Gibson '60 Les Paul Classic

This paul has a killer lightburst finish. The bridge pickup is a 500T and the neck pickup is a 496R. It has the slim taper 60's neck that is lightning fast. It has the gibson green key tuners and it stays in tune very well. It is a new 2007 made in the USA !!!!!

This axe is like all Les Pauls, you can play anything you damn well please and it sounds fantistic. I play it through a Fender Frontman 212R (who say's a gibson don't sound great plugged into a Fender amp) Why anyone would change the pickups in this guitar is beyond me. This baby screams rock & roll and it takes care of buisness.

This is the first new guitar I've ever purchased that did not need to be set up at all!! Whoever put this thing together was obviously concerned about quality. The action is low and fast. The 60's slim taper neck is top notch. The finish is flawless.

EXCELLENT !!!!!!

Haven't had to contact gibson.

I've been playing for 30 years and this is one of the best Les Pauls I have ever put my hands on. I play classic rock, hard rock, 70's and 80's metal and blues. This guitar is a tone monster from hell !!!

2007 Goldtop model for specifics look at Gison.com

Sounds good through My Boogie Recto and ADA preamp. I actually like the clarity of the ceramics and roll off a bit of highs if it starts to sound shrill, or just turn the mic slightly off axis on the cab.

Completely horrible! They had 3 there...I picked the best one. It had 2 spots where the clear coat had built up as it was drying which I had to buff out. the whole thing had orange peel on it. The fret board was never smoothed out. The intonation wasn't close. I had to refile the nut as the D string was set visibly lower than any of the other strings. I also refiled the bridge saddles as they weren't even close to the correct radius. I bought this guitar to replace my 94 Goldtop classic that I sold to buy my PRS. I should have just bought an early 90s off ebay.

I am very disappointed with Gibson's current line. Upon further examination I noticed that the body is made from two pieces!! I'm sorry i though I bought a Gibson not an Epiphone! Wait...it gets worse! I have a 90 standard as well and in going back and forth between the two trying to find out why it is that the new guitar sounds like a toy acoustically, I noticed that the 07 is very light. I weighed them, the 07 is 3 lbs lighter! I then looked it up on line...and it seems that all the 07 pauls are now "weight relieved" except for the customs and reissues that is. I have bought my last Gibson product.

I have the honey burst type from 2000. you know the rest

this guitar is a screamer which is what I bought it for. I've looked for a les paul to suit me for about three years and this is it. Just remove the 1960 pickguard and away we go. The pick-ups a very hot and with a wah notched I can get a lovely zappa scronk sound if I desire or all the allman bros/ fleetwood mac/zz top stuff by using different amps and settings.

Well this is why it took me years to find MINE. I have not found much consistency in this arena and I could talk my brother into sell me either of his pauls. once I put some heavier strings on and did a set-up I reaped the rewards. so usually these are trouble (I have two friends looking for les paul and we haven't found any keepers after five months (and we live in chicagoland so we have played lots)

A drunken friend ripped the strap button off but otherwise I've been fine. that repair was annoying but not hard to do.

this is one of MY regulars and it is not allowed out of my studio.

This a 1960 Les Paul Classic in heritage cherry with the 496 & 500T ceramic pickups. This guitar has a mahogany body/neck with a plain carved maple top. Other features include tune-o-matic bridge and Gibson Deluxe tuners. Guitar comes complete with Gibson case.

As with the majority of les Pauls, it's all passive electronics with 2 volme and 2 tone knobs plus a three way pickup selector switch.

For my musical style, I play in a female fronted rock covers band. We play everyhting from GNR to Pink to Green Day to Sheryl Crowe to Led Zep so I need something that is flexible and covers most bases somewhere between the blues and rock spectrum.

I'm currently using this guitar through a Hughes and Kettner Switchblade Combo and also use a Boss chromatic tuner, Morley power wah and Guyatone noise gate so it's a fairly uncomplicated rig as the H&K is so flexible and has built in effects plus comes with a MIDI floorboard.

I won't sit here and tell you how it's great for Jazz, country etc as this is not the style of music that I play and I've got no intention of trying so can't comment on that side of things. However, the style of music that I play, it is absolutely spot on and more then versatile enough.

