Gibson '68 Les Paul Custom

mines a late 68 early 69 les paul custom, mohogony neck and body, maple cap, refretted with jumbo frets, gotoh bridge/tail piece, grover tuning pegs, stock neck pickup with removed cover/ duncan antiquity bridge, stock 3 way switch, 2 vol (one replaced) 2 tone, has deep chunky neck but narrow fret board. black, kinda beat. 22 fret.

sound huge, it had a different duncan bridge pick up before that i hated, i could barely play it. but then i put in the antiquity i was going to use in a different guitar and wow. i love this guitar. took awhile to get used to the narrow fret board, but its fast. i play every style and this guitar exels at most.... for me. i use a 67 50w plexi, mesa triple and f-30(el-84's), fender silver face pro and twin reverb amps. the duncan antiquity is really bright (not wax potted) and hotter than the other one i have. it alone makes me love this guitars sound, and increases the versatility.

i had to play with this guitar alot before it became a regular player(now its the only one). the bridge was brand new and sharp, cut strings and was on backwards! the intonation was re done for 11s and the action was raised,helping straighten the neck and eliminating buzz. the awfull bridge pick up was removed and replaced with a duncan antiquity. the pick ups were adjusted to the curve off the strings so the pole pieces do the/\/\/\ thing. sound amazing and has taken 40 years off serious use/abuse so its built like a tank except stronger

indusructable! looks like it was toured with.... and like they dragged it behind the van too save space. paint is chipped and dented to hell and the neck is half wood from play wear, lotsa hard ware was replaced and i heard they were kinda crappy bridges and tail pieces from gibson in those years. 40 years old and its still solid as ever so id trust it live and every where else

donno dont think theyd really warranty a 40 year old thing... gibsons changed hands multiple times since then...

ive owned and played lots of vintage and high end gear, played for 18 years now... also own plexi, mesa's, some fender, silvertone, pignose tube works amps(all my amps are all tube). i mostly play gibsons guitars but have played some sweet fender and ibanez guitars aswell. i love this guitar and would die if something happened to it, although some would be thief would probly steal my shiny standard copy and mesa and leave my beat plexi and paul alone! it took me awhile to adjust to this guitar and get everything the way i wanted but now i cant put it down and cant think off any other guitar id want more.

Mine is a Tri-burst with gold hardware. I installed strap locks and changed out the 350k pots for 500k ones and Hoviland capacitors (from Specialtyguitars.com), which brightened up (and cleared up) the sound considerably. I think Gibson should use 500k pots and the old-style wiring so their guitars don't sound muddy. Who cares if you lose the output of both pickups if you turn one all the way down when using the middle position? It doesn't bother me at all. (BTW, this has the shorter-shaft pots, not the long modern ones. I ordered the long ones and had to exchange them.) The chambered body lightens the weight a bit, which is a good thing for me.

Even stock, this guitar sounded wonderful. Very thick and creamy, good for every style and role of electric guitar. But after changing to 500k volume and tone pots, and adding new capacitors, the guitar sounds even better. There's a trade-off, if you want to call it that, when you change the pots. Because it clears up the sound, it can't as easily get that ultra-thick, dark tone as it did with 350k pots. But the guitar sounds better and is more versatile, imo, with the change. Sustain, sonority, character, this guitar has all the best sound characteristics. This model has the thinner, tapered neck, which I like.

Mine came with a nice setup, though I've changed it around. The high E string is always too low for some reason, and it twanks out (loses resonance) quicker than the other strings. I have to take it in to an expert to set it up correctly. I use Lizard Spit slick Nuts lubricant to keep the strings from binding at the nut. I think the slots are a bit tight, or aren't smooth. The nut's plastic anyway, so I'll change that out too. I've had the guitar for about 3 months and have adjusted to the Les Paul feel again (I haven't owned one in a while). The finish WAS quite beautiful until I knocked a hole in the top when changing out the pots, and bashed a corner somehow without knowing it, too. I'm going to investigate the Buzz Feiten tuning system, as I would really like to improve the intonation.

