Gibson Les Paul Special - Vintage Cherry Reviews

Such a joy to play. I play through a tube rig. I play/perform several genres. The tone of this ranges from soft and warm, to edgy and biting. The intonation has not presented an issue despite the old school bridge. It looks great too. If you're looking for a versatile axe, I would recommend this guitar. Cheers

Things that slipped by my 55-point inspection: non-soldered pickup grounds, poorly crafted nut slots, improper knob/pot heights, unfinished sections by the pickup routes, and surface scratches everywhere. Buyer beware. Shout out to my local luthier Mike Schramm for reviving this poorly assembled guitar. 5 stars for Kris and his sales team, and the eventual state of this guitar after a setup from a true caring professional.

The build quality, playability, and tone of this guitar is really unsurpassed. Amazing for a non-Murphy Lab guitar. It is acoustically resonant and the pickup is solid P-90. I love this one so much that I just bought a Junior to have one of each Les Paul. I recommend this guitar without hesitation.

I own a Gibson custom shop r7 and two custom shop Fender Stratocasters 65 reissue and 60 reissue and none of them compare to this les paul special. I previously owned a custom shop les paul junior but never fell in love with the very chunky neck the neck on this guitar is perfect slimmer then my r7 also. This guitar fells great fit and finish are perfect right out of the box. Plecked with no buzzing or dead spots. The P90's can go from a sweet chime (no ice picking) to a growling roar. Not muddy even on the neck pickup and great note definition. Just as good or even better then my 2012 custom shop r7. My new go to guitar is two pounds lighter then my r7 which makes it a breeze to do a three or four hour gig. Running it through a Fender deluxe reverb cranked with an attenuator I don't even need pedals just volume knob on the guitar. I would definitely recommend this guitar and as always I trust Sweetwater well packaged and prompt delivery and the staff is always willing to answer any questions. Charles Cummings my sales engineer is always keeping me in the loop from ordering to delivery and a follow up. Great job Charles!

This guitar arrived in perfect condition and looks amazing. The factory pleck really made a difference in my opinion. This thing needs no adjustments and just plays great right out of the case. I am really happy with the quality of this guitar. I looked over everything and cant find even the smallest defect or issue. The P-90's sound like nothing else and I cant put this one down. I was nervous about the intonation but that is not an issue at all. My sales engineer Michael Saulnier answered all my questions. If this is the new quality standard for Gibson I am a true fan.

This LesPaul is the 8th guitar that I have purchased from Sweetwater and every time the experience has been first class customer service is the best in the music industry and a shout-out to my sales engineer Larry Reed for always taking the time to make sure every piece of gear gets to me fast and well packed my LesPaul was delivered to me in two days out here in Nevada doubled boxed and in its case can't say enough about my sales engineer Larry he's more like my friend anyway this LesPaul special is awesome to play I love the neck and fretboard and is smooth as butter the nitrocellulose finish is spot on and the P-90 pickups sound fantastic as well I'am very happy with this LesPaul and the entire experience with the Sweetwater team that being said I highly recommend this LesPaul special and Sweetwater for your next guitar or gear

Right out of the box the guitar smells really good (kind of sweet). The setup was nicely done. The pickups are bright and clear! And the best of all the guitar is an affordable USA model with an awesome case. Overall, this is actually better than the LP standards in production. Shout out to Matt Christopherson!

Received this guitar yesterday,double boxed in perfect condition.Plugged into a Fender Deluxe Reverb Limited Edition amp. This Guitar is a tone Monster!So many sounds just from volume,tone & pickup selector switch.Its the easiest playing guitar I have ever owned.Looking forward to many hours of playing & recording with it. Thank you David Mikautadze,my Sales Engineer & Sweetwater.

Love the feel of the 50's neck but "over the moon" on the tone and harmonics of this guitar. Just a vibration of a well built guitar like this Special makes this Paul a tone monster! I can't stop playing this masterpiece of a guitar. Thanks Sweetwater for helping me acquire my first Les Paul. J

First off, the P-90s are thick and awesome, and the red mahogany body is gorgeous and looks classy. As someone who comes from Tele's & Strat's, the Les Paul Special is comfortable and P-90s give it a meatier sound. Like having a mixture of Telecaster and Les Paul Standard goodness. My LP Standard weighs a ton. The LP Special is a lighter more lovable Les Paul shape. The neck on this guitar is chunky compared to the Fenders or a 60s style Gibson neck, but it doesn't bother me. Highly recommenced, a great guitar. And Sweetwater always does a great job.

