Gibson introduces another reissue of the iconic 1957 Les Paul Goldtop, in celebration of Gibson Custom’s 20th anniversary.
This instrument is part of a group of reissue Les Paul guitars for 2013, featuring hardware upgrades to improve playability, intonation and sound.
The original 1957 Les Paul models is the foundation of the many modern Les Paul iterations that we see today. The 1957 Les Paul Goldtop Reissue faithfully reproduces the design, shape and feel of these original models, while employing modern upgrades. As the name implies, this guitar is wrapped with mouth watering antique gold finishes, which up to now is one of the most sought after color for Les Pauls.
This custom reissue is built around traditional Les Paul body design, a single cutaway mahogany body with carved maple top. The body is connected to a glued-in, quarter-sawn mahogany neck with long-tennon neck joint, topped by a one-piece rosewood fingerboard. Gibson Custom ensured that the fine details of the body and neck are vintage accurate, including the body and fingerboard binding color, as well as the Gold top and mahogany back/neck finish colors. Gibson Custom utilized their proprietary VOS process to give the guitar a gently worn look and feel. To capture the feel of a real 1957 vintage Les Paul, this reissue comes with rounded a ’50s neck profile.
Aside from these traditional features, this new reissue benefits from Gibson Custom’s 20th Anniversary Specifications, newly adopted for 2013. These includes Kluson Deluxe machine heads, hot-hide neck glue, Historic Truss Rod assembly with no tubing and new Custom Buckers that are designed to better approximate the sound of original PAFs.
To give you a brief background on the PAF pickup, back in 1954 Gibson engineer Seth Lover worked on a pickup with hum-cancelling capabilities, as directed by Gibson President Ted McCarty. They applied for a US design patent on June of 1955, which gave it the name PAF or Patent Applied For. These PAF pickups started appearing on Gibson guitars including their Les Paul Goldtops on 1957, and went on to be among the most popular pickups in history. Gibson Custom’s new Custom Bucker is meant to closely recreate the sound of those late ’50s era PAF bite, using Alnico II magnets and unequal turns of 42 AWG wire.
The 1957 Les Paul Goldtop Reissue comes in three finishes, Antique Gold VOS, Antique Gold Darkback VOS and Antique Gold Gloss. The MSRP is $6,351. For further details, you can visit Gibson.
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