Gibson '56 Les Paul Historic Reissue

This review is for a 2005 Gibson Les Paul Custom Shop 1956 Re-issue. It is a cool guitar, it has 2 P-90 pick-ups, Mahagony body and neck with a Maple top. Gold Top. Comes with a custom shop case, a COA, a cable and some other stuff.

One thing to note; the guitar has a very thick neck, I like it, but I have big hands. I usually like thick necks, but this was a little thick for me and took a while to get used to.

It's a Les Paul so you you kind of know what to expect.

I love the sound of the P-90's but these particular pick-ups I found to really hum alot (much more than I expected). I think they should have made one RWRP. I tried replacing the bridge pick-up with a P-90 humbucker, but that required routing, so instead I installed a Seymour Duncan Anitquity II Mini Humbucker in the bridge postion. It was a questionable modification, but fortunately all I had to do was take the mini-humbucker out of it's ring and directly screw it to the guitar in the pick-up cavity. No routing was required, but it looks a little funny becuase it is set back flush towards the neck side of the cavity. However it really sounds great and blends well with the P-90 in the neck postion. For me this works great and makes the guitar much more usable.

The SD Anitquity Mini-humbucker sounds better (more bite, louder and more complex)then the Gibson mini-humbuckers in my original 76 Deluxe.

By the way, the sound of this guitar blows away the PRS Soapbar Satin Single Cut. The Gibson neck P-90 is big, full, rich and complex, and makes the PRS sound kind of weak in comparison. I've played both guitars at my band rehersals, and it's not even close. I'm not knocking PRS, I am a huge fan of their guitars, I just think with this comparison the Gibson sounds better. But the PRS P-90's are silent compared to the Gibby's P-90's.

OK, here again, I wasn't totally satisfied. The finish on the Gibson was really good, but I have one really small area on the binding where they didn't quite tape over it right so some gold paint bled onto it. It's barely noticeable. Also there is a little overspray of the Nitrocellulose and the side of the fingerboard where it joins the guitar top. Both these are very minor flaws, but for the price of the guitar, I would expect it to be perfect.

The big flaw was on the back of the head stock where whoever installed the tuners, started one in the wrong spot so there is a divot from a screw tip.

The nut was poorly cut, and the strings kept binding on the slots, making it very hard to tune. I have some special abrasive string that I used to clean/smoothen out the nut slots and it made a huge difference.

Finally, I think the tuners are junk, and the pick guard and toggle switch ring look really cheap. I took the pickguard and swtich ring off, I left the tuners on, but I added a Gibson TP-6 tail piece with fine tuners. Now I can finally get the guitar in-tune. I also added Tone-pro's locking studs.

Now the guitar is very stable and stays in tune well.

I've had this guitar for almost 3 years, and at first I didn't play it much, mostly becuase of the humming problem with the single coil pick-ups, but for the last year I've used it almost every day, for practice, rehersals, gigs. It's still not the most versatile guitar, so I always have another with me. But it is great for blues, classic rock, country.

Note: I replaced the strap buttons with Schaller strap locks.

I've been playing guitar for a long time, and have been through a lot of guitars and amps. I really like this guitar, and I would replace it if it were stolen or lost.

It has a very big, warm sound, great feel and vibe. I would probably make the same modifications to it. I can be picky about my guitar's sound and set-up, so if I feel I need to change something I will. Fortunately all the changes I made to this guitar are reversable. I can't say the same for some of my others.

I think for a Custom Shop, Gibson needs to do a little better. PRS's regular production guitars come off the line better than this guitar came out of Gibson's Custom Shop.

I also have a little pet peeve with Gibson re-issues. They aren't the same as the orginals. The Deluxe is a price example, it is a totally different guitar than what was built in the 70's.

