Gibson introduces the Joe Perry 1959 Les Paul, based on his road-worn ‘burst guitar with serial number 9-0663.
Perry allowed Gibson to carefully examine the original guitar, covering everything from the feel, look and tone, resulting in this limited edition replica.
Aside from Aerosmith’s axeman, the original serial number 9-0663 1959 Sunburst Les Paul has made its way to other guitarists including Eric Johnson and Slash. Perry however took the effort to get back the instrument, of which he is now once again, the proud owner.
Describing his guitar, Joe said “It’s got everything a great Les Paul is supposed to have. The neck isn’t quite as fat as, say, a ’54 Goldtop, but it’s still got a good, meaty neck. It’s not a high-output guitar, so it’s got a lot of tone… And it’s got all the natural sustain and warmth, and when you turn it up it growls.”
Now Gibson Custom is making Joe’s prized Les Paul available for more people by creating exact replicas. Gibson had exclusive access to the 1959 Burst LP, enabling them to create a limited run of 300 replicas. The first 50 are meticulously aged by hand and features a signature of Joe Perry, another 100 will be hand-aged and 150 will feature Gibson’s VOS finish.
The Gibson Joe Perry 1959 Les Paul starts out with a conventional Les Paul build – a one-piece solid mahogany body paired with a maple top. The body is wrapped with Faded Tobacco Burst finish featuring vintage aniline red and dark walnut dye on the back, sides, and back of the neck. The expensive hand-aged models will mimic the original guitar’s finish down to the most minute details, including wear and scratches. The VOS on the other hand gives the body and the hardware a gently-aged look.
The neck of the guitar is carved from a quarter-sawn mahogany, shaped into a rounded profile derived from Joe’s original 1959 Les Paul. It is topped with a one-piece rosewood fretboard and features trapezoid inlays. Other hardware include Kluson Deluxe tuners, aluminum stopbar tailpiece and ABR-1 bridge rounds off its hardware. To add to its vintage appeal, the guitar comes with vintage cream binding, gold top hat knobs and a cream plastic pickguard.
Gibson equipped the guitar with a pair of Custombucker humbucking pickups that closely resembles the original PAF pickups on serial number 9-0663. The pickups are made of Alnico 3 magnet and wound with plain-enamel 42 AWG wire, created to follow the specifications of the original pickup wiring. The bridge pickup is slightly hotter at 8.5K ohms while the neck is at 8k ohms. A three-way Switchcraft axial toggle selector lets you select which pickups to use, while bumble bee caps are used for the tone knobs.
This guitar is meant to faithfully recreate the road-tested guitar that helped shape the sound of Aerosmith. The 50 hand-signed models will carry a price tag of $18,821, while the hand-aged model without signature will have an MSRP of $15,292. Last but not the least is the VOS finish model, which has a MSRP of $10,351.
For more information and technical specifications, visit Gibson.
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