Electric Guitar Review

Wow, Gibson’s running fast and furious with the ’50th Anniversary’ models these days… the latest in the line, announced earlier this week, will be the 50th Anniversary 1960 Les Paul Custom ‘Black Beauty’ –– a re-creation of one of Gibson’s most popular and iconic guitars.

The guitar appears to have all the bells and whistles you’d expect from a high-end Custom Shop ‘Black Beauty,’ though the price for entry isn’t cheap: Gibson’s MSRP is currently set at $7508.

Features are expected to include a 1-piece body of solid mahogany (hand-finished in nitrocellulose,) 1-piece mahogany neck and headstock, an ebony fretboard (12″ radius,) 22 frets, mother-of-pearl “split-diamond” headstock emblem and multi headstock binding, a nylon nut cut with Gibson’s PLEK system, and a long neck tenon.

Electronics will include a pair of Gibson’s popular and downright gorgeous-sounding BurstBucker pickups (built to emulate that classic “PAF” tone,) high-quality CTS pots with “bumblebee” tone caps, dual Volume and Tone controls, traditional 3-way pickup switching, and a 1/4″ Switchcraft output jack.

The guitar will also sport gold-plated kidney button Grover Rotomatic tuners (12:1 ratio,) a period-accurate “antique bell” truss-rod cover engraved with the words “Les Paul Custom,” black top hat knobs with gold inserts, aTune-o-matic bridge with stopbar tailpiece, and a 3-piece b/w/b pickguard.

The Custom Shop 50th Anniversary 1960 Les Paul Custom ‘Black Beauty’ will ship with a plush-lined black Gibson hardshell case with “Gibson Custom” on the front, a leather-bound Certificate of Authenticity, owner’s manual, adjustment literature, and documentation for the guitar’s limited lifetime warranty.

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Gibson Custom '57 Custom Les Paul Black Beauty Electric Guitar Gold Hardware