Features

The Gibson Logo

The most innovative and revolutionary stringed instruments of all time have bared the name Gibson—the Les Paul, the ES-335, the Explorer, the Flying V, the SG. There is no mistaking the classic, hand-crafted mother of pearl logo, inlayed into a pressed fiber-head veneer that is then glued to the face of the mahogany headstock. A thin coat of lacquer finishes the process. It is the most recognizable logo in all of music, representing more than a century of originality and excellence. There is simply no equal.

• The Gibson Logo
  Angled Headstock

  The angled headstock is another example of Gibson's industry-changing way of thinking. Every headstock is carved out of the same piece of mahogany as the neck then fitted with Gibson's traditional wing blocks. The headstock is carefully angled at 17 degrees, which increases pressure on the strings and helps them stay in the nut slots. Also, an increase in string pressure means there is no loss of string vibration between the nut and the tuners, equaling enhanced sustain and improved tone.

• Angled Headstock
  TonePros Kluson Vintage-Style Tuners

  The Les Paul Traditional is outfitted with Kluson-style tuners from TonePros, which are made to look identical to the vintage tuners found on earlier Les Pauls. These new tuners offer world-class performance while retaining the classic look and feel of one of the most popular—and most copied—tuners of all time. These TonePros machine heads feature completely sealed components with an improved 16:1 tuning ratio.

• TonePros Kluson Vintage-Style Tuners
  50s Rounded Neck Profile

  One of the more distinguishable features of the Les Pauls from the 1980s and 1990s were their fat, rounded necks. The neck on the Les Paul Traditional from Gibson USA is reminiscent of those classic necks—a thicker, C-shape profile emulating the neck shapes found on the iconic 1958 and 1959 Les Paul Standards. All necks are machined in Gibson's rough mill using wood shapers to make the initial cuts. Once the rosewood fingerboard gets glued on, the rest—including the final sanding—is done by hand. That means there are no two necks with the exact same dimensions. So while it still has the basic characteristics of its respective profile, each neck will be slightly different, with a distinct but traditional feel.

• 50s Rounded Neck Profile
  22-Fret Rosewood Fingerboard

  Rosewood has always graced the fingerboards of the world's finest stringed instruments, including many of today's Gibsons. The fingerboards on Gibson USA's Les Paul Traditional is constructed from the highest grade rosewood on the planet. The rosewood is personally inspected and qualified by Gibson's team of skilled wood experts before it enters the Gibson factories. The resilience of this dense and durable wood makes these fingerboards extremely balanced and stable, and gives each chord and note unparalleled clarity and bite. The 12-inch radius of the fingerboard provides smooth note bending capabilities and eliminates "dead" or "choked out" notes, common occurrences on fingerboards with lesser radiuses.

• 22-Fret Rosewood Fingerboard
  Alloy Fret Wire

  The fret wire on the Les Paul Traditional is a combination nickel and silver alloy (approximately 80 percent nickel and 20 percent silver) specifically designed for long life and superior wear. The Traditional's fret wire is Gibson's "medium/jumbo" fret wire, which is first shaped by hand then cut to an exact 12-inch radius. After hand pressing it into the fingerboard, a machine press finishes the job to eliminate the gap between the bottom of the fret wire and the fingerboard.

• Alloy Fret Wire
  Trapezoid Inlays

  The classic trapezoid inlay is one of the most distinguishable features of many traditional Gibson models, including the Les Paul. A figured, swirl acrylic gives these inlays that classic "pearl" look. They are inserted into the fingerboard using a process that eliminates gaps and doesn't require the use of fillers.

• Trapezoid Inlays
  Vintage Gibson Speed Knobs

  The Les Pauls of the 1980s and 1990s were used to play heavy duty rock and roll, and its features were designed to make playing the music as simple as possible. Gibson's classic speed knobs made it comfortable and quick for players to turn up the volume and adjust the Les Paul's tone as needed in a flash.

• Vintage Gibson Speed Knobs
  "Plus" Maple Top

  Ever since the introduction of the Les Paul—and especially the models from Gibson "Golden Era" of the late 1950s and early 1960s—one of its most distinguishing features has been the unique, highly distinct patterns of the flame maple top. The "Plus" maple caps on the Les Paul Traditionals emulate the tops of the Les Pauls from yesteryear (Ebony and Goldtop models are fitted with "Plain" maple tops).

• "Plus" Maple Top
  Weight-relieved Mahogany Body

  Satisfying the call in the early 1980s to make a lighter Les Paul, Gibson engineers came up with the idea of placing strategically routed holes in the Les Paul's body to lessen the weight of the guitar. After trying several patterns, the final configuration of holes resulted in a Les Paul with enhanced acoustic qualities and improved resonance. This same period-correct pattern is used in the Les Paul Traditional. The body itself is made from premium mahogany, and it goes through the same rigorous processes as all the wood used by Gibson USA.