Last month I decided to pull the trigger and buy my first guitar with P 90's. A Gibson seemed like the right guitar to have P90's. Gibson has 4 main options. A 50's Les Paul that weights about 9.5lbs. This Les Paul Special and weighs 6.6 pounds, a SG with P90's. or a Les Paul Tribute Special with P90's weights about 6.6 pounds.

5/5 for the overall fit and finish. I found that this guitar is in the sweep spot. I love the Vintage Cherry red. I love the weight, I love the finish, and the headstock with the pearl inlay. My only change was to add Gotoh kluson style locking tuners (these are excellent drop in replacements). I love the 6.6lb weight.

5/5 for the feel of the neck. The feel of the neck is flawless. I would describe the neck size as medium. Gibson calls it a 50's style neck but I think that it is very similar to a 60's style neck, maybe a tad bid bigger than a 60's style neck. I really like to bound fret board.

5/5 for the balance and feel of the guitar. Compared to the SG P90 guitar this has no neck dive and it does not have the forward shift of the fret board like an SG.

4.5/5 for the pickups. I am really picky, I have a Gibson Les Paul Standard 60's. Gibson Custom 336, PRS 594, and a PRS Custom 24. The 90's are great in this guitar. I do not consider it to be overlapp to have a Les Paul and a 335-style guitar in my collection. I agree that the P90 sound it is between a humbucker and a Sigle coil. I think is more on the side of a humbucker.

4/5 for the overall value because it goes for $$$ (not inexpensive). I also spent time playing with the Les Paul Tribute Special with P90s. The tribute is a very similar guitar less. The main difference is that the Tribute is finished in satin (it feels better than the Special, it sounds the same, but to me it looks horrible). The Special also has the Peral Gibson in the headstock and the tribute is printed.

This guitar is best for… someone wanting a classic rock guitar with P90's.

Conclusion: I love this guitar, it looks great, it plays great, it sounds great, and it is light weight. If you want a P90 guitar seriously consider this one. If you are on a tight budget go for the Gibson Les Paul Tribute Special with P90's.

I have had the privilege of owning so many guitars over the last 30 yrs. (Some vintage American guitars as well). These Gibson Secials scream all of that wonderful American vintage! It has every feature I desire in a top notch guitar. Sweetwater is the best! The only place I will shop for my music equipment anymore. All of the staff is wonderful. But I gotta give an extra shout out to Steve G.! Excellent customer service!

Absolutely beautiful guitar! The P90s sound amazing, and it has a beautiful resonating tone. Everything about this was flawless. Brian and the folks at Sweetwater go above and beyond. They even gave me a call to make sure it arrived safely, and how I liked it. Their customer service is unlike any others, and I will be buying from Sweetwater for a very long time.

4'th time's a charm! OK I admit I'm a perfectionist. I must be Sweetwater's most hard to please customer. They hit this one outta the park. Big shout out to my sales rep Colton Kreuser for picking out this very "Special" Special LP. I sent back three TV Yellows, one for a lousy color match at the two piece body and two for fretboard and binding scratches and nicks. None of which affected playability but I gotta wonder why this one is flawless. And let me say this darker cherry finish is stunning with dark rosewood board, black headstock and black white black three ply pickguard and creme neck binding. Having had both the tv yellow an the cherry, the cherry shows the grain better. Both colors are sweet though. And ohhh those Gibby P90's! Beautiful sparkling cleans to growling, all easily controlled by the volume pot. Speaking of which, they both taper beautifully. If you want a responsive versatile tone machine this is the ticket.

