Gibson Custom 50th Anniversary 1959 Les Paul Sunburst Reissue Heritage Darkburst Electric Guitar  

This 50th Anniversary 1959 Les Paul Sunburst Reissue Electric Guitar from the Gibson Custom Shop offers you an exact duplicate of the 1959 carved top guitar with a glorious Heritage Darkburst nitrocellulose finish. You get all the benefits of a new guitar, with all the mojo of a vintage Les Paul. Hurry if you want one cause this limited edition guitar won't be around forever.

The only major change to the Les Paul "Sunburst" in 1959 was the addition of wider, fatter jumbo frets which facilitated more dramatic bends. The real force of this change was not felt until the late 1960s when rock and blues players like Eric Clapton, Mike Bloomfield, and Peter Green discovered the fat, warm voice of the '59 Les Paul, which they began calling the "Sunburst." This moment in history marked the beginning of the idealization of the 1959 Les Paul Sunburst as the quintessential electric guitar in the minds of guitarists and collectors everywhere.

All of the '59 "Sunburst" specs are faithfully reproduced including the nitrocellulose finish, wireless ABR-1 bridge, bumblebee capacitors, CTS pots, and the correct materials and shape of the bridge posts and thumbwheels, truss rod cover, strap button, and pickguard.

1959 Re-created
The 1959 Gibson Les Paul 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 re-creation ever produced within the reach of a limited number of players and collectors. Everything about this re-creation harks 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 crème top binding, nickel tuners with green buttons, and a molded bell-shaped truss rod cover.

The Humbuckers
The first of these arrived on the 1957 model. As flawlessly as the Les Paul Goldtop played and sounded by 1956, Gibson was still chasing a full 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, the pickup also optimized the fuller, warmer, and more sustaining tone that has come to be known as the inherent voice of the Les Paul.

Beauty and the Burst
The second development arrived in 1958, leading to the most legendary incarnation of the Les Paul Standard. In order to maximize the beauty of the highly figured quilted, flamed, or tiger-striped maple tops, Gibson applied a semi-transparent cherry sunburst finish. The "Burst" had been born. With its carved top, powerful humbucking pickups, versatile Tune-O-Matic bridge, and super-comfortable, hyper-fast set neck with full fret access, it was perhaps 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 Gibson Les Paul reached its zenith.

Developing the 50th Anniversary 1959 Les Paul Standard
Gibson Custom developed the 50th Anniversary '59 Les Paul Standard after intensive digital assessment of five original 1959 Les Paul Standards. The master luthiers of Gibson Custom discovered that each of these stunning electric guitars was a little different (as is always the way with vintage guitars) but that they shared a certain sound, feel, and vibe. With 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 resulting in the ultimate '59 Les Paul Heritage Reissue.