2003 Gibson Les Paul H-56 "Stinger" Quilt Top. Your basic Les Paul with P-90's rather then humbuckers. Three way switch, two volume and two tone controls. Tunomatic bridge, stop tailpiece, Gibson "keystone" tuners. Mahogany body with quilted maple top, a huge, fat mahogany neck with Brazilian rosewood fingetboard. Thin frets. Black hardshell historic case. Hang tags and paperwork.

It has P-90's so it's not eactly quiet, but that's the sound I was after. It's a fat tone with lots of sustain. I play the guitar through a Deluxe Reverb (clean) and a Mesa Studio .22+ (crunchy rhythm and full zoot "Santana" leads).

I could find no finish flaws. I was amazed how well built this guitar is. The top is beautiful. It's quilted, but it's more of a cross between flame and quilt. The grain blends at the ceter seam so well that it almost looks like a one piece top. The color is a faded iced tea sunburst. I lowered the pickups after I first tried it out. They seemed to drive my amp a little too hard.

I'm going to baby this thing. I'm sure it will hold up as long as it doesn't get dropped.

I bought the guitar from Mark's Guitar Loft in New Hampshire. I bought it from his website. I was plenty nervous about plunking down a big chunk of change on a guitar that I hadn't played and having it shipped half way across the country. Mark helped me through the process with regular e-mails. He even sent me an e-mail on the day it arrived to make sure it was OK and that I was happy.

I've had no dealings with Gibson.

I bought this guitar to take the place of the '68 LP Gold Top I had in my youth. It had a unique tone that I'd been missing. That was the standard. This guitar surpasses it in tone, build quality and looks. Being a new guitar it doesn't have any "old guitar mojo" but give it ten years. My complaints, the pots. The tone controls work from 0-3. I'm going to replace them with audio taper pots and Hovland caps. I think it's insane that I shoud have to replace the electronics in a guitar like this. I know the electronics are supposed to be "historicly accurate" but, the controls are practically unusable. The nut is, plastic? A bone nut will soon be installed. And I'll put straplocks on it. I don't want to drop it. I would have liked bigger frets, like the ones Gibson used in the late '60's, but I can live with it. I'll just play the heck out of it until I wear them out and have it refretted. I played a bunch of Historic '56's and was ready to pull the trigger on a '01 H-'56 figured top from Wildwood Guitars in Louisville, CO (another GREAT store). But I saw this guitar and took a leap of faith. I'm glad I did.
The price was high, but it was still $2000+ less then a beat up '68 Gold Top would be. I'll have it for the rest of my life.

This is a 2001 Historic Reissue of the 1956 Goldtop w/P-90's.

It's USA made, of course. 22 frets, solid mahogany back (light colored), mahogany neck with rosewood fretboard and carved maple top. It has the nitro-cellulose gold finish, with a light colored back and neck. It comes with Gibson P-90 pickups, and standard Les Paul controls.

It has an ABR bridge and stoptail, Gibson Deluxe vintage style tuners with pearloid knobs, trapezoid inlays, and inlaid Gibson logo in headstock. It also came with the Gibson Historic hardshell case.

The guitar at 8.7 pounds is substantially lighter than production Les Pauls. It resonates better than any guitar I've ever played.....you can actually feel the string vibrations through the back of the guitar.

My style of playing is blues/rock/classic rock, and this guitar suits it perfectly.

There was no noticeable hum or noise from the pickups, and it has a very fat single coil tone. It play my style of music very well, and I can't think of anything I dislike about it. It's simply a great guitar.

The action was a bit high at first, but dropping the bridge a bit, retuning, and a check of the intonation made it perfect for me.

The tuning an intonation was great right out of the box. I'mnot sure who to thanks for this...Gibson or L&M Music where I bought it...but kudos for this.

I went over the guitar with a fine-toothed comb, and found no flaws whatsoever. Fit and finish was perfect, and the bridge was solid...no rattles. The ABR's will sometimes have a bit of noise, but not here. It was rock-solid. The nut was cut well...none of the annoying tuning problems as with some guitars.

The hardware and pickups were in excellent condition, and the tuners were also solid with no backlash or slipping noticed. The pickups selector and pots had no static or noise during operation.

