Gibson Custom 1956 Les Paul Goldtop Reissue

The Gibson Custom Shop 1956 Les Paul Goldtop Reissue: The Year the Goldtop Matured

Between the first Les Paul in 1952 and the arrival of the humbucker in 1957, there was a period when Gibson refined the design year after year. The Gibson Custom Shop 1956 Les Paul Goldtop Reissue represents the culmination of that evolution: an instrument where everything was right, before the world moved on to something else. The P90 pickups, the gold nitro finish, the wraparound bridge, and the mahogany character of the body make this one of the most direct and honest electric guitars Gibson has ever built.

The two Custom Soapbar P90 pickups are the character of this guitar. They sound rawer and more open than humbuckers, with a midrange presence that immediately responds to how hard you pick and how far you roll back the volume knob. Playing clean produces a warm, full tone with a clear attack. Playing harder reveals a snarling, characterful overdrive that you won't find with any other pickup configuration. The gold nitro VOS finish enhances the feeling of an instrument with its own history, even though it just rolled off the Custom Shop workbench.

The body is made of one-piece solid lightweight mahogany with a maple top, finished in nitrocellulose lacquer with VOS treatment. The neck is solid mahogany with a period-correct profile and a rosewood fretboard with trapezoid inlays and 22 frets. The scale length is 628 mm. The wraparound bridge and Kluson-style tuners are nickel-plated. The electronics consist of two Custom Soapbar P90 pickups with CTS potentiometers and paper-in-oil capacitors. Supplied in the matching Custom Shop case.

The Gibson Custom Shop '56 Les Paul Goldtop is the guitar for those who know that the story was already complete in 1956.