The Les Paul Story 1952-60
This article was researched and written by the webmaster of this site and is © 2001
The Les Paul Sunbursts went through a few minor changes during the brief period they were in production (1958-60). The fretwire used was changed to a wider type in 1959, the neck shape was altered to make the neck less clubby in the same year (in 1960 the neck profile was reduced even more), and, due to Gibson's supplier running out of black plastic for a while, the PAF pickup's bobbins went from being both black to sometimes cream and black (known as 'zebras') or even all cream.
The pickup's bobbins would not be visible with the guitar in the state in which it left the factory, as Gibson fitted nickel plated covers to their PAF pickups. However, in the mid to late 60's a fashion developed for players to remove the covers, exposing the bobbins' colours. Some players claimed that although the pickups were slightly more noisy with the covers removed, they would also produce more high frequencies.
Most Les Pauls from the 1950's were fitted with the standard tune-o-matic bridge and seperate tailpiece - but a few (perhaps 10% or so) came with the optional Bigsby B7 vibrato unit instead of a stop tailpiece. This was a rather clunky affair, nowhere near as good as the floating trem bridge fitted to vintage Fender Stratocasters. Les Paul Sunbursts with the Bigsby vibrato tend to sell for less today than their stop tailpiece equivalents. For this reason, in the same way that some Gold Tops have been refinished to make them look like they were originally Sunbursts, some Bigsby equipped Les Pauls have been modified to make them look like they left the factory with a stop tailpiece. Removing a Bigsby vibrato does however leave some tell tale holes in the wood which take a lot of woodworking skill to mask.
Ironically in view of their subsequent most-sought-after status, the Les Pauls of the late 50's were not really all that popular at the time. Gibson only made around 1,700 of them between 1958 and 1960, and the model was dropped from the Gibson catalogue early in that year.
The reason for this was probably that at the time the guitar fell between two stools. The humbucking pickups and solid mahagony body with maple top produced lots of sustain and a very mellow tone; ideal for jazzers you might think, except that jazzers tended to play arch top semi-acoustics, not solid body guitars. Conversely, the smaller body shape and the fact that the body was solid might have appealed to those rock and roll players who wanted a solid body electric; except that the rock and roll guitar sound (and the country sound) was usually a bright, jangly tone, for which a Fender Strat or Tele would be better. There had been a few rock and roll players who favoured Les Paul guitars, but they were a minority.
So the Les Paul Sunburst had few fans in either camp in '58-'60, and it wasn't until some years later with the white, British, blues/rock invasion of the USA by players like, firstly, Eric Clapton, and later on Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, that suddenly the Les Paul came into its own.
Back to top of page
Learn to Play the Electric / Acoustic Guitar in 30 Days! Click here
This article is © 2001, first published in the UK 2003. It was licensed for use on the UKGuitarShop.com website in 2004 and also appeared on earlier versions of this site previously hosted at vintage-gibson-les-pauls.ukartists.com and freeserve.co.uk. Permission has not been given for it to be reproduced anywhere else. All rights reserved.
|