• Weight-relieved Mahogany Body
  Pickups: Neck - '57 Classic; Bridge - '57 Classic Plus

  Among the qualities that make Gibson's original "Patent Applied For" humbucking pickups so unique are the subtle variations between coil windings. For the first few years of their productions—1955 to 1961—Gibson's PAF humbuckers were wound using imprecise machines, resulting in pickups with slightly different output and tone. The '57 Classic and '57 Classic Plus pickups are the result of Gibson drive to capture and recreate this characteristic. Introduced in 1992, the '57 Classic provides warm, full tone with a balanced response, packing that classic Gibson PAF humbucker crunch. The '57 Classic Plus is the perfect bridge-position companion to the '57 Classic, inspired by those original PAFs that received a few extra turns of wire. Both are made by Gibson to the exact same specs as the original PAFs, including Alnico II magnets, nickel-plated pole pieces, nickel slugs, maple spacers, and vintage-style, two-conductor braided wiring. Gibson added poly-coated wiring, which improves consistency by eliminating thick or thin spots on the wiring, and wax potting, which removes all internal air space and any chance of microphonic feedback.

• Pickups: Neck - '57 Classic; Bridge - '57 Classic Plus
  Tune-O-Matic Bridge

  The Tune-o-matic bridge was the brainchild of legendary Gibson president Ted McCarty in 1954. At the time, it was a true revelation in intonation, and set a standard for simplicity and functionality that has never been bettered. This pioneering piece of hardware provides a firm seating for the strings, allowing the player to adjust and fine-tune the intonation and string height in a matter of minutes. It also yields a great union between the strings and body, which results in excellent tone and sustain. It is combined with a separate "stopbar" tailpiece, essentially a modified version of the earlier wraparound bridge. To this day, the Tune-o-matic remains the industry standard. It is the epitome of form and function in electric guitar bridge design, and is one of the most revered and copied pieces of guitar hardware ever developed.

• Tune-O-Matic Bridge
  Nitrocellulose Finish

  Applying a nitrocellulose finish to any Gibson guitar—including the Les Paul Traditional from Gibson USA—is one of the most labor-intensive elements of the guitar-making process. A properly applied nitro finish requires extensive man hours, several evenly applied coats, and an exorbitant amount of drying time. But this fact has never swayed Gibson into changing this time-tested method, employed ever since the first Gibson guitar was swathed with lacquer back in 1894. Why? For starters, a nitro finish dries to a much thinner coat than a polyurethane finish, which means there is less interference with the natural vibration of the instrument, allowing for a purer tone. A nitro finish is also a softer finish, which makes it easily repairable. You can touch up a scratch or ding on a nitro finish, but you can't do the same on a poly finish. In addition, a nitro finish is very porous in nature, and actually gets thinner over time. It does not "seal" wood in an airtight shell—as a poly finish does—and allows the wood to breathe and age properly.

• Nitrocellulose Finish
  Antique Binding

  To see the process of putting the binding on the Les Paul Traditional is to really appreciate the effort and attention that Gibson puts into each instrument. A lone craftsman will carefully glue and fit two pieces of binding around the entire body of a Les Paul. He then winds a single, very long piece of narrow cloth around the entire body until the entire surface is nearly covered. The body is then hung to dry for a full 24 hours before it is unwrapped and moved into the next phase of production. It has been done the same way for over 100 years. Some question the value of adding binding, but Gibson believes it is a fundamental part of our rich guitar-making history. The binding adds elegance to the Les Paul Standard, and helps protect the edges of the body. The neck binding is installed over the fret ends, which eliminates sharp fret edges and provides for a smooth neck and easier playability.

• Antique Binding
  Revolutionary Plek Set Up

  The Les Paul Traditional is the first model from Gibson USA to utilize the revolutionary Plek machine in setting up the guitar. The Plek is a German-made, computer-controlled machine that carefully measures each fret, along with the fingerboard height under each string, and then automatically dresses each fret, virtually eliminating string buzz and greatly improving the overall playability of the guitar. This pioneering process does in minutes what it takes a luthier several hours—sometimes even days—to accomplish. Every fret is accurately aligned, and the guitar is properly intonated, leaving the instrument "Plek'd" and amazingly playable.

• Revolutionary Plek Set Up
  Period-Correct Pickguard

  The creme-colored pickguard has been a Les Paul staple dating back to the models of the late 1950s and the early 1960s. Many players, however, removed the pickguard from their Les Pauls to show off the beauty of the flame maple tops, moving Gibson to stop installing the pickguard altogether. During the 1980s and 1990s, Gibson began reinstalling the pickguard in the factory, and the Les Pauls from this era once again arrived in stores bearing the classic, creme-colored pickguard. The Les Paul Traditional comes equipped with a period-correct pickguard, designed to protect the maple top.

• Period-Correct Pickguard