Page 115 - Bespoke Issue

I’m always excited to see what Gibson have sent me, so when I popped open those brass latches on the leather guitar case and saw this magni cent
instrument nestled in the red velvet lining, I was eager to hear it sing. One thing I realised was missing was the pick guard, it took me a fair while to notice it; the guitar comes with one, but without it you can really appreciate all the different tones in that ‘cobalt burst’ the ripples in colour are mesmerising.
I Took it down to my friends place for a party, I’ve recently been getting into Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac and this guitar is fantastic for the blues, Green of coarse played a ’59 Les Paul himself. Now this may not be a vintage guitar with a rich history and scares telling the story of a life on the road, but by god did it still feel so true to its fathers. The difference of coarse is the modern touch, the fret board was so
easy to slide and bend on, the neck was just perfect in my left hand. The Burstbucker pickups give a rich and versatile tone that you would expect form a Les Paul. Thick and creamy on the rhythm, and more jangly with nice bite on the lead.
We sat drinking and jamming, my mate pulled out his rickety old acoustic, with ‘this machine kills Fascists’ wittily scribbled onto the body, we spent a for good few hours just strumming along and chanting the odd lyric as a fair amount of Scotch made us into far better musicians than we really were.
Since I rst opened up the guitar case and saw the cobalt blue Les Paul I've been spending my every spare minute just playing something on it, there’s something I nd in all Gibson guitars and it’s that sense of soul, maybe it’s because Gibson as a
WORDS ETHAN BLAKE-JONES IMAGE EUAN McALPINE
company is still true to its routes, building its guitars in the USA where it was born. Whatever it is I can’t get enough of it, the guitars feel personal, whether they’re standards or custom specs. I’ve been ready about their troubled waters in the press, It would be a real shame to see such a great company disappear, because the feeling this instruments give you, is unmatched. The modern Les Paul Standard is bit like the Porsche 911, its been around for years and many a famous name has played them, some are only famaous because of them, the style and shape remain the same, it’s an icon and like the Paul Stephens Classic Tourer that is featured in this issue the new Les Paul is like picking up a vintage guitar, with every stroke of the strings there is a wealth of history, soul and passion, but with none of the problems of an old instrument. All that is taken care of by modern nishes using used by craftsmen. Long live the Les Paul Standard.
BLUE MONDAY Cobalt Burst, Gloss Nitrocellulose Lacquer, a very complex de nition of beauty...
115