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.