Down the years, I owned probably about 30 different guitars from Gibson, Fender, Tokai, Greco, Jackson, Charvel, Kramer, Yamaha and this has got to be my alltime favourite and this is definately a complete keeper so nobody else will ever get their hands on it.

One thing that amazes me about this guitar is the amount of clarity it has both clean and particularly distorted. No matter how much distortion I throw at this guitar (right up to gain setting 10 on the Ultra Channel of my H&K - basically an over the top dual rectifier), this guitar retains it's clarity all of the time and each note is very, very clear and doesn't get fuzzy or lost in the mix.

The bridge pickup is very hot and has a very dirty overdrive so it's great for rock and roll but again retains all of the note clarity whereas the neck pickup has a a very thick singing voice and is great for a lot of my solos (a la Slash).

This guitar is absolutely faultless in the sound department and whilst I know that tone is highly subjective, based on the reviews I sometimes read here, I am sure some of the reviewers are absolutely clueless (I am sure I saw someone talking about running it through their 50 watt tranny amp) and wouldn't know a good tone if it bit them in the backside or even have any clue how to extract the sound they want out of their amps! This guitars sound is pretty much in the name , 'Les Paul Classic' and it does have a classic Les Paul sound for Rock and Blues.

The factory setup was suprisingly spot on as with most guitar factories, you hear nightmare stories of setups being miles off etc even on the most expensive of guitars. As a guitarist, I know what a precious bunch we are and as we spend such huge amounts of money we expect it's been lovingly cared for and treated like it's the only guitar in the factory. The fact is, it's made in a factory by people who probably hate the sight of guitars, have to set up 100's of guitars a day and get paid a pittance so it always makes me laugh when people get upset if it's not 100% to their liking. There will always be mistakes and the worker might not quite care as much as we do unsuprisingly.

I guess I got lucky on the one that I picked on setup, however, if I was picky on the finish, mine does have the very smallest amount of run in the lacquer right at the very where the neck meets the body and the bridge seems to have a very small amount of tarnishing which I am sure would polish out if I was bothered.

Apart from that, one can only stand back and admire the rest of quality workmanship as it is a very well put together guitar.

Well, it's a Gibson so I suspect that this will last a lifetime provided that it is well cared for. The nitro cellulose that Gibson use can be reapplid (by a professional of course) without the need for refinishing the guitar so no issues there and hardware is not that expensive so again can be replaced if required.

The strap buttons are so small it's ridiculous, however, the very first thing I did was to replace them with straplocks as it's a very heavy guitar and would undoubtedly crack if dropped. A small additional investment always pays dividends when you've just made such a large investment.

I am sure that I could 100% depend on this guitar, however, I always gig with a backup as there's nothing worse then seeing bands who don't and then the whole audience has to sit there and watch while the guitarist is changing a string. How very dull for them and how very poorly it reflects on you/the band.

Never had to deal with Gibson before although I think you get a years warranty.

I previously owned a Les Paul studio for 8 years and never had a single issue, so hopefully I will never need to contact Gibson.

I've been playing for about 15 years and currently also have a 1980 Greco Les Paul standard and a Tokai LS48. As before, I've owned about 30 guitars over the years I've been playing including Custom Shop guitars and sound wise this stands head and shoulders above them all.

When I bought this guitar, I tried lots of different Gibson's including a Les Paul Studio Plus, 2 different Les Paul standard's, a Les Paul Standard Faded, a Les Paul classic antique, and finally 3 Les Paul Cassics. In my opinion, the Classic was the best sounding of all of them and although all of the classics sounded close, this was the best sounding of them all and hence why I choose this one.

Whilst I would have loved my particular guitar to have had a flamed maple top I made my purchase where it count's with my EARS and not my eyes. This heritage cherry was the best sounding of all the ones I tried. It's still a beautiful guitar and heritage cherry is one of my favourite Les Paul colours so I'm not disappointed it would have just been a nice to have. Could have bought a fireburst classic with flamed top for a bit more but this sounded better so it was a no brainer.

If this guitar was stolen there would be murders if I ever caught the culprit but I would undoubtedly go out again and buy another one.