The pickups were a bit high, but nothing that affected playability...mainly personal preference.

I've not had it long enough to give an opinion with regards to durablity/reliability. My experience with Les Pauls though tells me this will be both durable and reliable.

To be fair though, I can't give an opinion on this yet because I simply haven't had it long enough.

I've dealt with Gibson in the past, and generally have had good results.

The people at L&M Music where the guitar was purchased were great to deal with, and would recommend them highly to anyone wishing to purchase a Historic Les Paul.

I've been playing for 23 years.

I have an '86 Les Paul Standard, '70 Gibson SG, '97 Fender Fat Strat Texas Special, and a '90 Washburn KC-70V

For amps I have a Roland JC-77 and a Crate VC6112 all-tube.

I'd have to replace this if it were lost or stolen. I simply love it.

It's a '94 Les Paul Goldtop '56 from the Custom Shop - pre Historic era, with two great soundin' P.90. I got it with the original custom shop case and it was (still it is) in perfect condition, I wanted that guitar 'cause I was always looking for that fat bluesy tone that humbuckers don't get...

I play blues and mostly southern rock and it's beautiful, I play also a '91 firebird V and these are my main guitars.. It's beautiful to play and it gets a great feeling, perfect balanced tone and, hard to find in a les paul standard with PAF, a great great control of the volumes. This guitar has THE TONE!

I bought it in a second hand shop and it was in great great conditions.

I think that guitars like these don't have to come live around too much, beacuse they're too nice but it's always a shame to leave it in the case, so better take it off and let the P90 scream through my super reverb...

I bought it from Chris Guitar's and I have to tell you that dealing with that man was a pleasure. Thanks Chris, you gave me a perfect axe.
He sent me pics and made contracts and gifts...

Ain't no a long life picker but I can tell you that this is one of the best guitars I've ever had. I'd burn my ass if this guitar would be stolen or broken, but if i could I'd be buying this once again.
It has great wood, super fat neck and all the conditions to make it a real good-workin' guitar.

Nothin terribly fancy, mahogany body and neck, rosewood fretboard, maple top, 2 P90 single-coil pickups, volume and tone controls for each pickup, gold-top finish, tune-a-matic bridge, etc. The neck is baseball-bat thick; even a bit more thick than the 59 Reissue. The frets seem a bit thinner, and are not quite as high as on the '59, making it a little bit harder to play (for me at least). It came with a Gibson Historic case, a certificate of authenticity, a nice high-quality cable and cleaning cloth.

The thing I especially like about the Historic series is that Gibson seems to use lighter-weight mahogany, which is easier on the back and seems to result in better tone. This one weighs less than 8.5 pounds... lighter than many Fenders!

It has a very cool sound. I've been doing some careful comparisons between the '56 and a nice '59 reissue and a PRS McCarty model. The P90s are not as smooth and creamy sounding. I think the '56 really shines when played with light-to-moderate distortion... certainly LesPaul-ish, but with a bit more edge and grit than the sound of the '59 or the McCarty. Great sound for blues and most 60s-70s & 90s rock (let's just forget the 80s, shall we?). Probably not a great metal guitar. I've played it mainly thru a Marshall JCM2000 DSL100 half-stack, and a Fender Deluxe Reverb, and it sounds superb thru either. Describing it as sounding like a 'fat' Tele is not too far off.

Although the P90s are single-coils, they produce a lot of output and can really drive a tube amp... nearly as much as humbuckers. When really cranked and the tone rolled off, the neck pickup does a pretty good 'woman-tone' impression, while the bridge pickup gives a somewhat nasal raunchy honk. The tone controls really work well, and are quite linear... adding just a bit of treble removes any nasal sound from the bridge pickup, and gives a milkshake-thick sound with just enough edge to really cut thru... a really terrific sound.

