« Fat neck Les Paul Standard »

This guitar is a Les Paul Standard that gives the feel of a real 50s Les Paul. The biggest difference with this guitar is that it has the 50s profile neck. Everyone knows the story of the famed 50s Les Paul Standard. The Les Paul standard guitar was introduced in 1958. They came with the first PAF pickups and when people talk about the Gibson tone they are talking about these. They were only made for two years and less than 2000 were made. They stopped making these when they came out with the 61 Les Paul which became the SG. The current Les Paul standard was introduced in 2008 and it has many of the same features as the original. The main difference and problem with these guitars is that they are chambered for weight. This effects the tone and makes them kind of sound like hollow body guitars. They have the standard Les Paul setup with mahogany body with a maple top and a mahogany neck with a 22 fret rosewood fretboard. Two humbucking pickups with dual volume and tone controls with a 3 way toggle switch pickup selector. The up position on the switch selects the neck pickup. The middle position on the pickup selector selects both pickups. And the down position on the pickup selector selects the bridge pickup.

UTILIZATION

The Les Paul naturally is not the best playing guitar out there. But with the 50s neck it takes it to a whole new level of vintage. The 50s neck is what they call the baseball neck. It is probably the biggest neck you can find on a guitar sold nowadays. Because of the set neck design there is a large neck tenon and joint. This can make the upper frets hard for some people to reach because the body essentially joins the neck at the 17th fret. After the 17th fret you are reaching around the body to get to the frets. The tuning stability is good because there is no tremolo. When you change strings the bridge can come off because it is held on by string tension. If this happens make sure you put it on the right way because you can put it on backwards and your intonation will be horribly off. When this happens your guitar will sound in tune on the open strings but any chords you play will sound off.

SOUNDS

A 58 Les Paul standard is the tone that everyone thinks about when they say Les Paul sound. With the chambered body the sound is quite different. A few years ago Gibson started chambering their guitars for weight. I think they were giving in to some people they should not have. People who complain about weight are obviously not playing a Les Paul for the tone. The guitar comes with Burstbucker 2 and 3 pickups. A 2 in the neck and a 3 in the bridge. With Burstbucker pickups the higher the number is the hotter they are. The 2 pickup is a little hot and bright for the neck position. I had to roll off some tone knob to get a neck pickup tone I liked. Once you did that you can get nice smooth leads with the neck position. The 3 is good in the bridge. The 3 has great bite and clarity. It might even be too bright for some people depending on what kind of amp they are using. I think they used a 2 in the neck to compliment the 3 in the bridge. I would have preferred a 1 in the neck and a 3 in the bridge. With a 1 in the neck it would have no problem getting smooth neck tones.

OVERALL OPINION

Since this is a Gibson it will hold its value well. I am pretty sure there are other new Gibson models that better replicate the 58 guitar. If i was looking for a Les Paul nowadays I would steer clear of any chambered guitars. Part of the Gibson tone is the mass of the guitar. Making the guitar lighter is putting comfort ahead of tone. People in the 50s would laugh at you if you complained that your guitar was too heavy. If you are looking for a light guitar that plays like its from the 50s but doesnt sound like it is from the 50s this guitar is for you I guess.