Having missed a chance to get this in the Gold top finish in the earlier 50s tribute version, I had to "settle" for one in cherry burst. When this 60s tribute hit the streets in gold top I snapped one up asap! The sound of the p90s are very touch sensitive and dynamic. If you play normally they are crisp and clean,but if you lean into them they will growl and spit...very cool! By the way the Cherry burst finish is sweet looking too!

Guitar came with a gigbag that , sad to say , is no where near up to the previous gigbags offered.....kinda flimsy . But this guitar is so cool it outshines this wimpy gigbag, do yourself a favor and fling it and get a hardcase asap ! To keep the cost down , this model sports the typical Les Paul Studio no binding look. I have heard other owners gripe that some of these guitars do not have evenly or well bookmatched tops as standard. Both of mine are nicely bookmatched from what I could see thru the opaque finish....but at this price would I really care if they didn't ?.......NO.

Out of the box , the 60s Tribute gold top had a very comfortable action and the intonation rang true ; chords were crisp and well defined unplugged or thru an amp ( Fender hotrod deville 410, Marshall Valvestate 212) Single notes , leads are nearly effortless on the very comfortable neck. The controls and features are classic and timeless....hard to improve on perfection!

This is by far the best bang for the buck Gibson guitar out there; how can you go wrong at this price in all those beautiful finishes? The finish is satin and exhibits the "worn " treatment.

The selling price is well within reach of most guitarists Gibson is marketing it towards. Its' price is a couple hundred above the asian import Epi Les Paul Custom ...not bad for a US made instrument with a gigbag!

I have never had any problems dealing with Gibson customer support...EVER.

The impulse to " add to cart" is nearly impossible to overcome. I had an intense "I want it!" attack the minute I saw these. I sold off several guitars to buy two!

Active Musician

Rock/blues/jazz/folkrock

I've played Gibsons and Fenders for over forty years and I know what sound I like. I'm retired now, not gigging, and wanted a single electric to cover it all for my many jam sessions. I found it with this 60's tribute guitar. Sound wise to my ears it lies in between humbuckers and Fender single coils. It has the bite when required, but also the balanced mellowness for all the styles I play. And I also noticed my model did not have that thin nasally midrange sound when both pickups are on. A definite plus.

Others have complained about the "cheapness" of the parts and materials used. I don't find it cheap at all. The components all seem fine to me. And the nice thing is these can be replaced if need be. It has a nicely matched two piece top and back. I wasn't sure if I was going to like the baked maple fingerboard but it feels very smooth and has a nice figuring to it. If I were nitpicky I could complain about how the Gibson logo is a bit lower than most Pauls, but I've gotten used to it now.

At my this stage of the game and with my experience I can get my sound from practically any guitar out there. But with this Les Paul it came immediately. No messing around, just a very slight action adjustment and good to go.

There has been some complaints on quality that I'd like to address. People have to realize what they are actually getting...a lower cost Gibson Les Paul. It's NOT going to be like the more expensive models in terms of finishing and attention to detail. If you want close to perfection (which will be tough) you need to spend more money. This studio has cut some corners and costs to make it affordable to obtain the Les Paul sound. And I do think you have to look around, they can vary greatly from one model to the next re materials.

n/a

I think I was blown away first by the beautiful wood grain on the top of the guitar before I even plugged it in. And I played it acoustically and I knew it would sound great plugged in.

Wow, amazing sound. The p90s just sing. They don't have the crunch of humbuckers but give the guitar an unique vine. It isn't your typical Les Paul.

The tone controls give a good range of sound. In a month the guitar hasn't went out of tune. The feel and craftsmenship are out of this world. Doesn't have all the trim of the.more expensive guitars but the bare look is attractive. It distinguishes the guitar from other Les Paul..

What a neck, better feel than a PRS. Played great right out the box.

Can't find a flaw.

Great price and unique sound. The stripped down finished gibsons may make the American Standard Strata obsolete for value.

