A show-stopper with unique looks and uncompromising tone.
Named for the flashy hipster suits of the jazz age, the new Les Paul Zoot Suit from Gibson USA is a total show-stopper of a guitar that combines some of the most popular traditional Les Paul ingredients down through the years, and takes its stunning looks from the died hardwood itself, rather than from any excessive bling or ornamentation. The Les Paul Zoot Suit's extraordinary rainbow-striped appearance is created by dying several layers of thin yet solid birch in brightly contrasting colors before laminating them together to create the hardwood base from which the entire guitar is crafted.
The result is a Les Paul that looks like nothing else ever created, since no two Zoot Suits look quite exactly like each other. The carving of the body top, the back's ribcage contour, and the headstock's top veneer naturally reveals further layers of color. And, more than just creating an amazing unique look for this new Les Paul, the birch lends a firm, bright tone, which partners perfectly with the classic pairing of a P-90 single-coil pickup in the neck position and a higher-output 498T humbucker in the bridge, with traditional Les Paul appointments. Put it all together and it's a bold piece of functional art, which will help you stand out on any stage, both visually and sonically.
The Les Paul Zoot Suit takes its cue from the Les Paul Standard, one of the most iconic electric guitars on the scene since it first landed in 1952. The Zoot Suit's body follows the traditional shape, with carved arched top, but is thinner overall and is made from several layers of individually color-dyed birch hardwood, with an added carved ribcage contour for improved playing comfort. The glued-in neck is also made from several layers of color-dyed birch, carved to the popular '60s SlimTaper profile, and oriented at a 90-degree rotation from the body woods, to reveal the dramatic stripes at the edges of each layer.
This composition also creates an extremely strong, stable neck, which also carries the traditional Gibson truss rod, and is capable of withstanding the tension of all contemporary string gauges and tunings. A rugged, dark Richlite fingerboard carries 22 medium-jumbo frets and is built to traditional Gibson specs, including a 24-¾” scale length, a 1-11/16” width across the PLEK-cut Corian nut, and a 12-inch fingerboard radius for smooth, easy bending.
The Les Paul Zoot Suit is powered up by the versatile pairing of a P-90 pickup in the neck position and a hotter 498T humbucker in the bridge. Gibson makes its P-90s today just as it did when they were introduced in the 1940s, with two genuine Alnico bar magnets and around 10,000 turns of 42 AWG wire for chiming highs, punchy mids, and vintage-styled bite. The 498T humbucker is made with an Alnico V bar magnet and over-wound coils for even more scream and sizzle in the lead position.
A tune-o-matic bridge and stopbar tailpiece lock it all down for resonance and sustain, while quality Grover kidney button tuners give you time-tested efficiency in the tuning department, and knurled chrome “dome” knobs provide a bright contrast to the guitar's colorful appearance.
Each guitar includes a Gibson gigbag, owner's manual and truss rod wrench.
