Lee Roy Parnell Signature '57 Les Paul Goldtop

Gibson honors an outstanding artist with an equally outstanding guitar - the Lee Roy Parnell Signature '57 Les Paul Goldtop.

back of the headstock

Lee Roy literally hand selected the materials in a small batch process which ensures that all guitars made will pass through his hands.

Lee Roy Parnell or also called "LRP" is an established Nashville talent with scores of hit songs under his belt.

He is also known for his amazing slide playing, lead work and his rich earthy tone. Being a fan of Les Paul guitars himself, LRP knows the guitar intimately and in detail - making his creative inputs truly count, and producing a unique and impressive Les Paul signature line.

The LRP Les Paul Goldtop starts with a traditional two-piece carved maple top matched with a one-piece unchambered lightweight mahogany body. It then builds on the traditional '57 Goldtop design with innovations to make the guitar more comfortable and toneful.

A Big Block cavity design achieves more mass in the pickup cavities for greater resonance and tonal depth, while extended pickup pole clearances also are accommodated for enhanced tonal adjustments. The body features new Player’s Cut elements made to enhance upper fret access: a 7-degree back-angled cutaway contour for exceptional reach, and a smoothed neck heel joint for improved playing comfort. This makes the Lee Roy Parnell Signature ’57 Les Paul Goldtop suitable for both slide and lead work.

The neck follows Lee Roy's subtly asymmetrical specification, which sits in between the '56 and '58 designs. The neck is finished in satin for that fast feel and the back of the headstock is painted with a distinctive black "stinger" with custom motif. It has a rosewood fingerboard with 22 Vintage Reissue frets and classic acrylic trapezoid inlays. Gibson Custom Shop's VOS aging technology is applied to give the nickel hardware a gentle aged patina. LRP's signature is engraved in the truss rod cover and the guitar does not have a pickguard to showcase its fine luxurious gloss finish.

The guitar is equipped with PAF humbucking pickups reminiscent of late '50s design. It is Lee Roy's own personal choice resulting from extensive research on getting a throaty tone with vintage bite - with clarity, depth and added punch. CTS pots and NOS 1960s ceramic capacitors are used on the guitar to match the vintage sounding pups. The ABR-1 bridge and stopbar tailpiece, Gotoh tuners and a nylon nut rounds up the vintage looking signature Goldtop.

These guitars will have a serial run beginning with "LRP 001", and will come with a pick, a slide bag and a silkscreened Gibson Custom hardshell case.

Here is a video of Lee Roy talking about his signature Gibson model:

This beautiful Les Paul Goldtop comes at a hefty price of $7527.

Head over to Gibson for more information about the Lee Roy Parnell Signature '57 Les Paul Goldtop.

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