With prices of vintage solidbodies skyrocketing and setting new records each passing day, the Gibson 1959 Les Paul Standard represents the pinnacle of such trend. With less than pristine examples commanding prices in the $150.000 US range, an investment in a late '50s Paul is just that... for those very few, who can afford it.
Luckly enough for the majority of us mere mortals, who cannot even think of the real thing, the Gibson Custom Shop is spitting out guitars that promise to capure the essence of the '50s Les Paul mojo. Still, with price tags in the $5.000's these ain't no ordinary planks o' wood (still 30 times cheaper than the real thing :^) )... Marketing hype or future collectibles? Let's figure it out for ourselves..
Pretty ornate way to refer to what is actually the Gibson factory Custom Shop in Nashville, Tn. Employing roughly 80 employees, it's for sure amongst one of the most revered guitar making premises nowadays for the player and the collector alike. That's where the whole Historic line is built, warranty repairs are made, artist guitars (i.e. endorsers) are created, as well as Gibson Art guitars. Not merely an assembly line of parts snagged from 'normal production' and given a custom paint job and limited edition tags & case, the Custom Art & Historic Division actually represents a pretty much stand-alone unit, where guitars are crafted from scratch, starting from select stashes of superior grade wood.
Folks at the Custom Shop go as far as actually weighting the wood they use for their Historic guitars. It's a fact that historics all fall in a weight range between 8 and 9 pounds, so there must be some serious wood selection process going on...Or better, some painstaking attention to deail: it's not unusual to see historics shipped with brazilian rosewood fingerboards, just like the originals (as it's the case with our guitar here), period-correct hardware (lightweight stop tailpiece, kluson tuning machines), period correct electronics (bumble bee tone caps, CTS made pots). Such attention is also translated in making sure that all the specs are exact to late '59 Pauls' (longer tenon and mortise for neck joint, correct neck shape, etc.), and that period-correct tooling is used as much as possible, so that the guitar will come as close as possible to the real thing (age factor aside). The pickups in '59 Historic RI's are the Burstbuckers, Gibson's latest creation in the quest for the perfect replica of what is regarded by many the perfect guitar pickup: the Patent Applied For humbucker (a.k.a. P.A.F.).
Well, for Les Paul enthusiasts it's often all about the flames... And here we have definitely something to look at. It's said that people buy Historic '58s to play and 59's to store away, as 59's are reserved the best tops.. Also, the striping and what might be referred to as a '59 top is likely to change from year to year in Gibson's Custom Shop. This particular guitar seems to be a 2003. Here the flaming is pretty tight and regular, much like the now famous "Pearly Gates", Billy F. Gibbons' revered 1959 Les Paul.
Also, our guitar here is a Custom Authentic, i.e. it's given an aged appearance with its dull hardware and lighly buffed finish. Not the full "Murphy aging" with finish checking and wear, but still a nice "worn in" vibe. Very cool.
The first thing we noticed upon picking up the guitar is how light it is. By no means your ordinary shoulder-chewing Les Paul that we've all had the misfortune to experience, this is lighter than most ugly strats out there. Byproduct of weight, the guitar is resonant, lively and loud.. even when unplugged.
Guitar tone ain’t no rocket science, but truth is that there’s no single factor able to make a righteous sounding instrument (although there’s many single factors that are actually able to break good tone). On the other hand, evidence tells us that a light guitar will 9 times out of 10 sound more pleasing to our ears than a heavy one, so weight definitely ‘weights’ a lot in the alchemy of good sound. But more on tone later and back on construction and looks...
With all attention to details that went into the making of this instrument, it’s obvious that construction and workmanship are top notch. The ‘aged’ nitrocellulose finish is thin and applied perfectly, the sunburst is as good as it gets and it highlights the very nicely figured (Michigan?) maple top. The frets are perfectly seated on the cream-and-chocolate brazilian rosewood fingerboard, their tops are slightly flattened (along with Gibson’s tradition) and their ends are smooth and nicely polished, with no fret file marks to be found. Buttery. All inlay work (fret markers and headstock logo) is executed flawlessly, with hardly a drop of epoxy filler to compensate for sloppy work. The polished bone nut and perfectly set up tune-o-matic bridge add on to a guitar that basically plays itself and intonates perfectly.
It is evident Gibson went through a great effort, in order to replicate the real thing down to details. A look at the stock circuitry tells a lot.. the coveted bumble bee caps (replicated by actually tearing apart vintage NOS parts); CTS manufatured matched pots (check the hand-noted ohm readings on the bottom); correct '57 style wiring...
I must say this all paid off, as the guitar is really fun to play.
I must admit, I am mostly a single coil player so, when it comes to grab a guitar with humbuckers I always feel like there's something wrong between me and the guitar. I have a hard time especially in playing with dynamics.. like the guitar seems to give it all when I only want 'some'.. man, humbuckers are often too damn loud and I end up hitting the ceiling more than my liking... Well, that's not the case with this Paul. The tones I get are chimey, airy, 3D. The whole guitar rings and resonates and those burstbuckers have the velvet touch. Open and positively bright when played clean, they deliver the goods and that nice juice that puts a idiot grin on yer face when pushed through a nicely overdriven amp (with no unwanted microphonic squeals whatsoever).
So, what can be more fun than a Historic '59, other than the real thing? (well, ok, other than sex..). Answer: a historic '59 with a vintage set of P.A.F.s That's more fun!
We had a set of nice PAF's from a 1960 335 kickin' around house and we thought we might as well just slam 'em in on Pearly and see what happens. Also (when you're in this deep, why stop here?...) we thought it'd be a good idea to top it off with a set of matched CTS pots and Hovland .022uf Musicaps. We grabbed the soldering iron and a couple of burnt fingers later here we are with our homemade Pearly Gates. Not bad. Not bad at all folks!
Finally, tonal nirvana was achieved: pushed through out trusty Kingsley Deluxe 50 head and a Dino's 2x12 cab loaded with Black Dogs, our Les Paul was mean, complex, mercyless and proud. At last: PAF's double tone to boot! Again, of everything we liked about this Historic '59 we had more: the vintage set of pickups added an additional dimension to tone and made our recipe for righteous Paul tone complete.
Ok, ok.. I'm still the same old Fender head and I ask nothing but to be locked in a room with my beloved bunch of old guitars... but, the way it turned out, I wouldnt mind sneaking Pearly in that room, too! :^)
To close this review let us throw in a bunch of sound files (after the transformation) that you might want to download and take a listen to... Again, please excuse the usual sloppy playing and rough recording. Like they used to say 'please, don't shoot on the guitar player: he's trying to do his best' (or was it the piano player?... whatever...)
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