Clean, it has a full beefy sound when playing rhythm, with a bit less low-end than the '59. At high volumes, it can be a bit too bright, but since the tone controls actually *work*, rolling the treble off a bit results in a very nice sound.

Other reviewers have commented on the noise, but I found mine to be perhaps a bit less noisy than the single-coil Fenders that I've played... I don't find it to be especially objectionable.

Nicely done. As mentioned above, the neck is the thickest of all the guitars I've owned, and the frets are finished a bit lower than on most newer models, making some barre chords and hard-to-reach fingerings a bit tougher to play cleanly. I suspect this was done in the name of '56 authenticity, and it isn't really bad, just different from what I'm used to. I actually have grown to like thick necks (the wide-fat PRS being the easiest-playing guitar I've ever owned), but potential buyers should check to see if the neck and fretboard on this guitar suits their taste.

I have detected no flaws in the fit and finish... very, very, clean.

I'm sure it'll be excellent, but I haven't yet had it long...

No opinion, but a nice lifetime warranty.

I've been playing off and on for 30+ years, seriously for the last 10. I've owned a lot of other guitars... Hamer, Gibson, Epiphone, Kent!... the PRS, Fender, G&L, Gibson Historics are among the current keepers (I should have kept the Hamer). I've never much cared for Gibson's standard line, finding them simultaneously muddy and harsh sounding, and I've always traded them away; but the Historic series guitars are among my favorites. The '59 reissue is so purty and costly that I'm reluctant to play out with it too much. The '56, while still costly, is not so stratospheric in price, and is doubtless a much better value for the money. And it looks, sounds, and plays superbly, so I have very high hopes.

1998 '58 "Historic" Les Paul, USA Made, 22 frets, Flame maple top, 2 volume, 2 tone, 3 way pickup selector, dual '57 Classic Gibson humbuckers, passive. One Piece Mahagony body, one piece mahogany neck, rosewood fretboard, bookmatched flame maple top, cherry stained back and vintage amber sunburst stained top under clear nitro-cellulose laquer finish. Vintage style kluson tuners. 24&3/4" scale length, big thick comfortable '58 neck carve. Mortise and tenon neck joint. Medium frets. Black Historic TKL case w/ maroon interior included. I give it an eight on features, the details of this guitar really are the features.

I play blues to hard rock a little country, it suits my playing and sound very well. It suits certain songs better than others, I also bring a '60 Relic Fender Strat to every gig. I use it with Fender Blues Juniors with 2x12 extension cabinets loaded with Celestion Vintage 30s; I use an Ernie Ball volume pedal, MXR phase 90 and a VOX reissue WAH. The guitar can sound thick and nasty, fat and blues, or lean and mean. It has great resonance and sustain, but you can still get your personality to come out. The '57 classics help with this because they are not very high output for a humbucker. The Bridge pickup has good bite without being harsh and the Neck pickup is big and fat without being muddy. Guitar has a nice "woody" sound with punch and spank and fatness. Truly different from regular Standard Pauls. It is the second best sounding humbucker guitar I have owned (the best is my '98 ES-335 Dot re-issue). I have owned several other Gibsons including Standard Les Pauls, a '64 ES-175, '65 SG Junior. I have also owned three PRS guitars including a Hollowbody, McCarty and Custom 22. I have sold all the PRS's because they just cant get the tone that I can get from the Gibsons. The Hollowbody was the closest, however.

I bought this guitar from Mars (gasp). It was hangin way up high where the punks cannot get to it. It was in there store for a while and I got a great price. They offered to set it up for me, but I declined and set it up myself. I play GHS 10-46. The fretboard was little dry when I got it (I have since corrected this with quality fretboard oil and proper humidity) and one of the tuners felt a little stiffer than the others but has gotten much better with use. The finish is beautiful with a really great looking realistic flame top. There was some reddish overspray on the neck binding right on the body that cleaned off easily. Gibson could do a better job on there fretboards with regards to inlays at this price.

