Gibson Les Paul Standard '60s
review
GIBSON 2019 LES PAUL STANDARD ’50S & ’60S, CLASSIC & TRIBUTE
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GUITARIST AUGUST 2019
Y
ou might say it’s fitting that 60 years
after producing what many believe
to be the definitive electric guitar
– the 1959 Les Paul Standard – Gibson,
now under new management, has given
its USA production range a makeover that
hopefully signals a return to form. Plagued
by business issues, wavering quality, some
would say idiotic features… it’s fair to
say Gibson had lost its way. At this year’s
NAMM show back in January, however, a
reorganised line was premiered that clearly
addressed many issues from the old regime.
The new range splits the guitars into
two collections, Original and Modern,
replacing the previous Traditional and High
Performance ranges. The former collection
is where you’ll find contemporary versions
of guitars that many of us grew up with:
the Les Paul Standard, SG, Special, Junior,
Flying V and Explorer. Although they’re
not vintage reissues, there’s no truck with
modernism here. Rightly, however, Gibson
has retained many features that have been
accepted by players – for example, weight
relief and expanded sounds – that now
reside in the Modern collection. Here, we
see the new Les Paul Modern, for example,
alongside existing instruments such as our
Les Paul Classic and Tribute, the Studio and
the start-up Les Paul Junior Tribute DC.
So, with a pair of Les Pauls from each
collection, let’s dip into ‘new Gibson’.
Les Paul Standard ’50s & ’60s
‘Don’t mess with the standard’ were words
that fell on deaf ears in terms of Gibson’s
previous management. Thankfully, the new
team has listened. Effectively now within
the Original Collection, the previous Les
Paul Traditional has been split into two and
renamed Standard: in 50s and 60s flavours.
The guitars are identical in build with
one-piece slab sawn mahogany backs (with
no weight relief ), quarter-sawn mahogany
necks (with short tenons), and mildly
figured two-piece centre-joined maple
tops. Our Tobacco Burst ’50s has a stronger
figure; the Heritage Cherry ’60s is a little
lighter in figure, and neither is seemingly
bookmatched. Weights vary, too, with the
’60s being the heaviest of our quartet (see
‘Heavy Load’, p87).
The major construction difference lies
in the neck shape: the ’50s goes for a bigger
Vintage ’50s profile, with a Slim Taper
for the ’60s model. The former features
original-style ‘Gibson Deluxe’ tuners on the
correct 17-degree back-angled headstock
(with a slight 16- to 15mm taper). The
’60s emulates the popular retrofit Grover
Rotomatics. Both use a modern fitting
with a large hexagonal bolt on the front.
The bridge and tailpiece are the same, too;
likewise, the internal wiring (see ‘Under the
Hood’, p89). Control knobs do differ, with
the ’50s using clear amber bonnet types and
the ’60s (and, indeed, the Les Paul Classic)
going for the post-1960 metal-topped
style you would have seen on the reissued
Standard from 1968.
Pickups differ, too, with the ’50s packing
the Burstbucker 1 (neck) and Burstbucker 2
(bridge) of the previous Traditional, and the
’60s showing off a Burstbucker 61R (neck)
and 61T (bridge), presumably the same as
the Classic’s but with additional covers.
Classic
This Les Paul is unchanged from the
previous version we looked at earlier this
year, although it’s now moved into the
Modern strand of the new range, reflecting
not so much the spec of the guitar but its
more expansive PCB-mounted controls
with their pull-push switch functions, and
its nine-hole weight relief.
1. A very common retrofi t
back in the day was
to fi t Grover tuners
to your Les Paul. And
that’s what we have
here on the Standard
’60s model
2. The classic pairing of
an ABR-1-style tune-o-
matic and lightweight
aluminium stud tailpiece
is used on all of our Les
Pauls, with the exception
of the Tribute
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GIT448.rev_gibson.indd 84 6/13/19 3:05 PM