Guitar Reviews Blog

With its distinctive style and long list of appointments, the 1968 Les Paul Custom has long been a favorite of players and collectors. Featuring the trademark split diamond headstock inlay and lavishly bound body, this Custom Collection version adds a carved, 5A quilted maple top. Each piece of figured maple used for the tops on these guitars was hand picked by our guitar buyer in the Gibson Custom Shop. Each piece features has a unique and especially vibrant character that really makes each of these guitars pop. These very special tops are showcased by gorgeous transparent finishes, including Firemist, which is available only through us. The '57 Classic humbuckers provide the smoothest, richest tone of any of the Gibson pickups while gold hardware adds a sumptuous glow under the stage lights.Gibson's Custom Shop produces some of the finest electric guitars on earth. Using the best materials money can buy, a staff of skilled luthiers reproduce some of the greatest Gibsons of the past and create stunning new instruments for players and collectors who demand the best.

1983 was a year of change for Gibson, when it first began to concentrate on reissuing vintage spec instruments. While we're all vintage-crazy now, this was a fairly new idea then. They knew that to get the necessary attention, they would have to do something special. The Spotlight was the answer. Using contrasting, figured woods, Gibson's Les Paul Spotlight guitars did indeed cause a lot of players to give them a second look.Gibson now brings back the Spotlight in beautiful flame maple, with all the vintage features you love: C-shaped mahogany set neck and mahogany body, '57 Classic Humbucker pickups, Grover tuners, gold hardware and a sweet lacquer finish.

1983 was a year of change for Gibson, when it first began to concentrate on reissuing vintage spec instruments. While we're all vintage-crazy now, this was a fairly new idea then. They knew that to get the necessary attention, they would have to do something special. The Spotlight was the answer. Using contrasting, figured woods, Gibson's Les Paul Spotlight guitars did indeed cause a lot of players to give them a second look.Gibson now brings back the Spotlight in beautiful flame maple, with all the vintage features you love: C-shaped mahogany set neck and mahogany body, '57 Classic Humbucker pickups, Grover tuners, gold hardware and a sweet lacquer finish.

Save BIG when you buy today!

Save BIG when you buy today!

Fine art meets music in the Gibson Custom Shop '57 Custom Les Paul Black Beauty Electric Guitar. In 1957, the Les Paul collection entered a new age of sound, featuring a new humbucking pickup that launched the sound heard around the world. Offering tone variations unavailable on any other Les Paul, the '57 Black Beauty is equipped with three BurstBucker pickups to offer a unique palette of vintage sound. Other features include a carved mahogany top and solid mahogany body, a one-piece mahogany neck with 22-fret ebony fingerboard, ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic bridge with stopbar tailpiece, 24-3/4" scale, 1-11/16" nut width, body/neck/peghead binding, and ebony finish Gibson's Custom Shop produces some of the finest electric guitars on earth. Using the best materials money can buy, a staff of skilled luthiers reproduce some of the greatest Gibsons of the past and create stunning new instruments for players and collectors who demand the best. NOTE: optional gold Bigsby tailpiece may vary with Bigsby script over gold background or over black background.

Fine art meets music in the Gibson Custom Shop '57 Custom Les Paul Black Beauty Electric Guitar. In 1957, the Les Paul collection entered a new age of sound, featuring a new humbucking pickup that launched the sound heard around the world. Offering tone variations unavailable on any other Les Paul, the '57 Black Beauty is equipped with three BurstBucker pickups to offer a unique palette of vintage sound. Other features include a carved mahogany top and solid mahogany body, a one-piece mahogany neck with 22-fret ebony fingerboard, ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic bridge with stopbar tailpiece, 24-3/4" scale, 1-11/16" nut width, body/neck/peghead binding, and ebony finish Gibson's Custom Shop produces some of the finest electric guitars on earth. Using the best materials money can buy, a staff of skilled luthiers reproduce some of the greatest Gibsons of the past and create stunning new instruments for players and collectors who demand the best. NOTE: optional gold Bigsby tailpiece may vary with Bigsby script over gold background or over black background.

Every guitar lover has imagined their own dream guitar. Now, with the Popular Demand series, Gibson Custom offers special-edition guitars based on feedback they've received from friends, fans, players, stars, and even people at Gibson all offering great ideas. The guitars of the Popular Demand series take their inspiration from Gibson's past- obscure, famous, infamous, or mythical-and from all the letters and e-mails they have received over the years that start with, "I have the coolest idea for a guitar...."And now, by popular demand, The Gibson Les Paul Super Custom. It starts with a distinctive figured, carved maple top, but then throws you a curve. Instead of a mahogany body, the Super Custom has a bookmatch solid maple back and exquisite 5-piece curly maple/walnut neck that both add a bit more brightness to the overall tone. A pair of '57 Classic humbuckers dish out that cherished "Patent Applied For" sound. The bridge pickup has zebra bobbins and the neck pickup has a gold cover. The Nashville Tune-O-Matic bridge has more room to move the saddles for for greater intonation adjustment. The TOM and the stopbar tailpiece ensure total transfer of string energy to the maple body for maximum resonance and sustain. Gold tulip Grover tuners provide class and rock-solid tuning. Your Gibson Les Paul Super Custom will look like no other. Because of the nature of all-solid tone woods, the exact color and natural figuring of the wood will be unique to each instrument.