Who knows, made well enough won't be finding out anytime soon.

I got it and am not giving it up. I might be buried with it.

playinv for fun for 15 years

blues, jazz, rock

The sound coming from this guitar is phenomenal. I've been playing guitar for over 10 years and bass for over 15 years in various forms of punk rock bands. Over the years, I've had tons of different guitars and amps. I thought I had it all figured out and my sound dialed in with a Gibson SG, Marshall JCM 800 and Avatar 4x12. Since I thought I had my sound down, I wanted to get a backup and figured that a Les Paul Studio with P-90s and a 60s neck would have the bite and neck thinness of an SG. I was right about all of that, what I was wrong about was thinking that the 60s tribute would be my backup guitar. At some point, I picked up an 80s Marshall 4x10 guitar cabinet because I've got a really terrible back and the venue that my band tends to play at most often has an incredibly treacherous flight of stairs that equipment needs to be brought up (it's awful, especially during Minnesota winters). It has also been helpful when playing a new venue when we don't know if the loading will be easy or not. It was playing a show with this cabinet and amp combination where I figured that the humbuckers on the SG didn't quite sound as good as they should. That's when I turned to my "backup." When I switched, magic happened. As luck would have it, my band's set happened to be recorded off the board and for the first time ever, I loved my guitar tone over a PA and various sound guys that I have struggled with for the better part of a decade. It was victory and nothing could taste sweeter! The P-90 is the perfect live punk rock pickup. Period. It's noisy, mean, and has attitude to spare (although investing in a noise gate isn't necessarily a bad idea, and if you get a good one it won't kill your tone). Of course recording is a different beast, but I am proud to say that she has stood her own admirably amidst my arsenal of guitars (I've since cut down to 6 guitars and 3 basses - because obviously I still need 9). If for some reason you aren't completely happy with the stock pickups, check out Wolftone Pickups. That guy lives for P-90s.

I got a fairly nice padded gig bag with this guitar, but you know what? If I'm spending over $500 on a guitar and gigging with it regularly, I'm going to make damn sure that I've got a hardshell case for it! So yeah, there's an extra $100 or so. Protip: Don't get an official Gibson case. It's not that they're bad cases, but there are others that have comparable quality for less money and don't have a giant logo that says to potential thieves "there is obviously a guitar that is worth some money in here." Extra protip: buy strap locks. You'll thank me for it when your guitar doesn't come crashing down on the stage for no apparent reason or you don't have to contort yourself into an odd position for the last minute of your song to keep your guitar from falling down. We've all been there, buy strap locks. They're under $20 Since we're talking about features here, did you know that those "tone knobs" on your guitar actually do something? No? Try it with this guitar in a warmed-up and cranked tube amp... We'll discuss the plastic in the "I Want It" section that deals with the sexiness of the guitar.

Plug this guitar straight into a tube amp, especially a vintage one, and your guitar will be singing like a sinner (saints not encouraged or welcome with this beast). If you're using solid-state amp, it's just not going to give that same feel. That's just how this guitar works. Sorry about that, but it's true. Get a better amp. This guitar deserves it. Other than that, the guitar came set up just fine. The action wasn't too high or too low. Of course, all that's just a matter of personal preference anyway and you can't really fault a guitar manufacturer for sending you a guitar that doesn't meet your exact playability specifications straight from the factory in cases like this. Unfortunately, this guitar has the standard Gibson problem of the G string liking to wander just a bit out of tune before any of the other strings. If you've played these guitars before though, you should be used to it and know that it's not a big issue and the tuning should stay relatively stable throughout an entire set or practice session.

The worn finish makes it easier to see if there are any flaws in the construction of the instrument. Mine seemed to be perfectly fine, but I personally think that the warn finish (mine is the worn ebony) just makes the guitar look like a lower quality instrument than a polished finish. That can easily be changed though...