Les Pauls make good weapons against unruly crowds, but they're heavy and hard to wield for non-giants. If you don't use it for a club (as in the kind of club you swing at people) it should be very reliable.

No experience.

I've never really liked Les Pauls until I got this one. I've found them to be muddy, and a little clunky, esp. compared to a Strat, not to mention over-priced, so I've avoided them. I had a 1960 reissue that was good for leads, but too muddy for rhythm. This one's great for everything, esp. with the 500k pots (have I mentioned that makes an improvement??;-) I play mostly classic-rock style original songs, and have confined my playing to the project studio. I do not gig--never have. I'm a mediocre player whose played off and on for a long time. I've owned a lot of good guitars, but right now my only other electric is a Gretsch County Classic II, which I also like a lot. I like these two guitars about equally. The Gretsch is a little more 'Rock-a-billy' and twangy (yet still full), whereas the LP sounds huge and solid.

This is a review for (2) 68 reissues, made in the USA / Custom shop guitars... I was so impressed with the tone and feel of the first one, I snagged a second one (one is black and one is cherryburst) ....you guys already know the rest... no frills, so lets get on with it and talk about some solid, big beefy tone.

Pretty much amazing !! Fat, warm and aggressive. Great for Hard Rock, Rock, Soft Rock, Blues Rock, Blues, Jazz, Pop .... you name it. This guitar sounds good through ANY amp from a Soldano SLO to a Marshall Metalface (never found a plexi to try it through. The 02 blackie came with burstbuckers and my 04 burst came with classic 57s. I really like the BBs, but hate the classic 57s, so I swapped them out for a set of Duncan Antiquities !! THAT is a great set of pick ups !! Even with the crappy 57s, the guitar was so good sounding, I'll give it a 10 ! !

Both guitars were bought off ebay. I've owned a couple dozen Gibsons over the years and only had one crappy acoustic (factory 2nd) .... so I am pretty confident buying sight unseen.

Both guitars play like a dream! Absolute impeccable fit and finish. The intonation was spot on, paint and binding are steller, neck and frets are just perfect! The strings are just so low that they should buzz, but they don't. Acoustic sustain is excellent.... maybe just a tad better on the black 68 RI. I love the fat chunky necks and the smooth feel of the ebony! Customs for some reason seem to sound beefier than all the other Les Paul models for some reason...... I have noticed this through the years and through many guitar comparisons. These long neck tenon, high end wood, handbuilt Customshop products are a step better yet!

The only gripe I have is that the 68 Les Paul came with gold hardware, not silver..... Gibson should have maybe figured that out when they reissued this thing. That and those cheesy bumblebee caps...... just give us the real thing or a generic please, don't play make believe with us.

These are BOTH light weight for a non weight relieved LP. The Black 68 is 9.8 lbs, the Burst is 8.8 lbs.

No problems. Even with weather changing, the necks are rock solid, while my Strat and Ernie Ball is all over the place.

Never had to call Gibson and doubt I will ever have to.

I've been playing for 26 years. These are my #4 and #5 Les Pauls. I once owned 1977 13 pound LP custom and an 1984 12.5 pound custom (both non weight relieved of course), so it is a pleasure to play lighter guitars for a change. I have 2 Gibson flying Vs and 2 SGs that are regular production guitars, and all of them are of excellent quality too. I see either a lot of Gibson envy going on, or the move to have mass chains sell Gibson guitars is a mistake since there obviously is not as much assistance with handling and setup, whatever the case, all of mine have been great looking and playing guitars. I am very, very pleased with both of these Les Pauls in particular.... even though they are over priced (retail).

If stolen, I would go buy a Jackson, track down the thief and stab him in the head.

What else can be said? Obviously this legendary beast has two humbuckers, weighs a ton and a half, and isn't very easy to play until you get used to it. If you like "shredder" guitars like Ibanez and their bretheren or have a PRS with the "wide thin" neck than boy howdy are you gonna hate a 'Paul Custom. I myself have pretty small hands and do quite alright with this monstrosity, and I find that not trying to play down by my knees and maintaining proper posture really help a lot in dealing with the weight of this guitar. It's all about mind over matter, baby... The five for features isn't that the features suck, it's just because they're average.