A 2001 LP Classic purchased new from shop in 2003. Honeyburst, nicely grained plain maple top and mahogany body--can't tell if it's a one piece or two piece body--I can't clearly see any seam and the grain pattern just might be from the same piece of wood. Mahogany 60s "slim taper" neck with rosewood board and either yellowed or puke-green tinted inlays depending on light. Kluson style 'green button' tuners. "Screamin' hot" ceramic humbuckers. Pretty much a Les Paul Standard with some mods. I would prefer different p-ups, inlays and tuners.

I don't like the stock pickups--too sterile and piercing to me. So I swapped them out for some Duncan Antiquities-->It now sounds FANTASTIC. A very 'vintage' tone-base which can deliver Jazz, Country, Rock-a-billy, Blues, R&B, Rock and Hard Rock very well, even metal with the right pedals. Unplugged, the guitar has gobs of lively resonance from the headstock to the body, projects well, and sustains great. No fret buzz and great action. I run it through the usual line-up of pedals:OD, DIST, Wah, Chorus, Delay, etc and it takes these extremely well.(For OD I use a $12.00 Arion Tubulator which has the same chip as a TS9, but has a flatter, more transparent EQ--i.e. not as much of a mid-range hump. Works great with any guitar I put through it-Strat or LP--For Distortion I use a Marshall Guvnor 2-which converts almost any amp into a Marshall grind machine--LP + Marshall=Classic). I run it through different amps-mostly small tube combos from the 60s through today and also through a mid-80s JC 120--sounds really good with all of them.
It sounds the best and has the most natural fit though with a '63-'65 Epiphone Galaxy all tube combo with a 1x10 Lil' Buddy Hemp Cone in it--That amp and this guitar just seem to complement each other--from clean to grind, they show off eachother's range, with tight and round bass, just the right amount of mids and sparkly and chimey highs--mmm,mmm,goood! and all of this with no tone control on the amp!--everything beside volume, reverb and tremolo controlled by the guitar--How cool is that?! Anyway, after the pickup swap I'd give this a 10 because it has exactly the type of tone I want from a Les Paul. But I'm gonna ding it some points for the stock pups because I don't like them and I really question their place on an ostensibly '60s 'reissue'.

Let's put it this way--I got the guitar from the shop for $1180.00. It hadn't sold and I think it was because the thing had fret buzz in it that adjusting neck relief and bridge height couldn't take away. Still, it felt to me like a keeper. The shop's guitar tech redressed the frets and recut the nut with awesome results! No fret buzz, excellent playability and great resonance like I said above. He did the finishing work on the guitar that should have been done at the factory--it's a ten now, but it SHOULD NEVER HAVE LEFT THE FACTORY LIKE THAT! PERIOD! But I'm pretty much a happy camper now. I did put strap locks on it immediately to replace the dinky things Gibson put on and I'm gonna swap out the tuners because they really don't keep the guitar in tune that well--especially the g string. Because of the way it came from the factory, I'm gonna ding them pretty good.

I can depend on everything on this guitar now except the tuners. I usually have a back up when playing live because strings break and stuff happens. Being a Gibson you HAVE TO WATCH THE NECK/HEADSTOCK! Don't drop that puppy or drive it into the ceiling!

Been playing many, many moons. I love this guitar, it's great, it has needed some mods--but stuff like pups are a matter of taste, some guys love the stock ones--not me. The tuner issue should be addressed by Gibson--they should put better ones on these. The inlays are also a matter of taste--I don't care for them. But really, I've loved this guitar since it was set up right. I would probably look for the best quality/best deal on a used Les Paul if I needed to--I would love a Custom -- real pearl inlay, ebony fretboard and the cool split diamond inlay on the headstock. I would NEVER pay the kind of money they're asking now for these '60 Classics--$2000.00 bucks??!! Are you NUTS?!?! I bought mine the year Gibson decided to raise the price twice--in the spring-summer they went from +/- $1399.00 to $1649.00 street price; and to cash in on the Christmas season they raised that to $1999.00--frickin' thieving bastards at Gibson anyway!!! I have to take all the above into consideration and give the guitar a 7, but since I love it so much now (9, one point off for the inlays and tuners), I'll give it an 8.