I love this guitar more than the Standards and the Customs. It's lighter, it's sleeker and the neck is better! This really is almost a perfect guitar. For the money though, you can't really get a better rock and roll machine.

Gibson is really friendly and are willing to work with you if you have issues and also willing to work with you if you suspect you might have come across a fake Gibson at some point. I haven't heard of any knockoffs of these particular guitars though, thankfully. But, if you plan on ever purchasing a Gibson, you should know some of the basics on how to spot a phony. It could save you a lot of money and heartache.

A Les Paul with a 60s neck and P-90s should automatically turn the "I Want It" rating to 11. "Should" being the operative word there. So what is it that turns this into a less than completely drool-worthy beauty? Two things: the plastic and the finish. First off, let's discuss the plastic on this guitar (i.e. pickguard, toggle switch plate, input jack plate, pickup covers and to a lesser extent, control knobs - which are okay depending on what finish you have). Fact: it's atrocious. Hideous. Horrendous even. Okay, maybe not that bad, but still pretty bad. The so-called "cream" (creme?) color is more of a peachish/pinkish hybrid that is just not pleasant on the eyes. It looks okay in the pictures set against a worn ebony finish, but once you get it home you can see just how ugly it is. I can only imagine how terrible it looks on the worn white guitar. The solution I offer is to search around the internet and get some replacement parts in black and/or chrome/nickel for the input jack place (or whatever color would go well with your finish). You could probably even order cream colored plastic as long as it wasn't officially licensed by Gibson because then you'd have another set of the ugly pink plastic. I personally went with all black replacement plastic and just took the pick guard right off. This particular Les Paul just didn't feel right having a pick guard for whatever reason. You may or may not want to replace the control knobs as well. That's totally your call. I decided to put on some black speed knobs as that seemed to go better with the overall vibe, but it looked okay with the amber top hat ones too. You should easily be able to get all this under $50 (if you don't get the pickguard, that is. They can be more expensive since it's for a Les Paul with P90s and they don't make as many of them as the humbucking versions). The second problem: the finish. Taking care of this issue will require a bit of time and a power tool. Now, I don't like worn finishes. It just seems lazy to me and makes the guitar less visually appealing. As a result, I decided that I had to do something about it. Enter the hand-held power buffer, car polish and guitar polish. What you will need to do is take off basically everything that protrudes on the guitar, cover the fretboard and pickups in painter's tape, and go to work using copious amounts of car polish, alternating with sprays of guitar polish, and a power buffer. After one to two hours, you should now have yourself a nice polished look on the face, back and neck of your guitar. Be careful on the neck though, don't do too much and risk hurting your guitar. As you play it over the years, you'll buff it up a little on your own. For the headstock, you could take out all of the tuning pegs and truss rod cover and repeat the process, or you could just let it be. It's not going to be that big of a deal if you don't do your headstock. It's a lot of work, but once you put in a little bit of time and a little bit of money, your guitar will be that "11" that it should have been all along. There should be a picture of me with the finished guitar (I also added faux binding) somewhere in my band's Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/oldtowneghosts if you want to see the results.

Active Musician

Punk Rock

This guitar is great!! I just bought mine two days ago. I got it in the worn goldtop. It doesnt matter to me if has binding or not. It plays great and sounds great with those p-90s. I love it and will have for many more years.

Great pickups, can never go wrong with the p-90s. the neck is very smooth and effortless to play. great feeling vintage style guitar.

I play through a 1972 Fender Twin reverb, this guitar sings through it. Very clean and jazzy tones but all that can change in a split second if you overdirve those p-90s they scream!!

Great guitar for price! I would heavily recomend spending the extra couple hindred bucks if you were looking at a chinese made epiphone. This guitar is made in the usa and plays and sounds great.

I saw the goldtop when I walked in the music store and my jaw dropped. I had to get it so I did.

