gibson guitar review

Ever since Gibson discontinued the original Les Paul Standard back in 1960—after just three years of production—the company has had a fluid, perhaps sometimes confused, but ultimately profitable and image-enriching relationship with its flagship guitar. Thanks in large part to the influence of Clapton and Page, demand for old Standards exploded in the mid ’60s, and Gibson soon resurrected the Les Paul. Unfortunately, the Paul they brought back in ’68 wasn’t really what players were hoping for or expecting, and it would be more than two decades before the company built a run of Standards that truly conformed to the specs of coveted ’57–’60 models. But even after Gibson finally delivered the Les Paul purists had been craving, they kept on tinkering with the formula.
As far back late ’50s, Gibson walked the line between staying at the leading edge of electric-guitar design and pleasing traditionalists—way back in 1958, the Flying V was the company’s first attempt at a space-age guitar. It’s been a tough balancing act ever since. For every authentic ’50s-style reissue, it seems there’s a Gibson designed to be more versatile, lighter, or more aesthetically and creatively up to date.
As the new Les Paul Standard reviewed here demonstrates, Gibson’s creative impulses can still extend to even the company’s most iconic models. But with this guitar—the model’s first significant redesign since 2008—Gibson may have struck a near-perfect balance between tradition and progress. It addresses the aspects of the Les Paul’s design most commonly regarded as drawbacks—weight, a lack of thinner, single-coil-like tones, and the neck shape and radius, which traditionally remained constant from the nut on through to the higher registers. Wisely though, Gibson made sure that, outwardly at least, it remains unmistakably a Les Paul Standard.

Read more: http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2012/Sep/Gibson_Les_Paul_Standard_Electric_Guitar_Review.aspx#ixzz2JYj0nkGO