GibsonLes Paul, apart from its striking looks, also boasts a warm, full sound that has tons of sustain, making it ideal for anything from jazz and blues to heavier music genres, such as hard rock and heavy metal. It's also made exclusively in the USA, which ensured the use of premium materials and superior build quality. mautau tentang Gibson Les Paul Traditional 2012? Ada video review tentang gitar tsb, enjoy!:salamkenal Please subscribe & like! Watchother reviews of Gibson Les Paul 1958 Reissue. Gear Used. Gibson Les Paul 1958 Reissue. More. Add review; Details and price of the reviewed gear; Other Gear Used. You may also like. Fender Stratocaster Custom Shop; Gibson Les Paul 1958 Reissue; PRS S2 Starla; Epiphone Les Paul Special II; Dean Vendetta XM; Info. 0; 0; Perbedaannyatidak hanya soal harga yang mencolok, tapi lebih dari pada itu. Baik Gibson maupun Epiphone, keduanya mempunyai keunikannya masing-masing. Hal itu tampak dalam spesifikasinya, karakteristik sound, dan cara pembuatan gitar itu sendiri. Saya tidak akan menilai mana yang baik dan buruk, atau siapa yang menang di antara keduanya. E7Qv. In 1983, Gibson released the very first Gibson Les Paul Studio, a guitar designed to deliver all the tonal benefits and playability of a Les Paul Standard, but without the embellishments. This enabled them to keep the cost down and provide a more affordable guitar for players who wanted that thick LP sound, without the hefty price tag. Even though there are dozens of versions of this iconic guitar, in our roundup of the best Les Paul Style guitars, we actually named the Gibson Les Paul Studio our Editor’s Choice. In this KillerGuitarRigs Review we’ll be going into depth on the LP Studio to explain to you exactly why we thought this particular model was worthy of our highest honors. If you’ve been in the market for a Les Paul style guitar, you won’t want to miss this! ContentsGibson Les Paul Studio Who Is This For? Appearance / Features / ControlsPerformance / SoundOther Guitars to ConsiderESP LTD Gary Holt GH-600Gibson Les Paul SpecialFinal Thoughts on the Gibson Les Paul Studio The Gibson Les Paul Studio is an absolute workhorse of a guitar that we think is best suited to intermediate and advanced players who are looking for a high-quality instrument that can handle a wide range of tones and playing styles. It comes from the factory with stage and studio ready tones and playability, so whether you’re into metal, rock, country, blues, or jazz, the LP studio can do it all. Appearance / Features / Controls Mark Agnesi Talks About The Les Paul Studio The LP Studio comes in a good range of finishes, and considering that this is supposed to be one of their lower tier models, we think they come in some of the nicest colors in the whole range. Our test guitar came to us in Smokehouse Burst, which really looked great, but it’s also available in Ebony, Heritage Cherry Sunburst, Wine Red, and a Sweetwater Exclusive Bourbon Burst. As with all Gibsons, it was made in the USA, and came with a nitro finish. This will age naturally unlike the polyurethane finish you’d find on the Epiphone equivalents. This will eventually result in that sought after checked “relic” appearance. The Studio has the traditional mahogany body topped with a carved maple cap. It wasn’t figured like you’d find on a Standard, but the wood grain still looked fantastic, and with the Smokehouse Burst finish, actually looked almost like it had a burled top. Weight wise, it came in at just a little over 8lb, which is about average for a modern Les Paul. It had a mahogany SlimTaper 60s neck, a gorgeous rosewood fretboard, and the frets themselves had been treated to a PLEK dressing. We hadn’t originally anticipated that the studio would have PLEKd frets, so this was definitely a pleasant surprise. Of course, as a Studio, there was no binding anywhere on the guitar, which meant no nibbing on the frets. Fortunately the PLEK treatment resulted in such a great finish, we didn’t miss having nibbed frets. For electronics, it came with a pair of PAF style pickups, with a 490R in the Neck, and a 498T in the bridge. This is a tried and tested combo, and was perfectly suited to the Studio. For an even greater range of tones, the pickups were coil tapped, too. Not to be confused with coil splitting humbuckers, coil tapping pickups like these can be set to use either the full pickup magnet, or just part of it. This reduces the number of windings available, giving a lower output, and a more vintage tone. The hardware was of the typical high quality, including a Tune-O-Matic bridge and Grover Rotomatic Tuners. Besides that, it came