Gibson Les Paul Custom
The Gibson Les Paul Custom (aka the Black Beauty & the Fretless Wonder) is a really high end Les Paul… as if Les Pauls weren’t expensive enough as it is!
If you’re in the market for an extremely fine guitar, this is worth a look see. The Custom is really the cream of the crop when it comes to Les Pauls.
The Custom was the second release of the Les Paul, and made it’s debut in 1954. With it’s gorgeous black finish and highly decorated style, it earned the name “Black Beauty.”
These guitars range in price from around $3,800 to about $6,800 brand new, it just depends what finish and style you like best.
Prime Players of the Les Paul Custom:
1. Peter Frampton
2. John McLaughlin
3. Keith Richards
Check out the Black Beauty’s gorgeous sound in expert hands, as played by Frank Pecher and his 1959 Custom “Black Beauty”:
LP Custom: Then and Now
THEN:
Designed by guitar masterminds Les Paul and Ted McCarty, and released in 1954, the Custom was meant to be the cream of the crop… trends and cost be d@mned!
NOW:
These days this bad boy is made at the Gibson Custom Shop (makes sense). They also made a few handy adjustments, including
- Giving the guitar “weight relief” – hollowing out chambers in the mahagony body
- Making more colors – wine red, white, cherry sunburst, & the original black
Playing the Custom
This guitar sounds very smooth and rich, like many Pauls do. It does have an uncanny ability to sound very “bell-like” and almost a bit like a Stratocaster, though with much more muscle.
The sustain on this guitar is absolutely magnificent. It’s a very heavy instrument, with a mahogany body and top (unlike the maple top most LPs have)
This axe is exceptionally easy to play, and might ruin other guitars for you after your left (fretting) hand gets lazy! It’s called the “Fretless Wonder” for a reason: the frets are extremely low, and you don’t have to exert much pressure at all to fret notes. This is fantastic for fast runs, and makes for an easy playing experience with any style of music.
[Be careful if you get the three pickup version, the middle pickup can get in the way of playing]
This is one reliable axe: it stays in tune perfectly, is kind to strings(doesn’t break ‘em), and a few friends of mine that have had this guitar 10 years or longer swear that they haven’t had any issues with warping or other age-related issues.
Bottom line? This is arguably the finest Les Paul you can get, and you pay a price for it. But, if you want the best that the Les Paul line has to offer, and you’ve been playing long enough to have earned it, go for it. This is one sweet guitar.
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