Les Paul Custom

The Gibson Les Paul Custom is a higher-end variation of the Gibson Les Paul guitar. It was developed in 1953 after Gibson had introduced the Les Paul model in 1952.

History

The 1952 Gibson Les Paul was originally made with a mahogany body, a mahogany neck with a rosewood fretboard, two P-90 single coil pickups, and a one-piece, 'trapeze'-style bridge/tailpiece with strings fitted under (instead of over) a steel stop-bar, In the summer of 1952, a Gibson Les Paul Goldtop was priced at US$209 () and available only with a gold-finished top, giving rise to the moniker "Gold-Top". In late 1953, a more luxurious version was introduced, most probably on specific request by Les Paul himself, as he wanted a more luxurious and classy looking guitar. He requested a black guitar as he wanted it to "look like a tuxedo". Nicknamed the Black Beauty, the guitar had a mahogany body and neck, ebony fret board, and mother of pearl block inlays on the fret board. The "Split Diamond" inlay on the headstock was taken from the carved archtop Super 400, which was the top of the Gibson line. The pickups were a P-90 in the bridge position and an Alnico V pickup (nicknamed the staple pickup), newly designed by Seth Lover, in the neck position. The frets are low and flat, as opposed to the usual medium jumbo frets found on other Les Paul customs, and the guitar soon was given the nickname "The Fretless Wonder". The 1954 Les Paul Custom also saw the introduction of Gibson's new bridge, the ABR-1. The new Custom also shipped with a different case from the Standard, using a black and gold case instead of the brown and pink case that was the top-of-the-line case for the Les Paul Standard models. However, in a 2009 telephone interview, JP Moats stated that, "On occasion, supply issues with the black and gold cases, would necessitate the use of Gibson's top-of-the-line case, so as to be able to fill orders; though it was rare". This was to be the case until the Custom was replaced and discontinued (though a similar black case was used with the LP/SG Custom models).

In mid-1957, Gibson began to equip the Les Paul Custom with the new PAF (Patent Applied For) pickup designed by Seth Lover. Most Customs have three PAFs, though there are a small number that have the traditional two-pickup configuration. By 1958, Gibson had replaced the Kluson tuners with Grover Rotomatics. It is this configuration that remained until the guitar was discontinued in 1960, replaced by the new double cutaway body Les Paul model. There are a small number of 1961 Les Paul Customs that were made with the single cutaway body before the transition to the new, SG-style body was complete.

The Les Paul Custom remained a double cutaway model until 1963, when Les Paul's endorsement with Gibson ended, and the guitar was subsequently renamed the SG Custom.

In 1968, Gibson re-introduced the Les Paul Custom as a two-pickup model. The headstock angle was changed from 17 to 14 degrees, a wider headstock and a maple top (in lieu of the original 1953–1961 solid-mahogany construction). In 1969, Norlin acquired Gibson, and the Les Paul Custom saw many changes in the "Norlin Era". The solid-mahogany body was replaced in late 1969 with a "pancake" body (a two piece mahogany body with a thin slice of maple in between), which was discontinued in 1976, however they could still be found as late as 1979. The mahogany neck was replaced with a three-piece maple neck in 1975 (discontinued around 1982), a "Made in USA" stamp was added to the back of the headstock, and a volute was added to the back of the neck to strengthen the thinnest part of the neck, just below the headstock (also discontinued in 1982).

In 1974, Gibson released the 20th anniversary Les Paul Custom in white, black, cherry sunburst and honey sunburst finishes (at least those four colors were made) with "20th Anniversary" engraved on the 15th-fret block inlay. By 1976, the new Nashville bridge began to replace the ABR-1. In 1977, the "pancake" maple layer was subtracted from the body, though the top was still maple, as was the neck. It was around this time that the current serial number system appears as well. In 1975, Gibson began making a number of Customs with maple fingerboards, instead of the typical ebony, which was discontinued by the early 1980s. From 1979 to 1982 or 1983, Gibson made a limited edition of 75 Les Paul Customs worldwide in the Silverburst color with 2 "Tim Shaw Burstbuckers". After 1981, the volute was phased out.

In 1984, Gibson closed the Kalamazoo plant, and all production was moved to Nashville. In 1986, Norlin sold Gibson to a group of investors led by Henry Juszkiewicz. By the end of the 1980s, the Les Paul Custom specifications feature a mahogany neck with ebony fingerboard, Standard Gibson frets (as opposed to wide, flatter frets), and a smaller headstock, a mahogany body with a maple top, gold hardware, two humbucking pickups, and a Nashville bridge.

Gibson has been installing its 490R/498T pickups as standard equipment on the majority of Customs since the 1990s.

Custom ordered Customs

Les Paul Custom guitars from 2000 to 2003 were specially made to the requirements of the client, as regards fretboard, neck and body woods, and type of hardware, with some models allowing for requests for specific numbers of turns in the pickups' coils, as well. Individual logo designs and hard cases were also manufactured at the request of the customer. Specific Custom Shop serial numbers were assigned, encoded with Les Paul Custom's smaller, more compact serial number in the format "CS XXXXX".

The first two numbers represent on which number this specific model was built, next two represent the year they were made in and the last numeric value represents the month of formation.

Notable Les Paul Custom players

*Les Paul
*Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day
*Jan Akkerman of Focus
*Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin
*Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains
*James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins
*Noel Gallagher of Oasis

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