with a nice vegan leather hybrid gig bag for storage and transport. Performance / Sound Gibson Les Paul Studio - Top 5 Reasons to Buy over Epiphone As mentioned, we thought very highly of the Les Paul Studio. The overall feel was fantastic, and it was very much a pro level workhorse right out of the box. Weight wasn’t an issue, thanks to the modern weight relieved body – this solved one of the biggest complaints about Les Pauls in general, and added significantly to the overall playing comfort. The out of the box setup was excellent, with a phenomenal low action. We found no fret buzz, and nor was there any kind of choke out. We barely needed any pressure to fret a note, which made it incredibly easy playing. We loved the pickups – The 490R pickup in the neck position, had a warm and smooth tone with a slightly lower output than the 498T pickup in the bridge position. The 498T had a brighter tone with much more bite, and was perfect for lead lines. Having coil tapping opened up some great tones that we’ve not found in other Les Paul models. When activated, it gave us some amazing vintage warmth – perfect for classic blues. Not quite original PAF, but certainly along those lines. Other Guitars to Consider We highly recommend the Gibson Les Paul Studio, but given how much of an investment it is, we do understand how important it can be to weigh up all your options first. For that reason, we’ve highlighted a couple of our favorite alternative options below ESP LTD Gary Holt GH-600 The ESP LTD Gary Holt GH-600 is a great choice for players who want the Les Paul look with an aggressive edge. It features an all-mahogany body for a thick and resonant tone, and a thin U-shaped neck profile for extreme speed. Its dual EMG active pickups give this Gary Moore Signature model an extremely high output, which results in amazing clarity, even with the gain at 11, and the Floyd Rose trem system delivers huge divebomb abilities while maintaining incredible tuning stability. Gibson Les Paul Special The Gibson Les Paul Special is an excellent alternative to the Studio. It still has the Les Paul mojo, but offers a completely different tone thanks to the mahogany slab body and twin P90 pickups. It’s a real punk weapon with its signature overdriven growl, but at the same time, it can also serve up some gorgeous sparkling cleans, too. It may have been one of Gibson’s student grade models originally, but today it’s a premium guitar with PLEKd frets, period correct hand wired electronics, and even Orange Drop capacitors for more consistent tone. Final Thoughts on the Gibson Les Paul Studio The Gibson Les Paul Studio really is an icon in the world of guitars. For decades, it’s been an affordable entry point into the Gibson Les Paul ecosystem, while still providing the classic LP tone that has truly helped to shape music as we know it today. Especially if trim and embellishments aren’t a big deal for you, you could save upwards of $1000 by opting for the Studio, and still get the same end result. We absolutely love this guitar, and we’re confident that you will, too. Gibson’s back-to-basics approach has seen the rejuvenated company streamline its electric-guitar catalogue and carve it up into three distinct ranges. The Original Collection and Custom Shop are the primary destinations for purists looking for vintage-style looks and specifications, while the Modern Collection is where you’ll find a mixture of the stripped down and souped pretty at the top of the heap in the Modern Collection is the Les Paul Modern. During Henry Juszkiewicz’s reign, this model would probably have been called the 2020 Les Paul Standard – it certainly inherits a few features from some of Gibson’s more experimental riffs on the Standard’ chief alterations to the classic recipe are an Ultra-Modern’ weight relief pattern, a slim-taper neck with an asymmetrical profile and contoured heel, a 10- to 16-inch compound radius ebony fingerboard with binding but no nibs, locking Grover Rotomatics and an aluminium Nashville Tune-o-matic bridge that’s secured in threaded inserts rather than screwed straight into the binding is bright white and the hardware a mirror-like chrome, while the mildly futuristic clear top-hat knobs provide access to a quartet of push/pull potentiometers hard-wired to an internal either of the Burstbucker Pros’ volume controls into the up position puts the corresponding pickup into single-coil mode. The neck pickup’s tone control is where you’ll also find phase switching, while the bridge pickup’s tone control activates a pure bypass’ that routes straight to the bridge humbucker with the tone control removed from