Peter Frampton “Phenix” 1954 Les Paul Custom

Gibson introduces the Peter Frampton “Phenix” 1954 Les Paul Custom, only available in very limited numbers.

Peter Frampton

This guitar is a limited run reproduction of the Grammy winning guitarist’s 1954 Les Paul Custom, considered by many as among the most recognized in rock guitar history, having been the guitar he used in the popular “Frampton Comes Alive!” album, along with the many other albums of which Peter was the session player.

Interestingly, this signature guitar would have never been possible because Frampton’s original and heavily modified 1954 Les Paul Custom was presumed lost when the cargo plane that it was traveling on crashed in Venezuela in 1980. Thankfully, Peter got the guitar back after 22 years, and was restored.

Gibson Custom then got the permission to precisely measure every detail of the guitar, and proceeded to painstakingly re-create it along with the appearance of age. They came up with 35 collectible guitars, that according to the company are, “the closest you can possibly come to owning one of the world’s most iconic Les Pauls.”

The guitar’s body is crafted from mahogany, finished in black, following traditional Les Paul Custom designs. To faithfully reproduce the burns, scars and bumps of the original Phenix, Gibson employed popular guitar builder Tom Murphy, who hand aged each of the guitars to match the original as close as possible. The finish was even hand wet-sanded to give the guitar authentic vintage sheen!

The neck is also crafted from mahogany featuring a historic no-tubing design and topped with an ebony fingerboard. It has the expected scale length of 24.75″, along with a 12″ fingerboard radius and a 1.678″ nut width. The guitar has a total of 12 frets that follow the profile of the original 1954 Les Paul Custom that it was based on.

Giving this guitar its voice are three Tom Holmes humbucking pickups, a personal preference of Peter himself. These three pickups are described as being able to capture and reproduce the tone of the original. They are wired to the same circuit components as found on Peter’s instrument, providing the same versatility and voicing.

Other features include Grover kidney tuners, ABR bridge and stop tail piece, and cream pickup covers. Even the knobs, and switch washers are made to carefully look like the ones found on Peter’s Black Beauty.

Finally, each of the 35 Peter Frampton “Phenix” 1954 Les Paul Custom are hand signed with Peter’s Personal Stamp of approval. This ultra collectible instrument has a premium price tag of $20,799. For more information and complete specifications, visit Gibson.

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