This extremely limited edition boasts all the original features of the debut '58 Les Paul.
Here's your chance to own a landmark guitar that changed the sound of rock and blues, the 50th Anniversary 1958 Les Paul Standard. Gibson is producing only 200 of this limited edition.
Everything that made the original great is found on this special commemorative edition. The figured maple top is carved to original spec with a solid Honduran mahogany back. The neck is also one-piece mahogany with the historically correct long neck tenon for sustain. The early '50s neck profile is rounded for comfort. The rosewood fingerboard has Gibson's distinctive trapezoid inlays. Side position markers are tortoise, just as on the '58. The stop tailpiece is lightweight aluminum, and the tuners are vintage tulip style, with push-in bushings, just like the original.
This anniversary '58 employs CTS potentiometers for volume and tone, as well as the bumblebee capacitors, custom-made for Gibson to replicate the original electronics. Speaking of electronics, we can't leave out the Burstbucker pickups, custom wound to emulate the original late '50s Gibson humbuckers.
The thin nitrocellulose lacquer finish material and methods as the same as was the practice in 1958. Nitrocellulose lacquer continues to evaporate insuring the thinnest possible finish that will never dampen vibrations and supports complex musical waveforms! Prized for enhancing the musical tone, you'll find a nitro finish on nearly all vintage and collectable American guitars.
The guitar's nitrocellulose finish is carefully aged by guitar guru Tom Murphy and looks like a carefully maintained 50-year-old guitar! The highly involved antiquing process is done by hand, one guitar at a time, by guitar artisan Murphy. It's not a chemical process, but a very time consuming and tedious job that includes a multitude of elaborate steps. Through much trial and error, Murphy has developed an amazing ability to re-create the checked and chipped finish of a true vintage instrument with great success. Your guitar will carry the look of a thousand smoky bar gigs, countless sessions, and maybe even a few world tours.
Each 50th anniversary Les Paul Standard is supplied with two pickguards (standard pickguard and custom 50th anniversary pickguard) as well as a special Certificate of Authenticity signifying that the guitar is one of the very limited production run.
With all that has been written over the past 50-plus years about the fabulous Gibson Les Paul 'burst, it's hard to fathom that it wasn't an immediate success. In fact, only 434 Les Paul Standards were built in 1958, and most of those were Goldtops! The first sunburst 1958 Les Paul was shipped by Gibson on May 28, 1958. Today, those 50-year-old sunburst Les Pauls are bringing in over $150K on the collector market!