This gets a little tricky and is of course highly subjective, so take what I say with a grain of salt. First and formost, this is my second Custom and I've been playing for about 17 years. I've pretty much had one of everything in that time and I've returned to Gibsons (I also have a sweet SG) because they're my favorites. My 'Paul is an early 90's model that I traded a GORGEOUS PRS McCarty for. It was originally a sunburst (and a GHASTLY one at that, my old roommate dubbed it the "clown vomit" guitar) that I had refinished black. The overall finish looks good, although I think the ass-jack that did the job ignored my request for cellulose and stuck me with polyeurathane finish (trust me, there's a HUGE difference between them)and also just sprayed the new finish right over the old one, which has made the tone of my baby noticibly darker, although it still sounds great. The stock pickups (498 T and 490 R)are pretty smooth, all things considered, and I really like the overall tone of this axe, but I'm probably gonna try some Rio Grandes to kick up the juice a little bit and get that ZZ Top meets Thin Lizzy tone that I wanted this guitar for in the first place. One more tonal consideration is my amp (a Bogner Shiva that just SMOKES) hasn't had a tube change since I bought it over four years ago, which could definitely account for the murkiness. Whatever causes it, I actually love how dark she sounds and prefer it to the bridge pickup (a Burstbucker) on my SG. All I really need to do to remedy the situation is turn my mids up a little and we're good to go.

Again, this is highly subjective. I really hated the way it played at first and traded it for my PRS just to get rid of the thing, because anyone who lives in Austin, Texas knows you don't take the stage with a PRS unless you're a) in a shitty Nu Metal band and b)willing to get laughed at. Vanity aside, I didn't really dig the tone of the McCarty. Beautiful, beautiful guitar, no soul. Enter the Gibson: Flawed, yes, needs to be broken in, but now that I'm there I'm really happy I toughed it out. The Gibson just looks cool, the baseball bat neck is super comfy (once I got used to it) and the tone of this guitar is the real deal.

Seems solid, I've been playing Blackie O. (that's her name) for a while now and aside from wanting to swap pickups I've had nothing but good times with her.

Never had to deal with Gibson.

Either you 'em or you don't. I'd rather have a kick ass Gibson that's got it's short comings than have a "perfect" guitar like a PRS. Perfect is sterile and boring. I've had countless Gibsons and 3 different PRS models, and I gotta give it to Gibson. They might not have perfect finishes and factory set-ups, but for some reason they just always sound better to my ears. Bottom line, play as many 'Pauls as you can before commiting to buying one because, yes, they really do have a ridiculous quality variation. One man's dream guitar is another's piece of crap. Thanks for reading...

I'm no guitar expert but I would think it was made in 68'. It has two pickups and two knobs that correspond to each one. One knob is for the volume and the other is for the tone I believe. I believe the wood is mahagony, it's a very heavy guitar. It looks pretty cool too, tho I rarely notice the aesthetics.

This my favortie guitar, I love how it sounds. It sustains notes very well which might be do to the heavier wood, I don't know. The top bridge is good for playing clean sounding stuff like led zeppelin's babe im going to leave you. It sounds great. The bottom pickup has more treble to it and with a distortion pedal can play metal/powerchords that have a crunch.

Everything is fine and dandy. It has a cool mother of pearl inlay on the fretboard and the head. It's black with a gold burst. As far as I can tell there is nothing wrong with it. I did adjust the pickups up and down to get the best sound out of it.

This guitar is not actually mine, but I've had it for at least 3 years now. It feels like I've developed a feel for it. The feel in general is very "soft". I had a stratocastor before this and it was hard to play and noisy. This is much easier to play, sounds better, looks better but is heavier. I've been thinking about replacing the neck pickup with an evolution and the bridge with an invader, but it sounds fine without it. This guitar sounds great with a Metal Zone pedal.