My other guitars are all custom shop models - and I don't really want to take them to gigs. But their playability has spoiled me to the point where I find it hard to accept anything less. On a whim I tried one of these. The bound fingerboard feels every bit as smooth as my custom shop LPs. I've never been a fan of red - but this vintage cherry looks amazing in person - photos do not do it justice! The pickups sound great.. and the guitar is so solid... now I'm almost afraid to take this to the gigs!..:-)

I just got this yesterday and I have to say for the money this may be the best guitar I have. The P90s and articulate and dynamic. They ring like a bell or can get gritty and grimy, but still clear. I would give it 5 stars but the fret board was a little dirty and need a nice conditioning and polish. My sales engineer James Wroblewski was amazing and always is.

I'm a fan of the 70's classic rock genre and have been enamored with the idea of trying a guitar with P90's so when my wife signed off on a new guitar the Les Paul Special with P90's was at the top of my list. I was mildly concerned with the neck size (chunky) but with the ability to return it if needed I felt safe in giving it a go.

Order experience:
If you've never bought a guitar from Sweetwater (this is my second) you should expect a great experience. They send you hi-res professionally shot pictures of the guitar shortly after you order and ship super fast. The Les Paul shipped the next day and was on my doorstep in two days. Super nice.

The guitar - Pros:
1) The fit and finish on this guitar are perfect. No sharp fret edges (Ive seen a few Gibson's with sharp fret edges at the local guitar store) and no blemishes at all. The finish is super nice - I'm glad I went with the Nitro lacquer finish - the pictures don't really do it justice.
2) Playability is superb. The setup was great (for me) right out of the box - action not super low - just right. The marketing blurb claims they Plek the guitar and I believe it. No fret buzz and she bends super nice all over the neck. Great out of the box experience for me.
3) The P90's!! I watched plenty of review videos prior to making my purchase but was still a bit surprised by the sounds coming from the pickups. They are definitely more "humbuckery" than "single coilery" - so more on the darker side than the bright side but without the mud (for lack of a better work) you can hear on some humbuckers. They go from fairly hot at full volume to nice and clean when you roll off - with a beautiful tone.
4) The neck feels great in my hands. I've always stuck with more modern neck shapes that tend to be more thin than chunky but that will change going forward. This is a chunky neck but it feels super comfortable and I've adjusted to it pretty quickly. Along with the sound of the P90's this is my favorite part of the guitar.

The guitar - Cons:
1) The P90's. Okay - they sound great - really great - nice 70's classic rock type vibe - but they are noisy. I knew this coming in - and they aren't egregious - but they certainly put out some hum/noise.
2) Intonation is a compromise. As with the noisy P90's I knew the reputation of the vintage Wraparound Stoptail bridge and it hasn't dissapointed. I put some new strings on it and stretched them for a day or so then set about to work on the intonation. Moving he tailpiece almost all the way back has resulted in the closest I can get it - with all the strings a few cents off with the exception of the G string which is a good 10 cents sharp. I can work around this by tuning the guitar to the middle of the neck - fitting my playing style of mostly power chords and pentatonics :) - and it sounds great. If I want to use any open chords or strings I tune the G string about 5 cents flat as a compromise and it works for me. I may try some different tailpieces at some point but for now this works well enough.
3) The vintage type tuners aren't super smooth - but they work.

So that's it - overall I'm super happy with the guitar and look forward to many happy years with it!

These guitars are well built and fun to play.!
If you need a P90 guitar, this is the one to have..

I bought a cherry finish demo off the rack. A couple little boo boo's on it, but I'm fine with that given the savings. It's my current favorite. I love the SOUND of this guitar. My playing tends toward Allman Brothers tone, classic rock. Has nice big, fat, warm, woody tone. The P90's are great...no need for a pickup swap with this guitar. If this guitar didn't sound so great, and if I didn't like the fat neck so much, I'd have rated it much lower, because there are some cons. The bridge is a joke. I get that it's "vintage", but there's NO way to get close to proper intonation. I replaced it with a bridge that looks like the stock one, but intonates very well. Then, you're still stuck with the bridge fitting very loosely in the studs, so that it doesn't lie flat. I bought a set of adjustable studs to cure that. I don't even wanna think what that cost. Now that it's fixed, I'm pleased with a wraparound bridge. Gets the job done, and it's easy for palm muting and resting my hand. I would greatly prefer that the frets were bigger. I'd also appreciate it if the frets weren't so darned rough. I had to use successive grades of sandpaper from 800-6000 to get them smooth. The tuners were very tight. I kept putting small drops of Tri Flow oil on the and working them to free them up. I mean they felt like junk. Now they are okay/marginal. Shame on Gibson for the crappy tuners. Overall quality and finish are nice enough. Nice wood, well matched. Did I mention that it sounds GREAT? Stable neck even with humidity changes, and stable tuning.