Cherryburst reissue with the 496 & 500T pups. Bought for very littel money, reworked it on the bench, resold it - but warned the buyer what he was getting. Nice grain and burst colors, but very a bssic solid body guitar. Heavy. Slinm neck feels nice at first but hard to finish a set without cramps.

Brittle, one-trick pups that no one would buy stand alone. A change of pups is a huge improvement. "Classic?" What, cheap ceramic pups are classic what? Classic rip-off.

I think Gibson owners have cornered the market on denial. Signature and historic Gibbys are one thing, but these revamped production models are pure buyer beware. Their owners lke to argue they own some uniquely voiced instrument and they are expert at coaxing great sounds out of them. Per crap. They could have done better for 20% of the money. This model is a poor design and poorly built.

Simply terrible. In this category the guitar was not as good as Agiles & SXs I've played; the fretwork, nutwork, and neck set showed little or no QC. A dog to play, humpy board, heavy, spent a day on the bench getting it to the point I could sell it with a stright face.

If you haven't bought one as yet, shop around. There are many older LPs out there and plenty of decent clones that will blow the doors of this model. I rant thinking about the young players who are counting pennies and don't know better and get saddled to one of these p.o.s. Gibson shoiuld know better, there's no excuse for this guitar, and calling it a classic is rediculous.

35 year toured player, who's gone through a music store of gear - and loved pretty much every minute of it.

1993 Classic Plus-Top in Heritage Cherry Sunburst.

Extremely light - 7 pounds.

Has an unusually nice woody resonance with good attack.
Stays in tune. Bridge pickup will need to be changed, bought it used.

Overall extremely pretty with book-matched evenly flamed western maple top, trans red back. 'Burst edge is red with no fading.
Fairly decent detail work, few little things got overlooked but overall quite rocking.
Obviously made with super light mahogany that would nowadays go into something far more expensive like an R9.
Light weight provides excellent sound and comfort for a Les Paul. Plays really easily.
Cool Nickel plate hardware has attractive patina.
Slim mahogany neck will flex a bit if you pull on the neck much while playing, which was a bug of mine as a Strat player. A slim mahog neck needs more rigidity.
However set up with .011 strings this light mahogany guitar with maple cap sparkles while keeping a warm sound, which is why I bought the instrument after it attracted me.

I would be careful of knocking any Les Paul headstock. And good mahogany will indent at the slightest little ding. Nothing unusual about that.

Told me the model designation.
No issues.

This guitar feels extremely good, like an old American guitar, and has real sonic character. It's a stunner, not the most extravagant top but it does have the Vintage appeal. I really wish it had a fatter neck but I won't regret owning it and it always makes me play music.
It's a player, not a sterile showpiece for a lawyer to put up in his office.
Seek out an 1990-1993 model for best build quality and materials, under nine pounds. Later production tends to be disappointing. And never buy before playing any Les Paul, they're so inconsistent.

This is a 2005 Les Paul Classic Gold Top made in the USA.
22 frets
It has an AA maple top painted traditional Gibson Gold Top gold.
It has a 3 way selector switch, 2 volume control knobs and 2 tone control knobs.
It has the 496r and the 500t. These are presently (as far as I know) the hottest passive pickups that Gibson put in their guitars. *Be Aware* if you don't have an amp that can handle these pickups you will probably thiink that their clean sound is terrible, but I will try to stick to the features and reserve my opinions for the overall rating at the end.
The body is mahogany and maple while the neck is mahogany and rosewood with yellowed "Perloid" fretboard inlays. Whatver the hell "Pearloid" is
Since this is a 60's style Les Paul, it has the Tune-O-Matic and the 60's thinner neck.
The frets are typical of the newer Gibsons in that the are high frets that kinda give you almost a scalloped feel, but more on that later.
It came with a Gibson hard shell case with kind of a reptile design molded into it for its texture.
It comes with a pick-guard that has "1960 embossed on it. Hmmph. Fortunatly, mine also came with a plain pick-guard also which I promptly installed and put away the other. The truss rod cover has "Classic" on it it and it also says Les Paul Classic printed on the head stock and has "Gibson" inlaid at the top. A bit redundant on the "Classic" for me so as for the features I will give it a nine. I also wish that it had the split Diamond design on the headstock that I am used to seeing, but oh well.