Active Musician/Guitar Teacher

blues, rock, jazz, country

Hummm a Gibson Les Paul and a Marshall Amp...Any questions?????? Can't beat it no matter how you try. Best Guitar i own. I have a Fender Strat and Tele. I like this LP the best plus it is true USA. Needs nothing except fingers.

My LP came with an owners manual and product registration and i bought the hard shell case. Again it needs nothing.It came set up great and i didn't have to do anything. I hear this is a limited run on this model so better grab them while you can.

It sounds like i'm repeating myself but all i can say is buy one and get it from ZZounds. This company cannot do anything better. They are 100 % plus. Buy something and see.

For the cost it is unbeatable. It is what it is all the way and i'm sure that in the musical world Gibson is the most played guitar you see. I love my Fenders as much but Gibson can't be copied no matter how hard other companys try.

Yes

I haven't had to try to get them.

I brought this LP to my Sons gig and so many people as well as muscians just could not say enough and the way it played was just nostalgic.

retired pro and still plays in my studio

I love it all. I can find any message that is played no matter what kind of music

I bought this guitar when they 1st came out. Didn't have all the colors and wish they would have, as I have 2 many black guitars. Sound quality is excellent. Very fun to play.

I bought this one as I really liked the feel of it and it just feels good to play it.

Well made no issues

This is a quality guitar, very moderately priced for a Gibson and well worth the $.

NO

The sound and the general feel of the fret board was what attracted me. I was looking at an Epi Les Paul, but this unit was a real Gibson and only $100.00 more. Why not?

10 yrs

rock/blues

This les paul with P90s growls like no other. The bridge pickup sounds brittle at low volumes, but fills up nicely if you are able to crank your amp a bit. I raised the pickups, which helped give it more bite, and reduced the hum. You can lower the pickups to get a more fenderish sound.

Nice tuners, two tone and volume knobs, the wood used in the guitar I received was beautiful, very well matched 2 piece top with mild flames.

I didn't realize how prominent p90 hum was when purchasing this guitar, but it is really growing on me..gives it character. The bridge and tailpiece are easy enough to adjust, as are the pickups. I'd definitely suggest messing with everything until you find what you like.

2 piece top, 2 piece back, hardly any of the faded edge wear the faded studio series generally has. The rosewood fingerboard seemed rather dry and more porous than my previous guitar, and also had minor dents along the edge. Overall it's a great guitar, feels great, plays great, sounds great.

Hobbyist

Blues-Rock

I have been playing since i was 13 yrs old, both professionally and at home

top 20 hits bands and now christian

Pro, >30 years

Rock, blues, jazz

Been playing since i was 15

All music

semi/pro for over 40 years

classic rock, to jazz, to country and in between. its all good music !!!

SOUND...awesome! I always liked the P90 pickups, although you realize when you plug in that these are single coils. So are Fender Strats, but they are another killer guitar. What you find with the single coil sound is a rich, fuller, complete sound. Humbuckers cut-off a lot of the highs. Also, a more balanced sound with great attack.

I like the way a Les Paul is set up...it's the best. One great feature is where the toggle switch is placed: at the top which not only let's you see what pickup you're using, but it is easier to switch between pickups. Also, the standard two volume/tone controls. Finally, plugging into the side of the body. Perfect.

Love this design.

This is "why" this guitar gets a lower rating...the finish...or more precisely, lack of it. I've found out that it takes on average about a week to do a "nitro" finish which is also the most expensive part of the guitar. I DON'T LIKE IT. Gibson should stop selling guitars with a worn finish. That's why the price is so low. In fact, before recently, the only way to get this guitar was from the Gibson Custom Shop for about $2,800.00. If you are a skilled tradesman who can spray a good finish and are willing to strip your new guitar of all it's hardware, this might be the model for you.

Again, it's all about the finish here.

This is Gibson. They will almost always take it back if there is a problem.

Love the guitar, hate the finish.

Hobbyist

Rock, metal and pop.