Every guitar lover has imagined their own dream guitar. Now, with the Popular Demand series, Gibson Custom offers special-edition guitars based on feedback they've received from friends, fans, players, stars, and even people at Gibson all offering great ideas. The guitars of the Popular Demand series take their inspiration from Gibson's past- obscure, famous, infamous, or mythical-and from all the letters and e-mails they have received over the years that start with, "I have the coolest idea for a guitar...."And now, by popular demand, The Gibson Les Paul Super Custom. It starts with a distinctive figured, carved maple top, but then throws you a curve. Instead of a mahogany body, the Super Custom has a bookmatch solid maple back and exquisite 5-piece curly maple/walnut neck that both add a bit more brightness to the overall tone. A pair of '57 Classic humbuckers dish out that cherished "Patent Applied For" sound. The bridge pickup has zebra bobbins and the neck pickup has a gold cover. The Nashville Tune-O-Matic bridge has more room to move the saddles for for greater intonation adjustment. The TOM and the stopbar tailpiece ensure total transfer of string energy to the maple body for maximum resonance and sustain. Gold tulip Grover tuners provide class and rock-solid tuning. Your Gibson Les Paul Super Custom will look like no other. Because of the nature of all-solid tone woods, the exact color and natural figuring of the wood will be unique to each instrument.

The two-pickup Les Paul Special was introduced in 1955 as an intermediate model, positioned between the low-cost Les Paul Junior and the Les paul Model. Originally available only in a single cutaway, TV-style limed mahogany finish, the Special was changed in 1959 to a double cutaway model and a cherry red finish was added to the mix. The Double-Cut is now part of Gibson's Vintage Original Spec series - the next step in the journey toward perfection.

The two-pickup Les Paul Special was introduced in 1955 as an intermediate model, positioned between the low-cost Les Paul Junior and the Les paul Model. Originally available only in a single cutaway, TV-style limed mahogany finish, the Special was changed in 1959 to a double cutaway model and a cherry red finish was added to the mix. The Double-Cut is now part of Gibson's Vintage Original Spec series - the next step in the journey toward perfection.

John Lennon was always a fan of Charlie Christian, and he also enjoyed tinkering with his guitars. So when he met New York luthier and guitar repairman Ron DeMarino in the early '70s, he asked him to take his 1950s Tobacco Sunburst Les Paul Junior and add the pickup made famous by the jazz legend. Later, at Lennon's request, DeMarino sanded off the 'burst finish and added the Tuno-O-Matic bridge and stop tailpiece. On August 30, 1972, Lennon used his customized Les Paul in its new, raw wood state during his famous benefit concert at New York's Madison Square Garden. Today, the guitar is on permanent display at the John Lennon Museum in Japan. Histroy of The John Lennon Les Paul JuniorBy Andy Babiuk, author of the bookJohn Lennon a name known worldwide as an icon, musician, and poet, the voice of a generation, and without a doubt, one of the most important and influential figures in rock 'n' roll history. It was John Lennon and the Beatles that forever changed the world of music and pop culture.As with all great musicians, the tools of the Beatles' trade at times became as important as their music. The instruments they chose helped to reflect their thoughts, ideas, and even lifestyles. The everlasting images of Lennon with his Gibson J 160E guitar during the height of Beatlemania, or his Epiphone Casino on the rooftop of the Beatles' Apple headquarters, or his modified Gibson Les Paul Jr. at his famous 1972 Madison Square Garden concert have all left a lasting impression on our minds. John Lennon is so closely associated with these instruments that the instruments themselves have become extensions of Lennon's personality.Lennon solo After the break up of the Beatles, the prolific John Lennon immediately embarked on his successful solo career, recording and collaborating with wife Yoko Ono. It was during this time, in the early '70s, that John Lennon expressed his passion for New York City. "It's the greatest place on earth," he said. "I love the place 'cause this is where the music came from; this is what influenced my whole life."Soon after, on September 3, 1971, the Lennons left the U. K. for New York, never to return. Lennon enjoyed New York's artistic environment. "There are these fantastic 20 or 30 artists who all understand what I'm doing and have the same kind of mind as me," he said. "It's like heaven."Enter Ron DeMarino Ron DeMarino, a New York luthier known for his guitar repair and restoration work, met the Lennons in late 1971. "I was at one of the guitar shops on 48th Street and overheard a guy who was looking for an old vintage amp for a friend," DeMarino recalls. "The store didn't have that style of amp, but I did, so when the guy left the shop I told him that I had one to sell. He told me that it was for John Lennon, and I of course didn't believe him. The guy introduced himself as Claude and said he worked fo