For me, I gre up loving a wide range of music. Punk and Bluegrass/Country have been very near and dear to me, so a guitar that can really punch the crunch is important, but if it can't play clean, well, that would suck. This can handle it all, but know this: these pickups are HOT. You will need to be somwhat learned in your sounds to get the clean tones out of this. If you have a solid state amp that is 50 watts or less, you are going to have troubles with the clean sounds. If you use a tube amp 50 watts or more ( and this is the minimum I would recommend) You should be able to get them.
This guitar will take some work to get the brites balanced to a warm fat sound. At first i was surprised and even a little concerned. But after using it with my stronger amps I was very very pleased. True to the Les Paul tradition, you can get the widest range of sound styles from this guitar, but if you play a lot of jazz or other fat warm clean sounds this may not be your best best as your only guitar.

The factory set up was pretty damn sweet. Playing it unplugged there was some buzzing, but it didn't really come through in the amp. Keep in mind this: the bridge saddle is straighter than the nut. If you have a Gibson approved luthier set it up and file the saddles, you will be very pleased. I tend to have a heavy right hand from all of my acoustic playing. And if you tend to have a heavy squeezing left hand you will have to have it set up for that or it will get pitchy. The frets are high and if you can control your left hand then you will be able to make this puppy sing.
There were no issues with the finish. Of course i wish that it had the binding on both the front AND back, but hey, what the hell. The finish is flawless. Gibson told me that the maple under the gold paint is a very high quality but since it is a Gold Top, I will have to take their word for it. The binding is thin in the inside of the cutaway showing the maple veneer on top. Intersting. But I am glad for that for some reason.

This is a solid guitar. No noise. It must weigh 8 pounds! as soon as you pick it up you know the feel and weight as a true Les Paul. It is a tank and I love it. I have to give this a 9 only because I havent had it for very long.

Ahh...now this is it isn't it? Gibson lovers have come to know that we can count on them to treat every one of us like we were Page or Slash or whoever. And they do. This is not nearly my first Gibson and they have never let me down, yet I have hardly need to call them. (But that didn't stop me. I wanted to know who made it, where when and everthing that they could tell me. In spite of my seemingly boring questions, they were there all the way)

Ok. Here is what i have to say. I have been playing since I was a child. I have made 4 albums in spit of music never being my full time career. For 15 years i have been palying a 69 Les Paul Gold Top ( that, by the way, has since been painted Lime Green Sunburst) which is not my guitar but belongs to a close friend that i have jammed with and recorded with for all of these albums. Using Mesa Boogie, Ampeg, Music Man, Marshall, Crate and Vox amps. My acoustic Gibson J-185, and my friends Rickenbacher electric have been wonderful. Over the years we have owned and used a number of instrument but my personal preference is Gibson. While this is not thet same guitar as the 69 Les Paul, it is every ounce as wonderful. The pickups on this Les Paul will definately throw some of you off. I have read other reviews not liking this guitar. I can only say that they have either received a bad by chance or they don't know how to adjust their sound. These hot pickups can be a challange for the less experienced for sure, especially if you are used to the traditional Les Pauls. Also the high frets can throw one off as well. To me the plus is that if you ever need them shaved down you have more to work with and less chance of needing a refretting down the road. But they are a bit more sensative. You may have learn to finess your fret hand, but hey, thats a good thing. Over all i love this guitar. After years of playing Les Pauls, one may be a bit thrown at first by some of these features, but in my opinion they add to the overall perfomance of this guitar. The neck is beautiful with the slighteset twist (which is completely normal and even a good thing.) It holds tune like a Les paul should. Forever it seems. The tones are even and beautiful. My old Modulus SPI custom 5 string has a graphite neck and is like one big sweet spot. This guitar is similar in that aspect. Once you get you sound figured out, for instance heavy distortion vs less vs clean vs kinda clean, you will know your knob settings. Setting them as you play woith afford you wonderful even sounds. This is not your grandfather or fathers Les Paul. Using a p.o.s amp will give you a p.o.s sound. If you are one of those that have purchased this and are not happy, i recommend that you take it to music stores and try different amps, make sure that you have had it set up to your playing style and if you still arent happy , call Gibson. Tis is a guitar i will pass on to my son or daughter when i pass on. It is built to last and last and sound like no other. I will give it a 9mostly because i really wish they had put the split diamond on the headstock instead of the "Les Paul Classic" decal under the finish on the headstock because any lettering on a guitar like this should be inlaid and because I have no idea what Pearloid is. But I'm finiky

