The Gibson Les Paul Standard is one of the most immediately recognizable instruments in the world. First produced in 1952, the Les Paul Standard has become the flagship guitar of the Gibson Corporation, and the guitar of choice for artists including Jimmy Page, Santana, Paul McCartney, and Pete Townshend – among hundreds of others.
In the early fifties, legendary guitarist and innovator Les Paul came to the Gibson Corporation with an idea. His invention, a solid body electrified guitar nicknamed “the Log”, would change the history of the guitar forever. Then Gibson president Ted McCarty decided to take a chance on Les Paul’s idea, and manufactured the first Gibson Les Paul Standard in 1952. Paul, by then a renowned jazz and country musician, was instrumental in the design process. He and a team of Gibson engineers worked together to produce a guitar like nothing else before it.
The body of the first Les Paul Standard was made of solid mahogany. Of course, looks were very important to Paul and Gibson. They wanted the guitar to appear as high quality and expensive as possible, so a fitted carved maple top was affixed to the mahogany body. On the first Les Paul Standard model, this cap had a gold finish, and was nicknamed the “Goldtop”. The reason mahogany was used for most of the body as opposed to solid maple was to control the weight. Maple is a hard and heavy wood, making it impractical to use all the way through. The pickups on the first Les Paul Standard weren’t the typical humbuckers now associated with the guitar. In fact, they were single coil P-90 pickups. This gave the original Les Paul a lighter, tinnier sound than later models. The construction of the bridge was different from later Les Paul Standards as well. It had a trapeze shaped lifted bridge holding the strings up. Tune-o-matic bridges are now used almost universally by Gibson.
The original Les Paul Standard helped to spark an electric guitar craze in North America. At the time, electrified blues music along with the beginnings of what is now known as rock and roll were winning over the American public. It was an exciting time in the music world, and the Les Paul Standard helped to catalyze popular music’s big switch from acoustic to electric.
The first Les Paul Standard, oddly enough, wasn’t actually called by that name because Gibson was only making one version. It was just the Les Paul. But in 1960, president Ted McCarty again decided to make a move in a different direction. Instead of the one cutaway design on the Les Paul Standard, he had his engineers design a lighter, more aggressive body with a cutaway both on the top side and the bottom side. When they approached musician Les Paul with the new design, he didn’t like it, and refused to let them continue to use his namesake on that version. As a result, Gibson produced the new design exclusively with a different name – the SG. The Les Paul as we know it went out of production for eight years. But, as a response to lackluster sales, it made its triumphant return to production in 1968.
With the reintroduction of the Les Paul Standard came a few changes to its cosmetic and functional design. Advances that Gibson had made with other guitars found their way onto the new Les Paul, making it more aesthetically pleasing, easier to play, and better sounding. The carved maple top was offered in a new Sunburst finish – which has since become the quintessential look for the Les Paul Standard. On Standards from 1968 on, the maple top was bound to the mahogany body from the outside corners to make its construction more solid and durable. Additionally, they continued the switch in pickups first made in 1957. The new ones were PAF brand double-coil humbuckers, as opposed to the original P-90’s on the earlier “Goldtop” models. The bridge, meanwhile, was changed to the tune-o-matic version. This made it easier for musicians to adjust the “action”, or height of the strings from the fretboard. All that was needed was a pair of pliers to turn the small wheel on each side of the bridge. As a final optional feature, Gibson also decided to add a Kahler Tremolo System to a few versions of the Les Paul Standard. This allowed for new unique sounds and tricks to be utilized by creative musicians who wanted pitch-changing effects.
In 2008, the Les Paul Standard, which had been built the same way for forty years, underwent a few minor changes. The design of the neck, once a perfect half circle, was made asymmetrical in order to make fretting easier for guitarists with smaller hands. Also, the old method of “swiss cheesing” the mahogany body, which was basically just punching a few small holes in the body to make it lighter, was done away with. Instead, it was changed to a more precise method called “chambering”, where strategically placed spots are routed within the body and made hollow instead of holes going straight through. The last detail to be tweaked was the tuners. Gibson added new Grover brand tuning heads with a higher turn ratio, allowing for more control in changing the pitch of the Les Paul Standard’s strings.
No matter what era your Les Paul Standard is from, there are a few things you can expect from it as a guitar. When you pick up a Les Paul Standard, you’ll immediately know what it is. The guitar is both heavier and thicker than most other electric guitar models – especially from brands that aren’t made by Gibson. The neck, meanwhile, has a uniquely thick and wide feel. Though this isn’t great for shredding, blues and jazz musicians love the design because it allows for more precise string bends and makes complicated chord construction easier by giving a little more “wiggle room” for the fingers. On every Les Paul Standard, quality of construction is paid special attention to. The bridge, tuners, and controls offer a versatility of sound that is hard to match. There’s a three way selector switch that gives guitarists the option of switching which part of the humbucker pickups are activated. The bridge pickup will make the Les Paul’s output a little tinnier, and is preferred by many for high end soloing. The neck pickup, meanwhile, is what gives the Standard its signature full, throaty, “crunchy” sound. For this reason, hard rock rhythm guitarists often choose the Les Paul Standard to give an aggressive, thick sound to their music. There is also a volume and tone control knob for each individual pickup placed next to the selector switch, allowing for further control over the particular sound a guitarist is trying for. In the looks department, the Les Paul Standard is more versatile than almost any other model. It offers the original “Goldtop” finish in addition to an array of different sunburst style ones. Also, solid colored Standards have come into production, including solid ebony, white, and red finishes.
All things considered, it is easy to see why the Les Paul Standard has made a name for itself as the guitar of choice for musicians all over the world. Its unique construction, dazzling looks, and endless array of customizable sound and playability features make it a fantastic all around tool for creating great music. For over fifty years, the Les Paul Standard has been the face of blues and rock and roll. And with Gibson’s willingness to continually improve the Standard while keeping its classic essence, the Les Paul Standard’s place atop the guitar world remains secure.