the the brown-stained neck and back has the kind of hue you’d have found on Goldtops of yesteryear, the Les Paul Modern is offered with a trio of eye-catching metallic tops Faded Pelham Blue, Graphite and Sparkling Burgundy, with the latter featuring on our review guitar. Aside from a few areas of slight bleed into the white binding, the finishing looks sharp, without a hint of orange peel’ – and the deep, blood-red top really pops when framed by the binding and useModern it may be, but this Les Paul isn’t so radical a rewrite that it feels in any way alien. In fact, played acoustically, the formula is very familiar. Although its mahogany body is heavily chambered, this guitar is still reassuringly substantial, with a smooth and balanced unplugged voice and no shortage of sustain above the 12th fret. The body thickness may be 10mm shallower than usual behind the contoured heel, but it doesn’t seem to have a negative sonic asymmetric neck carve is subtle but effective. The slightly more rounded bass side and skinnier treble-side taper combine with the compound-radius fingerboard to offer a smooth, comfortable ride, but it’s definitely not a modern shred profile – relatively small medium-jumbo frets serve to keep things firmly in the classic’ ballpark and may alienate more technical said, it’s one of those guitars that encourages the more stoic among us to be a little more daring. Although there’s still a fair bit of mass to negotiate – this isn’t an SG, after all – when you get to those upper registers, the slinkier heel area makes soloing above the 17th fret considerably easier than on a traditionally constructed LP with the full-fat humbucker tones, we’re greeted with plenty of treble, clarity, dynamic range and articulation – gone are the days when a new Gibson neck pickup is likely to sport a woolly blanket. With a clean tone and spring reverb, it’s easy to get lost in a seriously expressive pool of tones that remind you there’s so much more to these guitars than hard rock. While original PAFs, Patent Number humbuckers and expensive PAF clones might get closer to the sonic high-water mark of the golden era, Gibson’s pickups have made significant strides in the right direction of is keen to describe the LP Modern’s single-coil voices as having P-90 characteristics, so we pull up the volume pots to see how close they get. Unlike many coil-split circuits, there’s no significant drop in level when switching from full humbucking mode, so that’s a good start. The treble softens and you do hear some of the wiriness, chewy midrange and nasal single-note tones that characterise Gibson’s iconic single-coil. The LP Modern isn’t going to fool anyone in a blind comparison with an old P-90 Goldtop or Special, but the single-coil voices here provide some interesting colours in their own right and respond particularly well to gain. We can imagine them being a real boon for your function-band neck pickup’s phase switch, on the other hand, does result in a big drop in output – but it hollows things out nicely for percussive funk and scratchy special effect’ lead tones. Flip to the pure bypass mode, however, and it’s the other end of the spectrum entirely. The additional kick and upper harmonic presence it brings to the bridge humbucker is tailor made for those big rock riffs and show-stopping Les Paul Modern might not have the romantic allure of a heavily aged Burst reissue or even a flamey Standard, but it’s a seriously versatile performance tool. With no built-in effects or Robot Tuners in sight, it feels like a contemporary take on a classic design rather than a gimmick and it retains enough essential Les Paul DNA to keep a high proportion of Lester fans FeaturesPRICE £2,299 inc. hard caseDESCRIPTION Solidbody electric guitar. Made in USABUILD Weight-relieved mahogany body with carved maple top, mahogany set neck with asymmetrical slim taper and modern contoured heel, 10-16” compound-radius ebony fingerboard with mother of pearl trapezoid inlays, 22 medium-jumbo frets, Graph Tech nutHARDWARE Chrome-finished aluminium Nashville Tune-o-matic bridge and stop tailpiece, Grover locking Rotomatic tuners with keystone buttonsELECTRICS Burstbucker Pro rhythm and Burstbucker Pro+ lead humbucking pickups with 3-way toggle pickup selector switch, 2x push/pull volume coil-split and 2x push/pull tone phase, pure bypassSCALE LENGTH WIDTH at nut, at 12th fretNECK DEPTH at first fret, at 12th fretSTRING SPACING at nut, at bridgeWEIGHT Gloss nitrocellulose Sparkling Burgundy as reviewed, Graphite, Faded Pelham BlueCONTACT Gibson Like this? Try theseChapman Guitars V2 ML2 Modern Standard £499, Gretsch