Electric Guitar Review

So this is it –– the first set of guitars from Gibson’s new “Collector’s Choice” line of high-end Custom Shop replicas. To inaugurate the series, Gibson has seen fit to reproduce Thin Lizzy guitarist Gary Moore’s classic 59 Les Paul Standard.

The guitar is being made available in two very limited-edition runs: 125 of the instruments will be hand-aged by Tom Murphy and sold as the Gary Moore Aged and Signed Edition (left,) while the rest of the instruments will be aged to a fine patina by Gibson’s VOS treatment and dubbed accordingly as the VOS Melvyn Franks Edition (right.)

Standout features include a 2-piece carved maple top with uniquely figured grain, a single-piece lightweight back of mahogany, period-correct body lines and dimensions, single-piece quarter-sawn mahogany neck with neck profile that falls somewhere between a “C” and a “D” (to match the original,) a 12″ radius rosewood fretboard with 22 Medium-Jumbo frets, and a nylon nut cut with Gibson’s PLEK system.

Electronics will include Gibson’s popular PAF-reproducing BurstBucker pickups –– with a BurstBucker 2 in the neck position while the bridge position has been filled with a hotter BurstBucker 3 –– individual Volume controls for each pickup (with high-quality CTS 500k audio-taper pots for natural volume roll-off, individual Tone controls with period-accurate “bumble bee” tone caps, and 3-way pickup switching wired for reverse-phase tone in the middle (both pickups on) position.

Cost-wise, both guitars are rather prohibitive (cough!)… MSRP for Gibson’s new Gary Moore Butterscotch Aged 1959 Les Paul Standard is set for $12,468, while the Melvyn Franks Butterscotch VOS is listing at $9,174. I’ll be interested to see how they come down at real street prices.

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Gibson Gary Moore Bfg Electric Guitar Lemon Burst