Very cool gift from a dear old friend of mine. Normally would never buy a guitar off the internet so wasn't sure when it first arrived. Happily, the guitar plays, sounds and looks like a dream! I've never been a Les Paul person but I am now! Clean, dirty or in between all sound great. It seems the legwork done with the Sweetwater crew on the purchase paid off. Lucky me!

This Les Paul plays great however the lower bout edge of the body was extremely bumpy. Ever since Henry left Gibson I have noticed a decline in Gibson craftsmanship I come to enjoy from the 70s through the 90s. Honestly ... this is another one that should never have passed Gibson's inspections but I am hanging in to it. At one point I have even asked if Gibson was selling Sweetwater seconds. A TV yellow version of this guitar was flawless, albeit under the neon lights the TV yellow had a green tinge. Unlike the Tribute P-90 ... this guitar came with a nice hardshell case however it is NOT the nice Canadian made TLK case. It is a GWW case made in Costa Rica. Oh yeah ... lots of case candy including a cheap strap and nice Gibson multi tool. Still its not a bad case and does compare well to the TLK.

Neck pickup and middle position died after 3 days. Just left a review on the replacement for this which was a yellow model which was just as bad for other reasons(Harsh unmusical sound) I honestly do not understand how gibson is still a solvent company they have got to have the record set for variance model to model over anyone for any product ever bar none. Over the last 2 years ive bought roughly 8 different Gibsons and every single one of them was different beyond any reasonable level of qc tolerances And I actually use to praise this kind of system and when there differences are good differences I don't have a problem with it and its what made gibson great along time ago(along with a sweet treble in the bridge position that doesn't exist on gibson pickups for a long time now). I have no problem with inconsistency from guitar to guitar if its differences such a nuance in the pickups, nuance in the exact countour and carve of the cap and neck shape I think those things are amazing and give the brand a very handmade feel and is so much better than brands who just want to churn out exact replicas with no soul. The problem is that modern gibson takes advantage of that mindset and excuses bad differences and bad workmanship such as malfunction electronics and poorly applied finishes and pickups that have no sweetness or musicality to them. At the price points of even the USA Models I just don't get who is giving these guys their money... Its not just USA either I own a Custom gibson acoustic and its the same story for the money its just not worth what I paid for it.. Maybe Murphy Labs are better I don't own one but my bigger point is that I just don't think gibson can survive more than 5 more years with this business model which is a shame because vintage gibson is the best instruments ever made and the golden era of rock and Gibson are the same thing but this new stuff just isn't good man I don't know how else to say it. Im not a Gibson hater I love gibson but I guess im just gonna have to save up and get a vintage one .. Just for the record I did order a modern lite les Paul because the one exception for me is I have had good experience with their tribute models and the modern lite is basically the new tribute from what I understand so im really hoping it will be a more musical pickup and with the tune o matic fix some of the problems with the original wrap around. Anyhow sorry for going on like this guys like I said I honestly love gibson I guess that's why im leaving this review I hope somebody from gibson will read this and im not the only one a lot of people are buying epiphone instead for the very same reason..If I were buying the gibson company and tasked with bringing it back to just building great instruments I would only change 1 thing. I would change to the PRS Model of charging in between standard and custom shop prices but build CORE level instruments and then I would get rid of regular custom shop and Murphy lab and just have Masterbuilt or Private stock level customs. If you can afford 1.5 k to 3 k you can afford to save a little longer and spend 4k and if you can afford a custom or Murphy lab you can afford to save a little longer and get a master built level instrument. Everybody wins. Gibson gets to continue making money and real guitar players can get a great instrument and the blues lawyers can get their private stocks. Thanks