I play this guitar out live quite a bit and it will last me a long time. Don't knock a Gibson backwards onto the floor as the headstock will break. I would never be rough with this guitar, If I was, I would get a regular Les Paul again. The hardware is nickel and will last, but tarnishes (as nickel should). Strap buttons are solid. However I do not trust them. I am making special locks to go over them when the strap is on to keep it from falling off.

No problems with the instrument. I have had contact with Gibson in the past, and contrary to comments I have heard, they were very responsive and helpful.

Been playing 20+ years and this guitar is truly special. I scored it very hard and I am VERY picky. The new historics are supposedly better and closer to orginal minute details than my '98, however they are very expensive, and you cannot get this nice of a top on a '58 now. If it were stolen I would try to get another, but would probably end up with an LP Standard and make my own modifications.

This guitar has two P90 pickups, volume and tone for each, plus a toggle switch. Not too many more features you could add, really. Otherwise, maple on mahogany, stop/tune-a-matic, gold top, and a nice fat neck. Your basic Les Paul, but with more interesting pickups. I haven't researched the serial number, so I don't know when it was built, but I'm guessing late 90s. I traded a '54 LP Custom Black Beauty Reissue for it about 3 months ago.

I love the sound of this guitar. P90s are far more interesting than humbuckers, in my opinion - fat, but with a single-coil's ability to cut through the mix. I play through a couple of Dr. Z amps - a Mazerati or a KT45, depending on my mood - with nothing but a Rat, a volume pedal, and a reverb pedal between the guitar and the amp. The Rat's usually turned off, by the way. I play mostly rhythm in a roots rock/blues rock band, and the guitar is totally solid. Chunky, heavy, rich. Some single-coil noise, but at playing volume it's not a problem. Can you get out-of-phase Strat noises out of it? Of course not, but for what I play, this is the right guitar.

I see in one of these reviews that the finish was bad on a reviewer's guitar. Mine is beautiful, so I don't know where the other guy's guitar went wrong. I took the pickguard off, and we're talking a yummy looking instrument. Even on a bad home video of the band, you can't take your eyes off the goldtop. The guitar was used, so I have no idea how Gibson had it set up. It was fine when I got it, but I had Bill Chapin of Chapin Guitars adjust it a little, and now it's just amazing to play.
I think I'm starting to get a tad arthritic, and I can't play slim necks anymore, so the baseball bat shaped neck on this guitar works like a charm for me. It won't be to everyone's taste, so test drive it before you buy one.

Hey, the guitar's built like a tank. What could go wrong? The strap buttons are pretty lame, and I'll probably regret not swapping them out for strap locks sooner, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I always carry backups for all my equipment, but I can't imagine needing one except to deal with broken strings in the middle of a set.

I've been playing off and on for roughly 30 years. I've owned many guitars (Gibson/Gretsch/Fender/Carvin/others), but this is the one I've been waiting for. The sound, the feel, the look, it's all there. I probably ought to give it a 10, but I'm just weird that way, I guess.
In terms of value, I'd give almost any Carvin a 10 - the workmanship per dollar is phenomenal. With Gibsons you pay for both the workmanship and for the name. I like the name as much as anyone, but I wouldn't mind if the price came down a bit. Ignoring price, though, this guitar is a 10+.
If it were stolen, I'd definitely try to replace it.

This is my dream guitar. It's a goldtop with the 2 soapbar PAF pickups that sound awesome. Everything but the pickups is standard LP fare. It's got a beautiful lighter wood finish on the back of the body and neck. The one thing is that the tuners seem kinda cheap, but not a huge deal. It came with the gibson custom shop hardshell case (it better for this much dough).

The sound is awesome. It cuts through the rest of the band (mostly ska/funk/rock). It's brighter and edgier than my early 70's LP deluxe. Not as creamy and warm, more bite. I had to crank the mid and I wish for a little more. As one of the other reviewers said, it kinda sounds like a tele, but with more guts.
The one drawback is the pickups are extremely noisy. I use a roland blues cube amp (not a screamer by any sense of the imagination) and it is very noisy. I will definitely have to buy a noise gate. The middle position almost gets you a SRV/strat tone believe it or not. Very versatile. I give a 9 only because of the noise.