G6228 Players Edition Jet BT £1,979, Nik Huber Orca ’59 £7,250 Home Gear Image credit Gibson Ever since the Late Fifties, when Gibson installed two humbucking pickups on the Les Paul Model electric guitar, gave it a sunburst finish and changed its name to the Gibson Les Paul Standard, the model has remained exactly that a standard. From the late Sixties and onwards Gibson has introduced a wide variety of variants of the Les Paul model like the Classic, Studio, Traditional and Tribute, but, as those names suggest, most of these models were designed to deliver a vintage-inspired vibe that evoked the original great as these retrograde models are and were, they didn’t offer a lot for players whose tastes and preferences are more in line with forward-looking refinements and innovations. With the introduction of the new Les Paul Modern model, Gibson has finally rectified that situation by offering a modified version of the beloved Les Paul with the versatile features, fast playability and contemporary styling many of today’s players prefer. If you’ve always loved the sound of a Gibson Les Paul, but found the model just a little too outdated, the Les Paul Modern is the version you’ve been waiting the exception of the gloss nitrocellulose lacquer Faded Pelham Blue, Sparkling Burgundy and Graphite finish options and clear Top Hat control knobs, the Les Paul Modern looks almost identical to Standard models and similar variations from the past, but closer examination reveals many more changes beyond its cosmetic appearance. Like the original Standard, the Modern is constructed with a mahogany neck and mahogany body with a maple slab top, but the body features Gibson’s "ultra-modern" weight relief that reduces the overall weight to nine pounds or less. For this model, Gibson has returned to using genuine ebony instead of the previous ebony substitute Richlite for the fretboard, which also features a 10-to 16-inch compound radius. The neck also features 22 medium jumbo frets and an asymmetrical slim profile that’s thicker and more curved at the bass strings, and thinner and flatter at the treble few notable changes have been made to the hardware as well. While the tuners have familiar-looking Kluson-style tulip-shaped or keystone buttons, they’re actually a set of locking Grover Rotomatics. The Nashville Tune-o-matic bridge and stopbar tailpiece are crafted from lightweight aluminum to enhance resonance and brightness. Electronics consist of a Burstbucker Pro Rhythm neck humbucker and a Burstbucker Pro + Lead bridge humbucker. Push/pull functions on all four control knobs greatly expand the available tonal options. The volume controls provide coil splitting for their corresponding pickups when pulled out; the neck tone control engages an out-of-phase setting when both pickups are engaged; and when the bridge tone control is pulled out, it instantly mainlines the bridge pickup only directly to the output, completely bypassing the settings of all of the volume and tone controls, and the pickup selector Gibson Les Paul Modern’s tone is 100 percent Les Paul, although the Burstbucker Pro pickups provide character that’s a touch brighter and more aggressive. The push/pull control knob functions exponentially expand the tonal palette of your Les Paul, with the coil-splitting functions providing the bark and bite of P90 single-coils and the phase switch delivering a wonderfully wah-like honking, hollow midrange with a multitude of variations when using both pickups and experimenting with various tone control settings. The bridge tone control’s bypass function is the real killer here, providing an instant balls-to-the-walls aggressive boost that’s ideal for leads that cut to the jugular vein. The Modern’s playability is fast and furious, with unrestricted access to the upper frets at last. Tuning stays rock solid, and with its updated makeover it looks pretty rockin’ PRICE $2,799 MANUFACTURER Gibson, Push/pull control knobs provide coil-splitting for P90-style single-coil tones, phase switching and a bypass function that hotwires the bridge pickup directly to the output.