Gibson Custom Les Paul Axcess Standard Electric Guitar  

The Gibson Les Paul Axcess Standard is an electric guitar that carries all the elegant styling, fluid body lines, and rocking attitude of a classic Les Paul Standard from the golden era of 1958 to '60. The Les Paul Axcess reveals a handful of upgrades upon closer examination—all modifications made in the name of maximum playability and versatility. The most noticeable addition is the Floyd Rose tailpiece, a unit optimized for anything from subtle vibrato wobbles to dramatic, rumbling divebombs. Partnered with an R4 locking nut, it also guarantees outstanding tuning stability and return-to-pitch accuracy.

While the Axcess guitar sports what looks from the front to be a traditional Les Paul neck joint, the neck heel and portions of the back and neck joint at the upper cutaway have been contoured to provide a "heelless" feel and an unimpeded reach right up to the 22nd fret. No more stretching against the traditional neck heel to achieve the upper-fret access that your lead style demands—the Axcess guitar gives you that sought-after Les Paul playability all the way up the neck, and welcomes you to take it right over the top.

To further enhance playing comfort, this smoothly carved neck joint is joined by a "belly scarf" (a.k.a. ribcage contour) that allows the body of the guitar to hug closely to your own body in the playing position without digging in. Add to these contours the Les Paul Axcess guitar's slightly thinner body, made from weight-relieved mahogany (with carved maple top), and you've also got a Les Paul guitar that is refreshingly light, and a pure joy to play either strapped on or seated.

Beyond all these significant considerations for playing feel, the Les Paul Axcess Standard is also geared toward optimum tone, as you'd expect from any Gibson Custom Shop creation. Exposed-coil BurstBucker 1 and BurstBucker 2 pickups in the neck and bridge positions—the most accurate reproduction vintage-PAF-style humbucker pickups Gibson has ever offered ‐ yield everything from warm, fluid vocal tones to fat, sweet growl. An added push/pull switch on the treble tone knob provides coil splitting for accurate single-coil tones. The combination excels at everything from singing classic rock lead tones, to contemporary crunch, to extremes of twang and jangle. Even the pure-nickel wound .010 Gibson Vintage Strings the Axcess guitar ships with contribute toward its rich, textured voice.

Being a product of the Gibson Custom Shop, the Les Paul Axcess is a guitar built to the highest standards attainable, which include a final set-up and fret dressing by the computer-controlled PLEK System.

All Les Paul Standard necks receive precision fret dressing and setup with the Plek system. As the guitar lies in a cradle, a computer-controlled robot arm moves along the neck measuring each fret's height, the fingerboard radius, even the bow in the neck. Using that data, the Plek machine adjusts the truss rod, cuts the nut slots for optimal spacing and height for each string, files each fret to a hundredth of a millimeter accuracy, and then polishes the frets. In a fraction of the time it takes a skilled technician, the Plek machine eliminates buzzing strings and dead spots, producing a neck with flawless intonation and superb action.

Each Gibson Les Paul Axcess Standard guitar also comes with a Custom Shop hardshell case and a Certificate of Authenticity.