Setup was perfect, everything was great, unlike some other new LP's I've tried. The guitar does look incredible (but the I'm a giant fan of goldtops). The action was nice and low, but not too low. The neck on the '56 is thicker than later LP's by a bit. I have small hands but it doesn't require much adjustment on my part.

This will be my main guitar (since I'm semi-retiring my LP deluxe). Having owned lots of LP's in the past, I've never had a problem with any of them. Very durable, things seemed to hold up quite well. Not sure about the strap buttons since the first thing I did was put strap locks on it. And as with most LP's it's a total rock. Very heavy, but in a solid reassuring way.

I've only called Gibson once when I was researching a potential LP buy and wanted to check the serial number to see when it was made. They were very helpful then.

I love this guitar, i've worshipped PAF's forever now and I finally gave in and bought this when Sam Ash had a sale. I couldn't resist the 45% off. My old LP Deluxe is on it's last legs having been totally abused by me for 15 years and I needed a replacement. I'm not sure I could afford another one if it did get stolen, but I would certainly try. I was torn between this and the new LP Deluxe 30th an. edition, but I just couldn't pass on this puppy with the good sale and all. It does have more edge to it than a deluxe, but I love it. Again, the one drawback is the noise. But I hope I can live with a noise gate.

Mine was made in 1998, but I just got it last month. It's a gold top with mahogany back with a maple cap and mahogany neck. It has the standard LP controls, 2 P-90's, and stop tailpiece. Didn't come with anything, case, paperwork, warranty card,..nothing. I think Guitar Center may not be real organized. I did buy a gibson custom shop case. It has no more features than any other LP, but I bought it knowing that.

I bought this guitar strictly for the sound--incredibly clear bass with creamy treble. It sounds fantastic clean for rhythm tones, sings for lead--I haven't touched my 335 since I bought it, something I didn't expect. It has an almost Telecaster-ish tone in the middle position (something I never used on the 335) with a little midrange hump that is distinctive in a very cool way. All three of the tones are distinct and different. I cannot say enough about how much I love the sound. The P-90's are a little noisy, not too bad clean, but is really bad distorted--I'm thinking about getting a noise gate even though I hate them--but since I only use distortion for leads with a full band, the noise gets lost. This guitar cuts through like nobody's business--I've been keeping my volume way below the rest of the band and still can hear everything perfectly. It suits me perfectly--I'm doing Allman Bros-type material--whenever we play Liz Reed people just stare at it--beautiful, beautiful tone. I would give it more than 10 if I could, despite the noise.

The finish details are, well, Gibson--the back of the headstock was buffed too soon and has quite a bit of ripple-- also a bit of maple (1/4")shows in the cutaway, maybe that's historically accurate, but if so, I'm ok with sacrificing a little accuracy. The bottom line is that I bought it for sound, not looks, (although this is the first gold top I've ever liked the look of) and when I'm playing I don't notice any cosmetic flaws. The action was a little high for my taste, but luckily it was easy to fix--I've heard there are sometimes problems with Gibson action due to freeting the necks before attaching them to the body, but I had no problem.

The first thing I do with any new guitar is to put Dunlop straplocks on it, so I don't know about the strap buttons. This guitar feels like it wants to be babied, but my only durability question is in the tuners--they work fine but look fairly cheap.

No idea

I've been playing for 18 years, the last 10 years or so on a '79 335. I had been playing a Tremoverb, but have only played this through a '65 Deluxe Reissue and it sounds gorgeous. It sometimes reminds me of a Tele, not something I expect in a Gibson. It is the best sounding guitar I've ever played, and I've had quite a few. I wish it was less noisy, but it sounds so great, it really doesn't bother me. It's all about the tone. If it were stolen, I could probably never afford another, but I would cry my little eyes out.