This has the features of a standard Les Paul with two pickups. It's a custom shop with gold hardware and a buterscotch finish.

I'm your basic blues and rock player and love the warm sound of the humbuckers. I've always been a Fender guy (since about 1965) and this was my first and only Gibson. I hadn't even plugged a Les Paul in until about three years ago. I bought this one new in 2002. The only reason I wouldn't give this a ten is because the neck pickup is way hotter than the bridge pickup. The shop suggested I swap then around but I like the sound of the neck pickup too much to risk that. At some point I will probably look to get an even hotter replacement for the bridge.

This guitar looks great at a distance but it amazes me how bad Gibson puts their instruments together. I've got a custom shop guitar costing around $2,500 but the fit and finish is vastly inferior to most $500 Japanese and Korean guitars. Look closely at ALL Gibsons, I have and I find it hard to come across a single one that has the fit and finish you should expect on a high priced instrument. On mine, the stain has bled onto the cream binding, the points on the split diamond headstock inlay have filler to "hide" where the routing started or ended, and the body binding has uneven areas (small dents) where it clearly was not sanded smooth. I've seen a couple of other LP's where the side of the body overhung the binding by at least one sixteenth of an inch. If I hadn't wanted the LP sound there is no way I would have bought this instrument at this price or probably any other price.

When I tried it in the store, the bridge pickup was not working but they guys at Mandolin Brothers (Great store and great people on Staten Island)fixed in within a few minutes. Other than that, this thing is as solid as a rock.

I called them to complain of their instruments poor finishes and they gave me the necessary lip service. I didn't expect them to do anything, I just needed to vent. They said the stain bleeding onto the binding was to emulate the way the original '68 was built. Yeh, right!

I've been playing for 40 years. Mainly bass in bands buy guitar for my amusement. Ignoring the basses, I have a 40th aniversary Strat, this Les Paul and a Taylor 814 with no electronics or cut away. I run the Les Paul through an Ampeg VL503 and rarely use any effects. It's a Les Paul with the Les Paul feel and sound and I generally love. It is such a shame that a custom shop instrument is not better finished. Would I replace it? Absolutely.

My guitar is an early 1968 example, with a mahagony body with maple top. Black, gold hardware (altough hardly any gold is left, 35 years old...), two humbuckers. Some of the hardware was replaced, but the main parts are still original like the pickups, bridge and tailpiece. At the moment I am restoring the guitar and replacing all the non original parts with Gibson replacement parts.

This is a great sounding guitar. Very loud en sings beautifully when overdriven. I specially like the combination of the two pickups when played clean, very bright and rich. The neck pickup is warm and can provide a very jazzy tone. The bridge pickup alone is quite harsh clean but unbeatable with distortion. I also own a Les Paul standard with Seymour Duncan PAF's which sounds much less aggresive.

My guitar is what you could call a "fretless wonder". The frets are so incredibly low that you hardly feel any resistance. (At the moment they are even a bit too low and it needs a refret.) But the neck feels completely different from a LP Standard or any other guitar available now, which is a great thing to my opinion. The quality of the finish is very good, no cracks or anything. Unfortunately the previous owner has not treated the guitar too nicely and therefore it has numerous damages in the finish. Almost all the gold plating of the hardware has disappeared but I don't like gold anyway....

I bought this guitar 10 years ago. It did not look too well because of the rough handling by its former owners. Technically it is still a great guitar wich never lets you down. For example I never have to tune this guitar. The neck is perfectly straight and the electrics are still original and reliable. At the moment the tune'o'matic needs replacement because it is not straight anymore, so the action can not be set too low at the moment. But I guess that when I restore the guitar now it will last a lifetime.

I haven't dealt with them, although I must say that Gibson charges rediculous prices for their replacement parts. ? 250(=$250) for a gold-plated aluminium tailiece !!???. The good thing is that you can order parts of guitars they don't manufacture anymore.

