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From Our Research Team:

A Sweetwater Exclusive Anniversary Les Paul!

This Gibson Custom 1959 50th Anniversary Les Paul Standard limited solidbody electric guitar features a Sweetwater Exclusive custom finish, in addition to its status as the most accurate re-creation of a '59 Les Paul ever! From the tonewoods to the components right down to the binding, the 1959 50th Anniversary Les Paul Standard gives you the sound, feel, and vibe of the legendary LP that rocked the world half a century ago. This model is part of an ultra-limited run that's only available here at Sweetwater, so call your Sales Engineer today to get your own 1959 50th Anniversary Les Paul Standard!

Gibson Custom 1959 50th Anniversary Les Paul Standard Limited Solidbody Electric Guitar

• An amazingly accurate re-creation of a vintage classic
  
• The birth of the Les Paul
  
• Seth Lover and the PAF humbucker
  
• The look of a legend
  
• Gibson Custom's painstaking process

An amazingly accurate re-creation of a vintage classic
You'd be right to call the original 1959 Les Paul Standard a collector's dream guitar. In fact, the legendary '59 LP has achieved such heights on the collector’s market that it is unattainable to all but the most affluent investors. Now, however, with the release of the Custom Shop 50th Anniversary ’59 Les Paul Standard, Gibson is putting the most accurate, detail-perfect recreation of this vintage milestone ever produced back within the grasp of a limited number of players and collectors. In a production run of just 500 guitars, the Custom Shop 50th Anniversary ’59 Les Paul Standard captures all the glorious feel and tone of the original Les Paul Standard from the most revered year of its production.

The birth of the Les Paul
By the late 1950s, the Les Paul had already undergone a metamorphosis of sorts. When first introduced in 1952, the Les Paul was an instrument like none that had come before it — and in a very real sense, it was still a guitar in development. Over the next few years the model would undergo several key cosmetic and technical alterations that would truly set it apart from other six-stringed instruments. The first modification made by Gibson was the improvement of its rudimentary trapeze tailpiece, which was swapped for a wrapover bar bridge in 1953. Gibson’s revolutionary Tune-o-matic bridge and separate stopbar tailpiece followed in 1955, and gradually the model was poised to reaching its zenith, but two major developments yet to come — one a quantum leap in sound and performance, the other a sweet upgrade in appearance — would serve to crystallize this classic.

Seth Lover and the PAF humbucker
The sonic improvement came first. As great as the Les Paul Goldtop played and sounded by 1956, Gibson was still chasing full-sounding yet noise-free performance from its electric guitars. Noted Gibson engineer Seth Lover answered Gibson President Ted McCarty’s call and created one of the greatest tone icons of all time: the “Patent Applied For” (PAF) humbucking pickup. In addition to reducing hum in Gibson guitars, the new pickup also optimized the fuller, warmer and more sustaining tone that has come to be known as the inherent voice of the Les Paul.

The look of a legend
1958 brought the visual changes that finally heralded the arrival of the most legendary incarnation of the Les Paul Standard. In order to maximize the potential beauty of the carved maple tops being applied to Les Pauls (which often revealed highly figured quilted, flamed or tiger-striped maple), Gibson applied a lush, semi-transparent cherry sunburst finish to the model. The “Burst” had been born, and not only did it look fantastic, but with its carved top, powerful humbucking pickups, versatile Tune-o-matic bridge and super-comfortable, set neck with full access to its 22 frets, it was the most advanced solidbody electric guitar the music world had ever seen. A year later, with the arrival of a somewhat slimmer, faster neck profile in 1959, the Les Paul had truly reached its zenith.

Gibson Custom's painstaking process
Going beyond mere cosmetics to truly re-create the legendary '59 Les Paul Standard, Gibson Custom performed an intensive digital assessment of five original 1959 Les Paul Standards. The master luthiers of Gibson Custom discovered that each of these stunning instruments was a little bit different (as is always the way with vintage guitars) but that they had a certain sound, feel, and vibe in common. Through the course of this detailed analysis they perfected many details on the reissue — yielding a period-correct Les Paul Standard more accurate to the ’59 year of manufacture than has ever been reproduced before — while also instilling a consistency of design on this recreation, making it the ultimate ’59 Les Paul Reissue.

Everything about this guitar hearkens back to 1959, including such historically accurate appointments as its figured maple top, one-piece lightweight mahogany body, gold top-hat control knobs with dial pointers, nickel ABR-1 Tune-o-matic bridge and accompanying nickel stopbar tailpiece, period-correct pickguard, single-ply creme top binding, nickel tuners with green buttons and a molded bell-shaped truss rod cover.

Gibson Custom Limited Edition 1959 50th Anniversary Les Paul Standard Special Features:

• Nylon 6/6 nut
  
• Improved ABR-1 bridge (no-wire, tighter tolerances)
  
• Historically correct nickel-plated brass bridge saddles
  
• Correct alloy saddle adjustment screws
  
• Bridge height-adjusting thumbwheels are now thinner
  
• Neck profile changed - now has less "shoulders"
  
• Audio taper CTS pots
  
• '50s wiring
  
• Pickup routes adjusted so that pickups will be parallel to the strings
  
• Top carve changed to be closer to several original '59s that were scanned
  
• Body perimeter change - slightly tighter in waist, cutaway area refined to be more like originals
  
• The maple cap is very slightly thinner, the mahogany body is very slightly thicker
  
• The fingerboard is slightly thinner
  
• The step from neck heel to back of body is taller and more correct
  
• The taper of the "maple window" under the binding in cutaway is more accurate
  
• The maple spline (filler strip) in the tenon is more accurate
  
• The edge radius on the backside of the body is tighter (less rounded)
  
• The "mustache curve" of the headstock top has been flattened slightly
  
• The control cavity plate has been relocated, has the correct side taper, and now uses the correct ABS plastic
  
• The pickguard shape has changed slightly
  
• The pickguard bracket and screw have been changed
  
• The truss rod cover has been reshaped to be more accurate
  
• The serial number location is slightly lower and more correct
  
• Dial pointers are less sharp
  
• The strap button screws are longer
  
• The jack hole is now the correct 1" diameter
  
• The toggle switch nut has more correct knurled pattern

Gibson Custom 1959 50th Anniversary Les Paul Standard Limited Solidbody Electric Guitar Features:

• Color: Sweetwater-exclusive ruby burst
  
• 25 made
  
• Body: Solid mahogany
  
• Binding: Creme
  
• Neck: 1-piece mahogany
  
• Scale length: 24-3/4"
  
• Fingerboard: Rosewood
  
• No. of frets: 22
  
• Fingerboard inlays: Trapezoid
  
• Tuners: Vintage nickel with green buttons
  
• Hardware: Nickel
  
• Truss rod cover: Molded bell-shape
  
• Bridge: ABR-1
  
• Pickups: Two humbuckers
  
• Electronics: Two volume, two tone, 3-way selector switch
  
• Knobs: Gold top-hat
  
• Pickguard: Creme
  
• Case: Custom Shop hardshell
  
• Also includes custom care kit and certificate of authenticity

The Gibson Custom 1959 50th Anniversary Les Paul Standard gives you a painstakingly accurate re-creation of a classic — with a Sweetwater-exclusive finish!

Specification Detail Manufacturer Part Number HB109C