extremely articulate, and though they have a vintage voice to them, when you dial in high gain tones, they always remain clear and punchy. It's definitely wonderful to have pickups that can be so diverse, and combined with the fact that it's a very solid/dense guitar that they're installed in, it makes for a very pleasing experience overall. The only caveat I have is that I wish I was able to install a coil splitter on these pickups (they are only 2-conductor wiring), but c'est le vie I suppose. Overall this is a killer sounding guitar that definitely gives off a huge breadth of tonal possibilities and at the same time never loses the vibe that makes it a Les Paul.

As a minor side note, I will say that the guitar/pickups can be a bit picky when you're first dialing in an amp's settings... they may not react well together right away, but after some dialing in... I've found that the pickups usually find their sweet spot and from then on it is smooth sailing.

OVERALL OPINION

All in all, I feel that this is truly the best Les Paul in Gibson USA's fleet. How I came to acquire this guitar is definitely an interesting story. I was playing a Music Man JP6 when I got the irresistible urge to get myself a real Les Paul. So when my progressive metal band of that time bit the dust, I decided to go LP shopping. I must have played thirty to fifty different guitars, ranging from Epiphones and Gibson LP Studios all the way up to the Gibson Traditionals and 2008 Standards (and even a few LP TYPE guitars, like the PRS SC245 and Mira.) All in all, they each had their own thing that was nice, but no single guitar spoke to me enough to buy it. I was dejected and prepared to leave until my sales rep told me that I could order a Les Paul of my choosing and give myself one last option. After mulling it over for a bit, I opted for the Traditional Plus in Honey Burst, though quite honestly I wasn't expecting much. A little over two weeks later it arrived to the store, and I went to check it out. As the sales rep opened the box and I grabbed the case and opened it for the first time and in turn strummed those first few chords... a euphoria hit me like never before. I knew that this was MY guitar, that it was destiny. The guitar just fits me so well, and definitely feels and sounds like a guitar that I will have for a long time to come. I would most certainly have made the same choice if I had to do it all again. Sure I had to sacrifice my EBMM to get it... but in the end, this Les Paul is probably the best guitar I've ever had the pleasure of owning. Aside from a few minor issues I have with some of the parts, I'm convinced that after a year, I've found the best possible Les Paul for me. Thanks Gibson!