Gibson Les Paul Custom EB GH

109

Electric Guitar

  • Body: Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla)
  • Arched top: Maple
  • Neck: Mahogany
  • Fretboard: Ebony (Diospyros classiforia)
  • Neck profile: Custom 'C'
  • Long neck tenon
  • Inlays: Mother-of-pearl block
  • 22 Frets
  • Scale: 628 mm
  • 5-Ply binding
  • Headstock inlay: Spit diamond
  • Pickups: Gibson 490R (neck) and 498T (bridge) humbuckers
  • Tune-O-Matic bridge and stop tail
  • Hardware; Gold-plated
  • Colour: Black
  • Includes a case
  • Made in the USA
Available since March 2001
Item number 147148
Sales Unit 1 piece(s)
Colour Black
Body Mahogany
Top Maple
Neck Mahogany
Fretboard Ebony
Frets 22
Scale 628 mm
Pickups HH
Tremolo None
Incl. Case Yes
Incl. Gigbag No
Model Les Paul Custom
Shape LP-Style
Pickup System HH
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$4,899
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The classic among classics

Les Paul is undoubtedly one of the few truly iconic names in the history of the electric guitar - and that is true of the man AND the instrument. The Les Paul Custom in the deluxe version of this guitar and has boasted sophisticated craftsmanship and ornamentation - including block inlays for the fingerboard, a "split diamond" headstock inlay, and multi-layer binding - ever since it was first introduced in the mid-1950s. Of course, a "real" Les Paul Custom needs to be black with gold-plated hardware - after all, that is what Les Paul himself wanted. Today, the Les Paul Custom remains as desirable as ever thanks to the Gibson Custom Shop.

Black Beauty

The Gibson Les Paul is the archetype on which virtually all other single-cutaway guitars are based and its silhouette is simply unmistakable. Beneath the guitar's all-black finish is a mahogany body with a maple top, and the neck is also made from mahogany. The latter features an ebony fingerboard with 22 relatively low frets, which gives this model a smooth playing feel and a snappier sound than the Les Paul Standard. The sound is generated by two humbucking pickups, which are governed by a dedicated volume and tone control each and selected via a three-way toggle switch.

Not only for Rock musicians

The Gibson Les Paul Custom's visual appearance alone is a statement of style and elegance, so it should come as no surprise that it is often found in guitar afficionados' living rooms and home studios. It also treads a very clear sonic path, delivering a full-bodied sound with plenty of midrange punch and singing sustain that will always stand out well in the mix. It is eminently suited to Rock and Blues music, but by no means confined to just those genres - Les Paul himself, a Jazz musician to the bone, was the living proof of that. Whatever their genre of choice, however, guitarists should be sure to pick up a wide strap to go with this guitar (and make sure that they can handle its weight), since its distinctive sound necessitates a certain amount of mass. On the plus side, however, its slightly shorter scale length means it virtually plays itself.

About Gibson

The Gibson Guitar Corporation was founded in 1902 by Orville Gibson and has its headquarters in Nashville, USA. Gibson is world famous and is loved by many musicians for its cult-status instruments. Gibson was responsible for building the world’s first mass-produced electric guitar, the ES-150, in 1936. The “Les Paul”, one of the first solid-body electric guitars, followed in 1952 and remains hugely popular to this day, in great part thanks to the “humbucker” pickups installed from 1957 onwards. The range has expanded over the years to include such well-known guitar models as the SG, the Flying V, and the ES-335, as well as bass guitars and acoustic guitars including the Thunderbird bass and the Hummingbird dreadnought. Well-known artists such as Pete Townshend, Slash, Angus Young, Tony Iommi, B.B. King, Michael Patrick Kelly, and Nikki Sixx, swear by Gibson guitars.

Choose your sound

The Les Paul Custom has always been the more elegant sister to the Les Paul Standard, and so it is primarily played by musicians who know exactly what they want. The specific pairing of a Les Paul Custom with a Marshall amplifier produces exquisite Rock tones - as ably demonstrated time and again by guitar heroes such as Jimmy Page, Kirk Hammett, Zakk Wylde, Adam Jones, and Slash. The Les Paul Custom's special circuitry enables it to go back and forth between two fundamentally different sounds, making this guitar a sonic chameleon. Incidentally, the popular "stutter" or "killswitch" effect also requires this type of switching system: One of the volume pots must be turned all the way down, so that the player can then use the toggle switch to rhythmically cut off the guitar's signal.

