Gibson Les Paul Standard '60s

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AUGUST 2019 GU ITARIST
reviewGIBSON 2019 LES PAUL STANDARD ’50S & ’60S, CLASSIC & TRIBUTE
UNDER THE HOOD
A close-up on the new range’s wiring, pots and switches
like faux binding by masking the edge of
the maple, it hasn’t. In numerous places,
the craft seems less refined: the neck-to-
headstock shaping, for example, and the
razor-sharp headstock edges. There’s a
slight ledge on the treble side of the neck
where the maple neck meets the unbound
rosewood fingerboard. And why the toggle
switch ring is in the case, not on the guitar,
is beyond us. Speaking of cases, the Tribute
comes in Gibson’s Premium Soft case, while
the others all have the classic brown form-
fitting hardshell case.
The differences continue with the
covered 490R (neck) and 490T (bridge)
humbucking pickups with Alnico II
magnets, while the Ultra Modern weight
relief brings it in at a very light weight.
Hmm, a dark horse?
Feel & Sounds
There are a few minor issues, from rather
sharp edges to the (Graph Tech TUSQ)
top nuts, very dry and light-coloured
fingerboards, and the odd groove in the
nut that just needs a couple of strokes of
a fret file. Frets fall into a medium size,
approximately 2.28mm wide with a height
that’s around 1.15mm. It certainly gives
all our ’Pauls quite a classic feel. All four
are nicely set up with between 1.4mm
and 1.5mm string height on the top E, and
1.8mm on the bass side, all with a slight
fingerboard relief of 0.152mm (0.006-inch).
Pickup heights are a little more random in
places, but nothing that a quick adjustment
with a screwdriver doesn’t fix. All are
shipped with 0.010s, too (rather than the
0.009 to 0.046 of the previous wave), and
overall, all four are just slightly tidier and
more dialled-in compared with the prior
trio we looked at earlier this year.
Many of us get hung up on neck shape,
and if ‘big’ is essential to you then the ’50s
ticks that box (see the Dimensions chart
Many of us get hung
up on neck shape,
and if ‘big’ is essential
to you then the ’50s
ticks that box
The zebra 61 Burstbuckers are the
same pickups used on the Standard
’60s but without covers. You can
expect slightly more high-end sizzle
U
nlike the previous 2019 Les Paul
Standard, the new Standard ’50s, like the
previous Traditional, offers little surprise
with 500kohm Gibson-branded pots (wired to
a shielding or grounding plate) with two large
‘Orange Drop’ 0.022 microfarad (223J) tone caps
(223J). Actually, the surprise here is that, like the
previous Traditional, the Standard ’50s has what
we call ‘modern’ wiring as opposed to ‘vintage’ or
‘50s’ wiring. If you’re handy with a soldering iron,
it’s a very easy swap. The Standard ’60s control
cavity and wiring is identical.
Now part of the Modern range, the Classic
retains its ‘LP STAND REV.2’ PCB, onto which are
mounted four high-quality CTS pull-push pots.
Connections from the pickups, three-way toggle
switch and to the jack output are all push-fit. The
large yellow caps 0.01 microfarad (103k) create
the ‘tap’ function; the tone caps are smaller
brown 0.022 microfarad (223k).
Each of the pull switches introduces a different
sound when pulled up; the volumes offer the ‘tap’
(previously referred to as a ‘tuned tap’). Unlike a
coil-split that takes the output at the junction of
the two coils and grounds it, effectively shutting
off one coil, this same output is filtered through
a 0.01 microfarad cap to ground creating a
secondary, more single coil-like sound. The neck
pickup tone switch is simply a phase switch that
only works with the pickup toggle in its central
both-pickups-on position. However, with the
neck pickup alone selected and the tap function
engaged, if the neck tone control switch is down
then the neck’s inner slug coil is primarily voiced;
pulling up the neck’s tone control chooses the
outer screw coil – a very subtle difference. The
bridge pickup’s tone control switch is a ‘pure
bypass’ that connects the bridge pickup directly
to the output jack.
Another PCB awaits us inside the Tribute
model (the only visible ID being E-2 940V-0).
Here, then, we have standard Gibson pots with
rectangular blue 0.022 microfarad tone caps.
Again, connections to and from the board are all
Quick Connect.
CLASSIC CONTROLSSTANDARD ’50s CONTROLS
TRIBUTE CONTROLS
VIDEO DEMO http://bit.ly/guitaristextra
GIT448.rev_gibson.indd 89 6/13/19 3:05 PM