The Gibson Les Paul Standard Figured Koa is a frighteningly beautiful instrument, delivering more power and punch than most other Les Pauls. It's distinguished first and foremost by its richly figured koa top -- the first Les Paul ever to be appointed with this gorgeous wood! The complex grain of this wood is augmented by the light glossy finish on top, and seduces the eye immediately.

Beyond the koa top, this guitar benefits from all of the masterful design specs and details that makes all Les Paul Standards such incredibly satisfying instruments to play.

Solid Features Throughout

The Gibson Les Paul Standard adopts many of the innovations that Gibson pioneered over the years. The result is a lighter, faster instrument, with more tonal power. The set mahogany neck is an asymmetrical '60s SlimTaper profile with a compound radius design. This means that notes sustain better at every point in the bound rosewood fingerboard than on a traditional neck profile. The locking TonePros Tune-o-matic bridge and Stopbar tailpiece ensure solid sustain and precise intonation on each string, while a set of high-quality locking Grover kidney-button tuners locks them squarely into place.

BurstBucker Pro: A Precious Pickup Revisited

The distinguishing feature of the Gibson Les Paul Standard is its pair of BurstBucker Pro pickups: a BurstBucker Pro 1 in the neck position and a BurstBucker Pro 2 in the bridge.

The BurstBucker Pro was introduced by Gibson to bring more power to the… read more vintage sound of Gibson's popular BurstBucker, with the addition of an Alnico 5 magnet and wax potting. The original BurstBuckers (released in 2000) captured the subtly varied tones of historically accurate "unmatched" bobbin windings and an Alnico 2 magnet. In 2002, Gibson responded to the overwhelming popularity of these new pickups with the Alnico 5 BurstBucker Pro. When you plug it in and play, you'll notice how the tone has more bite and character than the super-smooth Gibson '57 Classics. The wax potting on these BurstBuckers Pros also distinguishes it from its predecessor, ensuring no squeal from the pickups, even at high output levels.

Push/Pull Coil Taps and More

The tonal versatility of this instrument goes even further with Push/Pull Tone knobs on each pickup, allowing you to independently split the coils and obtain single-coil tones from your humbuckers! You can pull the neck pickup's tone control for reverse-phase tones, or pull the bridge pickup's tone knob to tap Gibson's new Pure Bypass setting. The latter allows that pickup to route directly to the output for a hotter signal.

Features:

- Mahogany body with traditional weight relief
- Figured koa top
- BurstBucker Pro 1 pickup in the neck position
- BurstBucker Pro 2 pickup in the bridge position
- Mahogany neck with '60s SlimTaper measurements
- Bound rosewood fingerboard with trapezoid inlays
- TonePros Tune-o-matic bridge and Stopbar
- Locking Grover Kidney Tuners
- Plush-lined hardshell case included

With its stunning koa top and pair of BurstBucker Pros, this Les Paul is truly a special and unique instrument from Gibson. read less