109 Customer ratings

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71 Reviews

FV
Very nice guitar, but...
Firebird V 06.12.2021
I have always wanted Les Paul Custom and now I decided pull the trigger and order one. Very fast delivery from Thomann through UPS Express delivery.
Stunning looks of guitar when I open the case first time.
Quality some what was as expected, flawless nitro lacquer finish, just only one thing that some parts of binding was scraped too deep, I know its hand made process and varies based on person who does the bind scraping.
Playability and feel is spot on, one of the best that I have ever felt from Les Pauls that I have played. Gladly the neck was not too thin, some where between 50´s and 60´s C profile, maybe a bit more shoulder would make it feel better for my taste.
Action was also very nicely setup in factory, only I would go a bit heavier string gage for my taste.
But then we come to reasons why I finally decided to send this beauty back to Thomann.
I finally came to a conclusion that it is way too over priced to what it really is and here is the reasons.
First, the pickups, why on earth Gibson uses this price range guitars the cheapest pickups (490R (neck) and 498T (bridge) ) that they have in their Les Paul line. You have to pay way too much more to get Gibson custombuckers on Les Paul Custom. So this means to buy Les Paul Custom Reissue 57 Balck Beauty to get custombuckers.
490R (neck) and 498T (bridge) pickups are very basic sounding pickups in my taste. Kinda too average sounding. I have played several custom shop Les Pauls with Custombuckers and those should be by default choice of pickup on this price range Gibson guitars.
Second thing, the case that the guitar was delivered was also surprisingly not any more made in Canada, it was made in Costa Rica! Very small detail, but still made me wonder if this guitar is actually this much value.
So eventually all these findings and feel of guitar made me decide to send it back, hard decision, but if I pay this much money on guitar I need that it fulfills all the expectations.
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JG
Classic of the classics
Jake’s Guitar channel 26.01.2023
What to say, LP Custom with Ebony (finally!!) fingerboard after years, on some Gibson forums I found some negative responds for qualitty check, but mine was superior fine, fretwork is done properly and almost feels like its done with PLEK machine

Great fat and juicy sound as you expects from LP Custom

Real deal and great year to take one!!
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P
A superior Les Paul!
Praeg 08.04.2018
I bought this guitar mainly for recording purposes and for using it in music videos. First of all it's a beautiful instrument but you don't pay almost 4 grand for a piece of furniture. It excels in the sounds you get out of this masterpiece!

I know that many are sceptic about the richlite fretboards and people argue that this is not acceptable on Gibsons when you get ebony fretboards on Epiphone guitars for roughly 900¤.

At first I was also sceptic about richlite and thought it sounded a bit more harsh than the ebony fretboard but now after 3 months of playing it has begun to soften up a bit and get a more "ebony-esque" character. Compared to a 57 Black Beauty this Les Paul Custom has a more sharper sound thanks to the maple cap but in other aspects it's quite similar to the 57.

The only things I were not too happy with was some small scratches on the top of the guitar and a small ding in the binding on the headstock. But I am more concerned with the sound than the esthetics so I chose to keep the guitar because it delivers very clear chords and nice tight low end. The pickups are a bit "microphonic" as old Gibson pickups were back in the days and they are a bit too hot for high-gain sounds where they sometimes tend to pick up unwanted sounds. Having that said they work perfectly for rock, blues and jazz. If you plan on playing metal with this one I'd recommend changing the pickups.

This is an instrument meant for professional use and it's a guitar you buy once in your lifetime. If you are looking for a superior Les Paul this is it. I own one Gibson Les Paul Traditional from 2009 and it is also a great instrument but there are remarkable differencies in how much more precise a Les Paul Custom is compared to standard USA Les Pauls. If a normal Les Paul is a knife then the Custom is a scalpel.

It is worth the extra cash you put on from a normal Les Paul model in how it plays and how it sounds but the price is a bit steep for a hobby musician.
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A
Amazing sound and playability, but disappointing finish.
Anonymous 10.01.2015
The finishing job on this guitar is far from satisfactory. There are issues with it all over the place. Just to name a few: on the neck binding, all around where neck meets body, and black is missing altogether where the neck pickup and fretboard meet (which up close is quite ugly). At this price level, I would expect much better from Gibson. I used to own a 2001 Les Paul Studio which had no such issues at all, so for a Custom to have them caught me completely by surprise.

Having said all that, I simply couldn't bring myself to return it. The setup was damn perfect straight out of the case, and the guitar feels silky smooth and gorgeous to play. And the more I play it, the more the sound and sustain on this thing just blow my mind. In short, too good to return, and I didn't care to risk sacrificing the amazing sound and playability for a nicer finish. After all, you're supposed to play the thing, not look at it.

As always, customer support at Thomann was excellent, as was the pricing in comparison to other stores.
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