Used 2013 Gibson Custom Shop Historic 1958 Les Paul Standard – Brazilian Rosewood, Historic Makeovers Refinished and Aged

Sonic Evaluation

This historically made-over Les Paul is an absolute killer! It nails the sound vintage LP, exhibiting the woody warmth, punch, bite, and harmonic liveliness that makes those guitars so special (for reference, think Gary Moore/Jimmy Pages tones). The attack has a beautiful vintage-style sag and compression--possibly because of the real Brazilian rosewood fingerboard)--and it has this wonderfully percussive grunt that invites you to make your best stank-face. The bridge pickup is snarly in the best possible way, with an open high-end above tight muscular lows with just the right amount of sparkle and chime. The neck pickup packs a broader punch, with a righteously smooth top-end and deep, clear bass response. Both pickups sound remarkably clear even when playing complex chords with overdrive, too. If you're looking for a killer Lester with vintage sound and looks, check this serial out!

The 411 on Historic Makeovers

Wildwoodians, this guitar has undergone quite a transformation, and it has a ton of mojo as a result! A previous owner shipped it off to Historic Makeovers in Florida to undergo quite a transformation. If you're not familiar with Historic Makeovers, here's the skinny: they take new Les Pauls and reshape them to make them as close as possible to a real fifties example.

This guitar received the deluxe package makeover, which means that it received a laundry list of cool mods. First, the fine folks at Historic Makeovers stripped the finish and re-carved the top and the neck to match vintage specs. After that, they took the original Indian rosewood fingerboard off and attached a real Brazilian board with hot hide glue. Then, they refinished the guitar with a historically-accurate non-plasticized nitrocellulose lacquer, which is quite thin and allows the guitar to breathe more. It allows checks and ages in a really cool way, so they gave it a vintage patina with some light aging work on the finish. Historic Makeovers also used real Royalite binding! Finally, they re-stamped the serial number with a vintage-style rubber stamp using a vintage typeface.

More important than all of that, this example sounds fabulous thanks to its ThroBak pickups, which nail the sound of vintage PAFs with uncanny accuracy. All in all, this guitar has a ton of mojo and special sauce, and we have no doubt it will inspire you to plug in, turn up, and rock out!

Condition Report

This guitar is in marvelous condition with extremely light signs of normal use. It comes with its original hardshell case plus its original tags, Custom Care kit, and a certificate of authenticity from Gibson as well as Historic Makeovers.