1957 Les Paul Custom with 3 pickups - Bigsby Tailpiece

Today's 1957 Les Paul Custom from the Gibson Custom Shop is presented with all the historically accurate appointments and legendary tone of the original. No detail is overlooked, including a solid mahogany body with carved mahogany top. The headstock is made from holly headstock veneer, as opposed to fiber, just like it was in 1957, and the vintage-style kidney tulip tuners are mounted in a straight line, also as they were on the original. This edition is also fitted with a Bigsby True Vibrato tailpiece and lets you put a little twang in your style.

While maple tops would come to define the Gibson Les Paul and subsequent Les Paul Standard, the body of the Les Paul Custom was made entirely from a solid piece of mahogany, with no added maple top. This difference gave the Les Paul Custom a much warmer overall sound, but with incredible sustain and rich, balanced tone.

The '57 Les Paul's 24-3?4-inch scale length neck is made from one solid piece of mahogany, and attached to the body using a long neck tenon ” one of the Les Paul's more distinguishing characteristics of the 1950s. The neck is topped by a 22-fret ebony fingerboard outfitted with acrylic block inlays matching the size of color of the originals.

A three pickup version of the Les Paul Custom was also made available in 1957, complete with a distinct new circuitry that offered a host of new tonal possibilities. The Les Paul guitar's toggle switch was wired to activate the middle and bridge pickups together in the center position, instead of combining the neck and bridge pickups, which gave the electric guitar an out-of-phase option that wasn't available before. This Gibson Custom Shop edition features three legendary Burstbucker pickups that deliver all the subtle variations of true, classic humbucker tone by using historically unmatched bobbin windings and Alnico II magnets.

The Gibson 1957 Les Paul guitar's ebony finish also matches the hue of the earliest versions, giving this Gibson Custom model the accurate and distinct appearance of the original model. Other historical appointments include CTS potentiometers, bumble bee capacitors, multi-ply white and black binding on both the top and back, gold hardware, period-correct switchwasher and jackplate, Gibson's traditional early '50s rounded neck profile, and a gloss finish. Each '57 Les Paul guitar also comes with the standard Gibson Custom case and certificate of authenticity.