Gibson 1960 Les Paul Special Single Cutaway VOS

The stock version of this guitar is basically a "hybridized" (to use a polite term) version of a vintage Les Paul Special. Gibson stopped making single cut Les Paul Specials in 1958, and introduced a slimmer neck, the "rounded 1959 profile" the following year, when all they were making were double cut specials. Stock, the guitar has a '59 neck profile with a '58 body and a 1960 name. I guess some marketing genius is responsible for all that --- it kind of treads on the whole ???Vintage Original Spec??? moniker, que no? Mine is a special order with the fatter, early '50's rounded neck profile --- I wanted something as close as I could get to a 1957 Les Paul Special. (If you want a slightly slimmer neck, though, with P-90???s, the stock version of this guitar would probably suit you.) Other than that, it has all the other Custom Shop Les Paul Special reissue features: solid mahogany body and set neck (in standard TV Yellow VOS finish), rosewood fingerboard, cream binding, 2 soap bar P-90 pickups (black covers), CTS pots, Bumblebee caps, 3-position pickup switch, wrap-around (non-compensating) bridge / tailpiece, reissue Kluson button tuners (which work surprisingly well, see below), a plush Custom Shop hard-shell case, and all the ???case candy???. (After playing it for a few weeks, it occurred to me that the one thing I did not spec out between my retailer and the Custom Shop was whether to put the jumbo frets (which I think are standard on their reissues with the '59 profile neck, as they were on the vintage '59 Les Pauls) on the larger neck. (I suspect mine has the larger fret wire because my top E string is beat to hell --- pitted on the fret lines --- after only 2 ??? 3 hours of playing time.) The plek'd neck is, IMHO, one of the best things about the guitar (see below). I give the guitar an 8 on features. It's mostly all there, but I just think Gibson is dumb not to offer a reissue that is consistent with the '56, '57, and '58 single cut Specials, especially with something so fundamental as the neck profile. The other thing I don't get is why Gibson can't bring themselves to put better nuts on these guitars. I guess the originals were built with plastic nuts, but come on.

I play mostly blues and blues-rock. Currently playing through a Blues Junior hooked up to a repro Tremolux cab with 2 JBL K110's. In my younger days (30 years ago), I had an old LP Junior that had been modified into a Special with an additional pickup. Loved that guitar for its sustain, the fat crunch I got out of the original (bridge) P-90, and the creamy lead tones I got out of the neck pickup (a Firebird humbucker ---- I know, strange bedfellows). Extremely pleased with the VOS reissue in comparison. The neck P-90 is particularly good alone --- full and creamy. But, with the Blues Junior wound out only to about 4 on the volume control, I get great, ringing / wailing Duane Allman lead tones out of the guitar with the pickup selector switch in the middle position. (The sustain on the guitar is awesome --- lot's of great vibe even when not amplified.) The bridge P-90 has a little too much treble in it for my liking --- but I am still messing with the tone controls on both the amp and the guitar to put more mid into it alone. Both pickups clean up well at lower volumes but I need a more sophisticated amp set up to get the right combination of clean rhythm and ballsy lead tones. (I am a tube amp hard head, don't use any pedals, and will probably end up with some sort of dual head / head switching approach.) The other nice surprise with the P-90's is that, although the 60 cycle hum is there, it's barely noticeable --- no complaints from my band-mates!

Factory set up was outstanding. Action was low and, with the plek treatment to the nut and frets, extremely consistent and smooth up and down the fret board. If I had an initial criticism, it would be that the action felt somewhat "tight" at first. I had been playing on a cheap Epiphone LP knock-off until this thing arrived, set up with Ernie Ball "hybrid" Slinkys with a 9 top. Once I got rid of the Gibson "vintage" strings (they were junk) on the VOS and replaced them with Ernie Ball "regular" Slinkys, I had a hard time bending the top string because the action was so low. With a few weeks work with the guitar, though, I am bending (including bending to vibratos) much more comfortably and the additional tension in the heavier top strings seems to contribute even more to the consistency of the action. No fret buzz whatsoever. You have to wrap your strings carefully and correctly on the tuner posts, but the button tuners actually hold their tune pretty well. The guitar intonated ok with the stop tailpiece, but I sprung for and had my local luthier replace it with a Tonepros compensating stop tailpiece, and it really intonates very well now. Was going to replace the plastic nut at the same time but have decided that, because the action is so good as is, not to mess with it. I like the VOS finish a lot, although it's more of a wheat color than the really bright "TV Yellow" finishes you see on some LP Specials / Juniors. The only thing I noticed early on is that this film would build up on my left hand from the back of the neck after about 20 minutes of playing, but that seems to have disappeared. There are some minor finish blemishes but I don't know if that is part of the VOS deal or quality issues at the Custom Shop. Overall, though, both the body and the neck are beautiful pieces of mahogany and I love the way the grain shows through the finish. The neck is huge and I love it. Was concerned that, with the extra $$ I paid for the special order, Gibson would inadvertently stick a '59 profile neck on there anyway, but they really did put a "baseball bat" on my guitar.

I plan to gig with this thing and don't foresee any reliability issues. It appears Gibson's Custom Shop has done a good job addressing some of the QA issues they might have had in years past.

Lifetime "Gold" Warranty - no issues yet. Got frustrated with the whole "special order" process with the Custom Shop. Went through an online retailer, and knew that I was going to have to wait several months to get the guitar and that the ETA might slip. It ended up arriving 2+ months later than scheduled, but that's not what bothered me. What bugged me was that between the retailer and the Custom Shop, no one could figure out --- without a lot of legwork done by my account rep at the online retailer --- where the guitar was in the production process and why it was late. For all I knew, at least until a few weeks before I actually received the guitar, the Custom Shop had not even started on it yet! So a word to the wise before you plunge into something like this yourself --- make sure the retailer is committed and able to communicate with you --- i.e., has a process in place to get timely information not just out of Gibson, but the Custom Shop specifically. Gibson Customer Service did jump in late in the process and volunteered to help, but it was shortly after that that I got notice from the retailer that they had the guitar in hand, and it showed up a my house a few days later.

Played for about 12 years in a former life, picking it back up after a 30-year hiatus. Don't own any other gear at this point. Wanted to start back, though, with a quality axe and am happy with what I received from Gibson. (Next investments are probably a '57 LP Junior or '58 LP Standard VOS reissue.) I???ve had the guitar about 9 months and love it. If it were lost or stolen, I would probably opt for the '58 VOS Les Paul reissue --- about the same money as I paid for my special order, but it's something that I could lay my hands on quickly. That guitar has the early 50's rounded neck profile, sacrificing the P-90's in favor of Burstbuckers. But I just can't imagine waiting 8 plus months to get a special order replacement for my guitar. If I had the scratch, I'd order a second one now as a backup. It???d still cheaper than shelling out 10 - 20k plus for an original. I really love the neck, sustain, and overall tone of the guitar. It's also pretty light --- I have not weighed it yet, but I'd guess it's in the 6 - 7 pound range. Really, the only guitars I compared it to were original 56, 57, and 58 single cut Les Paul Specials. At the price they are going for these days, and given that I bought this as a "player," the reissue route seemed to make sense. There are some amazingly debauched Les Paul Juniors that pass through ebay, and after a lot of work one of those could serve the same purpose, but "a lot of work" also means a lot of money.