● The neck features numerous upgrades, including a genuine ebony fretboard with compound radius, slim asymmetrical profile and comfortable heel BOTTOM LINE The Gibson Les Paul Modern is a true modern update that delivers classic Les Paul sounds, a significantly expanded palette of tones and the fast playability that today’s players guitar gear to exploreThese are the best electric guitars available todayRaise hell with the best metal guitars for all budgetsThe best electric guitars under $2,000 for intermediate and pro playersFreshen up with the best electric guitar stringsJust getting started? These are the best beginner electric guitars Thank you for reading 5 articles this month*Join now for unlimited accessUS pricing $ per month or $ per yearUK pricing £ per month or £ per year Europe pricing € per month or € per year *Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription Join now for unlimited accessPrices from £ All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox! Chris is the co-author of Eruption - Conversations with Eddie Van Halen. He is a 40-year music industry veteran who started at Boardwalk Entertainment Joan Jett, Night Ranger and Roland US before becoming a guitar journalist in 1991. He has interviewed more than 600 artists, written more than 1,400 product reviews and contributed to Jeff Beck’s Beck 01 Hot Rods and Rock & Roll and Eric Clapton’s Six String Stories. With a history going back all the way to 1955, the Gibson Les Paul Special has been a popular fixture in the lineup ever since. It was originally introduced as a mid tier model to sit between the student grade Les Paul Junior and the high end Les Paul Standard, but thanks to its unique tones and incredible all round performance, it has gained a cult following all of its own. In this KillerGuitarRigs Review we got to spend some extra time with the LP Special, the guitar that we named as our Editor’s Choice in our roundup of the best P90 guitars. In this extended coverage, we’ll be going into detail about the aesthetics, features, build quality, tones, and overall performance of this amazing guitar. If you’re in the market for a guitar with P90 pickups and budget isn’t an issue, we think you’ll really love this Gibson – keep on reading to learn more about it! ContentsGibson Les Paul Special Who Is This For?Appearance / Features / ControlsPerformance / SoundOther Guitars to ConsiderGibson SG SpecialGibson Les Paul JuniorFinal Thoughts on the Gibson Les Paul Special The Gibson Les Paul Special is a premium US made guitar that we think is best suited to intermediate and advanced players. The price point is well above that of a typical beginner guitar, and its chunky 50s style neck is quite prohibitive for less experienced players. Guitarists with more experience, however, will appreciate the huge tonal range, pro quality electronics, and the high end fit and finish. Appearance / Features / Controls Gibson Les Paul Special - TV Yellow - In-Depth Demo! The test guitar we received came in the iconic TV Yellow finish – arguably the best color for a Les Paul Special. It looked fantastic, and it was abundantly clear that incredible care and attention had gone into the fit and finish of this guitar. If you’re not into the TV Yellow, it also comes in a Vintage Cherry finish. As expected from a Les Paul, it was made with all mahogany. Being a Special, it had a slab style body – this means that unlike the Les Paul Standard, there was no maple cap. This kept the weight down by comparison, with the guitar weighing just 7lb 11oz. The neck was also made with mahogany, and of course, had set construction. It had a Vintage 50s profile, which is a notoriously chunky shape. It’s not the most forgiving for newer players or those with smaller hands, but if you like a substantial neck, they don’t get much better than this. Topping the neck was a fantastic rosewood fretboard, which both looked and felt great. It had 22 medium jumbo frets, which like many new Gibsons, had been PLEK treated at the factory. The assortment of hardware was all of the usual high Gibson standard. It had Gibson Deluxe Tuners, a Graphtech TUSQ nut, and a wraparound bridge. Finally, as for the electronics, it came with a pair of incredible Gibson P90 pickups, a 3 way selector switch, hand wired pots, and period correct Orange Drop capacitors. Performance / Sound Gibson Les Paul Special Review Starting with playability, we actually found the Les Paul Special to be a real joy to play. Despite the gargantuan depth, the neck had a real worn in vintage feel that made it a lot more comfortable than you’d think. The nitro finish was also a big contributor to the sublime neck feel. It never felt sticky, and as time goes on and the lacquer starts wearing away, it will only get better. In fact, it wasn’t just the neck that the nitro improved – we felt it gave us a much closer connection to the guitar in general – it’s hard to explain until you actually feel it, but that barely there finish makes a world of difference. Being so much lighter than a traditional Les Paul, we found that it was incredibly comfortable to hold for longer periods of time, especially when standing – something working musicians will love about this guitar. Tonally speaking, the LP Special was an absolute riot. This model hasn’t changed much at all since its first introduction in 1955, and for us, this is one of the best things about it. It had a raw, vintage quality to the tone, albeit with more modern reliability and better resistance to the 60 cycle hum that plagues single coil pickups. The Gibson P90 pickups used in this model are some of the most versatile we’ve ever encountered. They’re able to handle high gain like humbuckers, and yet, they can still clean up like traditional single coils. In the neck position it was warm, and surprisingly thick sounding. It was clear and articulate, and served up some nice crunch when played with high gain, and when running through a clean channel was exceptionally sweet sounding. The bridge pickup delivered big across the board – epic lead tones with everything from aggressive overdrive through to crystal clear country sounds. It was super responsive, and all it took to completely change up the sound was a slight roll back on the volume pot. With the tone knob down it retained its clarity well, and when we dimed it, it stayed full-sounding, without even a hint of brittleness. Other Guitars to Consider The Gibson Les Paul Special is a team favorite at KGR, but there are still some other great options to consider. If you’d like to take a look at some alternatives before going ahead and buying, check out some of our other favorite P90 models. Gibson SG Special If you’re set on a 2 pickup model, but the Les Paul style body isn’t your thing, then the Gibson SG Special might be a great choice for you. Like the LP it’s all mahogany, but of course, it has the iconic double cutaway SG body, with beveled edges for improved comfort. Another key difference is the SlimTaper neck, which is significantly thinner than the Vintage 50s profile – this makes it a much more forgiving guitar for newer players, or for anybody looking for a faster playing model. Gibson Les Paul Junior For those who don’t need 2 P90 pickups, the Gibson Les Paul Junior is a solid alternative. It’s another slab body Les Paul with a single cutaway, and a Vintage 50s neck, with the main difference being the absence of a neck pickup. It has a single P90 in the bridge position, and delivers a surprisingly wide range of tones. It’s even lighter than the Special, making it a great option for gigging players looking for a comfortable P90 guitar. Final Thoughts on the Gibson Les Paul Special The Gibson Les Paul Special is a unique guitar that offers the vibe of a Les Paul, but with an edgy twist. It’s a raucous guitar with an incredible tonal range – it does everything from country to punk, and sounds amazing in the process. It’s a beautifully made guitar, and aesthetically speaking, is one of the best looking on the market. The feel is absolutely incredible, and the playability is amazing. If you’re looking for the best P90 guitar on the market, we honestly don’t think we could think of anything better than the Gibson Les Paul Special. MusicRadar Verdict A heavyweight LP with a raft of usable tones. Pros +Good build with unshowy plain maple top.+Pickups have a little more kick, plus we get expanded sounds.+Good price. Cons -Over-heavy weight despite the weight relief.-Not everyone likes PCBs and push-fit connectors. MusicRadar's got your back Our team of expert musicians and producers spends hours testing products to help you choose the best music-making gear for you. Find out more about how we test. While Fender splits its guitars into series and periodically updates or refreshes them, Gibson’s main USA production division prefers the annual makeover approach. This year’s line-up was seen by many dealers as a return to form “A new chapter in Gibson’s illustrious history, with their focus firmly back on crafting only the world’s finest guitars!” said one. As ever, the Les Paul sits central, with eight models if we count The Paul 40th Anniversary bookended by the start-up double-cut Les Paul Junior Tribute and topped off with the Les Paul High Performance. Add to the list the Les Paul Studio and Studio Tribute, and that leaves us with the three most classic Les Pauls, the Standard, Traditional and Classic. Today we’re looking at the Classic is a catch-all name and for 2019 swaps its 2018-spec dual P-90s for ’61 Zebras and adds the circuit board previously used on the Standard, along with Traditional aka nine-hole weight relief. At £900 cheaper than the Standard, the 2019 Classic is essentially a stripped-down Les Paul before you drop to the Studios and is offered in Honeyburst as here