2004 gold top 1960 re-issue. Regular gibson tuners, naked black pickups, hardshell case. I took off the pickguard and plasstic thing around the PU selector switch. It looks better, I think.

It sounded pretty good, but I replaced PUs with EMGs. They're brighter
and seem to have more definition thru my usual suspect Marshall TSL 100 combo. It doesn't seem to have as much sustain as it should. I mean, it's a GIBSON.....

Basically it plays like a brick. I don't know if this is because I am spoiled by my '78 Black Beauty (which is one of the best playing and sounding guitars I have ever seen, and this is always agreed by anyone who is fortunate enough to play it) or what, but I expected much, much better. The Gibson authorized repair service in my area said he didn't think the neck was any good. Sent back to Gibson, they claimed "It meets specs" Which it undoubtedly did....maybe they should change their specs because a barn board would meet those kind of specs. The frets are made of railroad track AND it needed a fret job upon purchase!!! It still needs one. One didn't help it. For an expensive 'quality' Gibson this plays terribly. The factory setup was laughable, but I bought it anyhow, thinking "It's a Gibson, I can set this up all nice-nice no problem" Well think again. I think Gibsons mass market approach has really hurt their quality. (My brother's new SG Standard had essentially the same problem. It's great now, but it took a lot to fix it.) The Gold Top's finish is very, very good and it is built very well except for this BS with the frets/neck. I play it anyway, maybe it will make my fingers even stronger....

You could probably run this over with a car, like most LPs. I dunno about the hardware, I changed all of it, except the green key tuners. I decided I like them and it stays in tune OK. Which reminds me I couldn't get the intonation quite right with the original bridge so I got a Tone Pros. No more problem. The strap buttons were, as a matter of course, replaced with Jim Dunlop Straploks (R). I can't believe everyone doesn't do that. As stated above the finish is outstanding....but I don't play the finish :) I don't hesitate to take this one to shows and leave the others home. I am not the slightest bit worried that it will break.

Gibson was friendly and willing to pay shipping. They did look at it and re-set it up, but in my opinion they should have replaced it. Period.

Overall, I guess if I didn't own the '78 Black Beauty I would think it was a great guitar. But having owned sevral Les Pauls that were absolutely outstanding, I expected a lot more from this one than I got. I do not think it was worth the 1500 dollars and I would happily pay as much for a used older Les Paul and actually get my money's worth. It is a good guitar, but not 1500 dollars good.

the only accurate 1960 reproduction on this guitar is the neck.
the 1960 lp has nickel pu covers, it did not have a cheesy "1960" writen on the pick guard and it didnt say classic on the truss cover.
no big deal.
i went with the gold top and changed the pick guard.

not an accurate reproduction however,i bought this guitar with my ears like any self respecting musician should.
this guitar sounds great anyone who says it doesnt is an idiot, this is not an opinion this is a fact. if you say this axe is not good for ANY style of music, you don't know what your doing and you dont understand tone and how to achieve it. sorry but maybe you guys should take up the flute.

this guitar was fine from the factory, but it needs 10's and then an intonation tune up. the finish "gold top" was quite nice.
i could do without the greenish tint on the inlay but i've gotten used to it and kind of like it now. other than that, i cant find anything wrong with it.

in twenty five years ive never had a problem with a new guitar, just call me lucky.

never dealt with them, but they would fix you up, its a gibson.

ive been playing for twenty five yrs, mostly blues rock.
if this guitar were lost i dont know if i would buy another one.
its not that i dont like it, its just that there are so many guitars out there i would check something els out probably.
so many guitars so little time.
get one you wont be disapointed!!