Gibson Custom Don Felder "Hotel California" 1959 Les Paul Aged Electric Guitar  

Welcome to the "Hotel California." This tribute to the Les Paul that Don Felder used to record the famous outro to Eagles classic "Hotel California" is adorned with a special "Felder Burst" sunburst nitrocellulose finish mahogany body, and is hand-aged to meticulously reproduce the look of Felder's own '59 Les Paul. The Slim 59 mahogany neck is topped with the traditional rosewood fretboard. The BurstBucker humbuckers accurately translate all the warmth, depth, and clarity of this guitar's woods and construction into a tone that is instantly recognizable as "that 'Hotel California' sound." Made with period-correct specs and components including an ABR-1 bridge, Kluson-style tuners, CTS pots, bumblebee capacitors, and Switchcraft toggle and output jack. As rare and desirable as all 'Bursts are, this limited run recreates one of the greatest, and a big slice of tone history.

The 1976 mega-hit single "Hotel California" is named on virtually every reputable list of "greatest guitar solos" that has ever been published. The whole truth is, though, that the entire Hotel California album is rife with scorching guitar work from both newcomer Joe Walsh and Eagles lead guitarist Don Felder with Felder playing all of his solos on one outstanding instrument: a 1959 Les Paul Standard.

Hired by the Eagles in 1974 to help the band make the transition from country-rock to a heavier, rock-based sound, Felder brought it on in spades, and the tone he selected to do the job is unmistakably Les Paul: fat, creamy and singing. In order to bring that sound, feel and look to a select group of players and collectors today.

The "aging" treatment duplicates the wear and aging that Don's guitar has undergone over the years. The Don Felder "Hotel California" Les Paul is handcrafted for comfort and playability in the Gibson Custom Shop. The construction, neck profile, hardware, and electronics are period accurate, and a special nitrocellulose finish treatment gives it the patina of a gently aged vintage guitar. Includes Gibson Custom Shop case and a certificate of authenticity.

Body and Finish
Like any great Les Paul Standard, the Don Felder "Hotel California" 1959 Les Paul starts with great wood. Gibson Custom selects figured maple for the two-piece top to replicate the look of Felder's own iconic 'Burst, and joins each set to a select, lightweight, solid one-piece mahogany back. Way beyond merely recreating the look of the original instrument, however, this maple/mahogany pairing perpetuates a tonewood match made in heaven: a best-of-both-worlds palette that gives you the perfect blend of maple's clarity, snap and bite, and mahogany's warmth, depth and richness.

Neck, Headstock and Fingerboard
A neck made from one piece of solid mahogany is carved to an accurate, chunky, rounded '59 profile and is glued into the guitar's body with a deep-set long neck tenon, a joint known to aid strength and resonance. The neck is capped with a rosewood fingerboard with aged acrylic pearloid trapazoid inlays and 22 medium-jumbo frets, and its headstock is back-angled to the traditional 17 degrees.


Pickups and Electronics
The Don Felder "Hotel California" 1959 Les Paul is equipped with a pair of Gibson's popular BurstBucker humbucking pickups, a BurstBucker 2 in the neck position and a BurstBucker 1 in the bridge. Gibson's BurstBuckers are widely regarded as the most accurate reproductions of original PAF humbuckers available today, and even go so far as to reproduce some of the inconsistencies that are credited with contributing a certain magic to original Gibson humbuckers from 1957-'62.

BurstBuckers are made with unpolished Alnico II magnets and coils that are wound to slightly different numbers of turns, like the originals. Using two slightly mismatched coils gives these pickups a little more edge—a sound that you could even say comes a little closer to single-coil bite—than can be achieved with perfectly balanced coils. Furthermore, BurstBuckers in the Don Felder "Hotel California" 1959 Les Paul are wax potted to combat microphonic squeal at high volume levels.

Hardware
Like most classic late-'50s Les Pauls, the Don Felder "Hotel California" 1959 Les Paul carries the legendary complement of Tune-o-matic bridge and stopbar tailpiece, accompanied by a set of vintage Kluson-style tuners with green "keystone" buttons and stamped-steel covers plated in nickel. Its strap is secured by Gibson's traditional aluminum buttons.