I have been playing guitar for 22 years now. I love this guitar with its "fretless" neck. If it were stolen I would try to find another one, but that might be difficult. Gibson only made 460 of them in 1968 and after that they made some changes to the design which I'm not too convinced of.

pretty sraight really except for the few mods i added....

got this axe passed on from my uncle who has bad arthritis in his joints. not really my kind of axe, bit heavy and thick (im 17) and old fashioned i lke thin axes like ibanez.
i use it with my peavey rage and i only have 1 pedal so far (DOD metal pedal, cant remember)
sounds really muddy and thick when i turn up the gain on my amp - i like to modify things so i had a bag of my uncles old gear and he had a single pickup from a telecaster in there i think.
i got a hole routed in there and installed it in between the 2 big chrome gibson pickups and i also painted it black because the wood grainy look is not for me. black looks like you play heavier metal. i think the new pickup is good, a thin sound like metal.i dont use the other pickups, they are old and muddy sounding?
it hasnt got a case at the moment cos my brother is using it for his axe and hes away.

the neck seems really thick and awkward and wide. i dont like the chromey look of the parts. it looks old and weird. but it was free!
my brothers old ibanez has a floyd rose on it, im going to put that on cos i like to dive bomb. i think its unique cos ive made it look the way i want to.

ive dropped it once (on carpet )cos its so heavy
just a little chip in the white strip around the edging

i use it cos it was free and its meant to be good.
i will probably go for some thing lighter and more modern in a couple of years but this will do for now

Made in Gibson's Custom Shop in 2000 (Low serial Number).
Mine has the Triburst finish with awesome flame. The binding is an off cream color and it's outstanding, it adds kind of a vintage look to it. '57 Hambuckers, Gibson Custom/Historic black case included.

This guitar can handle just about any sound. It rocks when distorted and it's very mellow when clean. The neck pickup is fat and it's perfect for blues. The bridge pickup has great sustain, not too bright, just perfect.

This is the one feature to consider! These models are EXTREMELY heavy and the necks are like a BASEBALL BAT cut in half. This is exactly why
I bought it. I am a big guy and I need volume! I recommend trying one
out before you go out and order one. This guitar is NOT for everyone.

Considering it's a Gibson, it weighs as much as a tank and feels like one too; I think this guitar could last forever. However the gold hardware will not. Gold hardware tends to fade with time, you must
remember to wipe it down EVERYTIME you are done playing. I personally prefer gold so this is OK with me.

Never had to deal with them.

I have been playing for 13 years, and Les Pauls are my weapon of choice. I recently ordered a second one directly from the custom shop,
the wait is 60 days, but it's well worth it.

Made in the Custom, Art, Historic shop. 2000.
Standard Les Paul Features. 3 way P/U selector 2 Volume 2 tone for 2 '57 pickups. Cherry Sunburst with nicely flamed top. Ebony fret board with abalone inlays. Gold hardware, Grover tuners. Fat neck. Came with Custom Shop Case. (Black, with Logo)

Great sound, everything you would expect from a Les Pual. The pick ups, I'm still getting used to. I thought I wanted hotter pickups, but now, after playing these '57's for a while, I'm not sure. Neck pickup sounds very warm and very fat. Bridge pickup has more of an edge on it. So far, I can get a good range of sounds out of it. Not really the twang of a single coil, but then again, that's not what I got it for. I can't say enough about the neck. It's the greatest part of the guitar. The weight of the thing takes some getting used to, but it sounds great.

The guitar was hanging in the shop for a while I think based on the amount of dust that was on it. The dealer cleaned it up and did a good set up on it. After playing it for 3 day's there started ot be a nasty fret buzz on a single fret. Took it back to the shop and they dressed a few frets and now it plays very very well. I'm a little disapointed that a fret dress needed be done on a "hand made" guitar, but I like the action very low, so maybe it's not that big of a deal.

Seems to be built very solid. It sure is heavy.
The fret dress what a little disapointing, on a high end guitar.

Haven't really talked to them yet.

I've been playing for about 14 years and so far this is the best guitar I've every had overall. It's got that quality that I can't really explain. It just feels great in my hands. The neck is silky and fluid.