I had been after a Les Paul Custom for a while and I came across this guitar for sale on FaceBook a couple of months ago and worked out a deal.
It's a 2012 Gibson Les Paul Classic Custom. I know it's not a totally proper LP Custom, but I feel it's close enough and the prices are much easier to manage than a full blown custom.
It's got the classic 57 and 57+ humbuckers and the baked maple fretboard. It's a weighty beast at around 9-10lbs. I was really impressed with just how amazing the slim 60's neck feels and it's tone with my Marshall Silver Jubilee is even better than I hoped for. I am a massive fan of the 490 and 498 combo humbuckers, but the classic 57's have impressed me and IMO just destroy the nasty Burstbuckers that Gibson were putting in a number of different Les Paul models.
Eventually I would like to change the chrome hardware for gold hardware, as that's the look I love so much with the LP Customs. For the time being I'm really happy with the guitar and have been really enjoying getting various tones out of it. Like all right guitar purchases, this guitar just makes me want to pick it up and play it all the time.
Felix
2014 Fender Strat Plus Replica in Lake Placid Blue /1996 Fender 50th Anniversary Limited Edition Strat in Candy Apple Red /1993 Fender American Stratocaster Plus Deluxe in Blue Burst /Marshall Silver Jubilee 2555x 100w head with Victory Silverback Vintage 30 Loaded 4 x 12 Official Boss Pedal Addict - TU-3 , OD-1, DD-2 , DC-3, PS-1, RB-5, DS-1
Comments
Always loved the chrome hardware look.
HNGD!!!
I tried a brand new full blown Les Paul Custom back in September which had a tag price of £3300. It was really nice, but I didn't feel comfortable spending that much on a single guitar. In the end they lowered the price to £2700 for me (this is at PMT Oxford), but still I didn't want to go for it. When I learnt about the Classic Customs and the slight differences, I was happy to buy one as it had pretty much everything I loved about the LP Custom.
I've owned 6 Les Paul's in the last 2.5 years and this is the first one that I've really felt like I wanted to keep for really long term.
I use to be worried about the extreme weight that you find with the customs, but I've not had a single issue with this guitar and my damaged back has only been painful from sitting on a chair. The guitar feels so balanced and the neck profile to just how the guitar plays, still blows me away even after all these months I had it for.
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I've been so impressed with my Classic Custom. I love how they used the 60's profile for the neck, as it's kinda the biggest I can comfortably play on. I was told before I got one, that the classic '57 pups were one of the best new pickup designs Gibson have done for years. I like how they are not stupidly hot and really give some depth to the overall tone.
The baked maple fretboard also really impressed me. I love how it's darker than a rosewood board and unlike the "normal" LP Customs, it's made out of proper wood!
The tuners are actually Groovers that came off a 2001 LP Custom when it was still new. I only paid £28 for a genuine set of Groover tuners!
The thing is, I've wanted a LP Custom in ebony and gold. It's just been something I've wanted since I was a kid just learning his first chords. While many Les Paul owners go gooey over a Cherry Burst or a Lemon Drop finish, with enough flame it's worthy of being called a forum thread from a gamers website. For me, I just loved the contrast that you only got from the proper customs and not just a normal Ebony Les Paul that has been altered to look like a "Custom"
With the wear, normally the sweat from you fingers is what triggers the gold to start wearing off. I am really lucky that my hands have never had this effect on any of my instruments in the last 20 years of me trying to play guitar.
So what's the deal with these - are they like a Standard in build but with the Custom's visual accoutrements (good word) and a baked maple board? How would you say the baked maple affects the sound, if any? It looks nice and dark, is it stained? I've never understood why Gibson's stock photos show the board looking so pale and washed-out, when the real examples I've seen look so much better.
Only thing that puts me off them a little is the thinner neck, I like a Les Paul to have something like a late-50s profile, but hey.
The guitar is done on the main production line and the differences are there is no binding on the back of the body and the baked maple fretboard. The board only has "Dunlop Lemon Oil" on and that is enough to darken it like you see in my photos.
Everything else about the guitar is like a normal LP Custom. They are just as weighty as a normal custom. The classic custom came with the classic '57 humbuckers, rather than the 490/498 combo you get in most of the more expensive models in the Les Paul range. They all had the slimmer 60's neck profile and were built from 2011-2012.
So to me, they are really close to the normal LP customs you would pay between £2700-£3300 here in the UK. I played a full custom shortly before I decided to go for a classic custom instead, mainly due to difference in price and not really being bothered about which Gibson building it was put together in.
The baked maple neck feels like rosewood/ebony to me, it darkens each time I add more oil to the board, which I do maybe every 3 months (2 sets of strings usually). Sound wise, I would need to A/B to be able to tell any difference, if any. But because of the different pickups it's hard to tell what is the pups and what is the wood.
I really champion this version of the Les Paul Custom as they just offer such great value for money on the used market. They cost the same sort of money as a Les Paul Standard. I don't know much about production number and how easy they are to get, but when I was looking to buy in December last year, this was the only one on the Facebook group (UK Gear Exchange) that I was browsing at the time.
My other guitar is a Fender Strat Plus Deluxe and this LP Custom balances really well on the tonal spectrum with it.
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This is what the finished guitar looks like.....
It has a 490R and 498T humbuckers in it now.