or Gold Top - it was originally also offered in Ebony and Heritage Cherry Sunburst. Outwardly, all three of the 2019 models share the same construction one-piece neck, headstock widening wings and two-piece centre-joined backs. The Classic features a A-less plain top’ and ’61 Zebra open coil Classic name has been applied to various-spec LPs since it appeared back in 1990, then in a highly vintage spec. Today’s more cost-effective dress, with its plain maple top, evokes a more 70s Deluxe style, enhanced by the metal-topped knobs. Unfortunately, that perception is reinforced by its weight, which makes it the porker here despite its Traditional Weight Relief at a whooping Grover Rotomatics reference one of the most common LP mods and we get a no-wire ABR-1 tune-o-matic. Likewise, the ’board appears very dry and with such low-profile frets you do really feel the ’board’s surface more than you would with a higher wire. String height is identical to the others and neck relief sits between the two. SoundsThe Classic has an initial response that all points to a strong plugged-in performance. The Classic’s neck feels very similar to the recently-reviewed Standard, despite the differences, but the weight has a big impact, particularly on the hugely unbalanced feel played seated. Of course, if that doesn’t bother you, you might be on to a winner here as it’s a great player as supplied. Like any classic design, what you hear coming out of your amp might not be your idea of a great Les Paul tone, yet playing these three we’re hearing wonderful and subtly different flavours. It might well be that the Classic has the bite and power you like with more lower-end grunt than the others. There’s a little more nasally P-90 flavour, a slightly cocked-wah voice that provides a grainy texture, especially with some crunch and Marshall-y gain. Running the Classic with both pickups in tap mode is quite something; experiment with the phase switch with both pickups on to hear it. If only the damn thing wasn’t so heavy... The rather dowdy-looking Classic’s fundamental flaw is its colossal weight in a different colour and with a lighter weight it might be game on, but that’s not what’s here. Plugged in, is where the Classic drops in heft and grunt aplenty but with enough clarity to access older snappier and soulful voices. It will no doubt be a while until new Gibson’ settles in and has a noticeable effect on the instruments we can buy. These interim models, however, are three strong dishes that employ existing features we’ve seen before, albeit not in quite the same the horrors of robotic’ tuners, over-wide necks and zero frets now pretty much consigned to the past, these three zone in on the Les Paul in classic style Traditional, sonically expanded Standard and affordable Classic shades. They need a little TLC, which we’d hope would be undertaken before they’re sold, but they’re tidy, not over-priced and have the right name on the headstock. They might well be quite historic models, too the end of an era. Just as we conclude our test at the start of 2019, the new Gibson management announced there will apparently be a completely new 2019 range of Classics’.“Designs like the Les Paul and the SG once again embrace the features and construction details that made them legends in the first place a Les Paul Standard ’50s spec and a Les Paul Standard ’60s spec as well as one with P-90 pickups,” says Cesar Gueikian, Gibson’s chief merchant officer. “The Contemporary line also introduces a new concept with the Les Paul and SG Modern.” These new ranges “will be available for purchase later this year”. What that means for these original and clearly short-lived 2019 models that are in-store is anyone’s guess, but we suspect as the year progresses there will be deals aplenty to be had 2018 models are already discounted in many stores. Whatever happens while the dust settles, it looks like 2019 is going to be quite a year for Gibson lovers. Watch this space! Dave Burrluck is one of the world’s most experienced guitar journalists, who started writing back in the '80s for International Musician and Recording World, co-founded The Guitar Magazine and has been the Gear Reviews Editor of Guitarist magazine for the past two decades. Along the way, Dave has been the sole author of The PRS Guitar Book and The Player's Guide to Guitar Maintenance as well as contributing to numerous other books on the electric guitar. Dave is an active gigging and recording musician and still finds time to make, repair and mod guitars, not least for Guitarist’s The Mod Squad. Most Popular

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