The Gibson Les Paul Custom is a high end variation of the Gibson Les Paul guitar. It was developed in 1954 after Gibson had introduced the Les Paul model in 1952.

Construction

The Gibson Les Paul was introduced in 1952, and was made of a mahogany body with a 1" maple cap, mahogany neck with rosewood fret board and two P90 pickups. The guitar was only available in a golden finish. In 1954 a more luxurious version was introduced, most probably on specific request by Les Paul himself, as he wanted a more luxurious and classy looking guitar. He requested a black guitar as he wanted it to "look like a tuxedo". Nicknamed the Black Beauty, the guitar comprised of a mahogany body and neck, ebony fret board and mother of pearl block markers inlays in the fret board. The pickups were a P90 in the bridge position and a newly designed by Seth Lover Alnico V pickup in the neck position. The frets are low and flat, as opposed to the usual medium jumbo frets found on other Les Paul customs, and the guitar soon was given the nickname "The Fretless Wonder". The hardware is either gold or nickel silver plated.

By 1957 The Black Beauty also came equipped with either 2 or 3 PAF humbuckers, but strictly speaking this model is not a 'fretless wonder', as the frets were standard medium jumbo frets.

Today, the Les Paul Custom is made with a maple-capped mahogany body rather than the solid mahogany body of the 1954 model. It is available in colors including Ebony, Alpine White and Wine Red. The Custom model differs from the Les Paul Standard in many ways. The cosmetic differences include gold hardware (though many Customs are seen with nickel silver hardware); block inlays on the fretboard rather than the "crown" inlays of the Standard (with an inlay at the 1st fret, whereas the Standard has none); a "split-diamond" pearl inlay on the headstock; and multi-ply binding around the body and headstock. The construction differences are an ebony fretboard which tends to sound "snappier" and make the fretboard more "slippery," lower frets with more squared off tops that give the instrument the moniker the "fretless wonder" and larger round "speed" style knobs (though other knob types can be seen depending on the year).

The "Split Diamond" Inlay on the headstock was taken from Gibson's 'greatest guitar', the CES Super 400.

Notable Les Paul Custom players

References

External links

• Gibson Les Paul Custom
• The History of the Les Paul