Gibson Les Paul Classic Antique

I bought this guitar in Wichita Kansas from an outstanding guitar shop, EM Shorts. Incredibly talented staff with great customer service. Mine is a 2007 Vintage Sunburst (two-tone)w/57 classics; incredible finish and detail with classic vintage look. I played every guitar in the store and was torn between the Les Paul Standard, the '61 SG and the heritage model. This guitar can do everything the others can and it plays much better.

Great for classic rock and a early Brit rock/metal. I play through a Fender Super-Reverb re-issue with an analogue man Bi-Comprossor compression pedal and an analogue man TS-808 Silver mod. Incredible range of sounds and can get classic Ozzie to G&R to Lynrd Skynyrd and Allman Brothers. The clean tones in the bridge or neck can get you any sound you cannot attain with a strat, which is what I normally play. (I have an EJ Strat and an American Deluxe w/humbuckers). Roll the treble downa bit on the bridge PU and it sounds amazing. The bridge is a little less hot so I have to compensate by maxining he overdrive pedal. The neck PU is great for blues/classic rock to G&R.

I give Gibson a 7 for their quality control. After it's been worked on I give the guitar a 9. The guitar came with some uneven frets originally causing some buzz but the talented luthiers at EM Shorts analyzed and fixed it within a day. They always prioritize warranty work and really stand behind their products. The "G" string comes out of tune more frequently than any other guitar I've owned but I anticipate it now after a few minutes of playing. I haven't taken it in because it is so minor.
Finish is incredible - no flaws. Make sure you buy from a quality place with great service to make up for some of the sloppiness by Gibson. My strats have never had any of these problems - not even my Standard tele.

I can depend on this guitar to always perform. This is the one I always leave out of the case becasue of its versatility to play just about everything. I don't worry about the finish since it's a low-luster - it always looks great.

Never dealt with Gibson because the guys at EM Shorts were so great. Got the frets leveled and dressed immediately when it developed a buzz within two weeks of buying it.

I've been playing about 20 years but only started playing again regularly in the last 7. If this guitar were lost or stolen I would definitely by another one but never online. I would make sure to play it first because the neck to me on these guitars is what makes them so great. I prefer the thinner 60s neck and the reduced weight. If you are a strat player looking for the classic LP sound to complement your music - in my opinion you cannot find a better guitar than this especially for the money. I find myself reaching for this guitar more than my strats these days.

This is your typical Les Paul by Gibson -- 2 Humbucking Pickups (Classic 57s), 2 vol and 2 tone controls, 22 frets.
This model is chambered so it's not too heavy. I have a 2008 model in honeyburst, and it's real nice looking. I'm giving it a 9 on features, because it has all you need, really, but I can't say it has "tons of features".

This guitar does sound great. I should say that first of all, I thought it sounded pretty bad but I had it set up professionally, and they worked on the intonation and that helped a ton. It stays in tune better and sounds like a brand new guitar. The Classic 57's, while not the hottest that Gibson makes, seem to be pretty nasty! I can tell a difference between them and other pickups, because if I have a moderately clean sound on an amp, these pickups push it over the edge to a little dirtier sound.

So, this is where I'm not totally in love. The finish is nice, overall. I like the honeyburst. The top is good looking. I don't care for the binding. They have tried to age it and make it look "antique", and it just doesnt' quite do it for me. Is it a deal breaker? No. But if I could have it differently, I would. It comes without a pickguard put on, but they included one, and frankly, this model looks better without. The tuners are the Kluson type, which I am not crazy about, but they work. I sort of wish Gibson would just use Grovers.

My original guitar came with a messed up nut: the D string would slip out of the nut when bent. My replacement model works fine, and believe me, I tested it thoroughly.

The action is fine. I haven't had an issue with it.

Just like any other USA Gibson, this one is in it for the long haul. I think it will stick around long enough to be a true antique. Everything appears to be Gibson stock, and I don't believe you can go wrong with that.

Gibson was pretty helpful with my first LP antique. As I mentioned earlier, there was a problem with the nut where the D string would slip out of the nut when bent, or even when you would bend the G string. I called them, they referred me to a local Gibson dealer who might be able to fix it. They weren't able to fix it, so I called the company I bought it from and they sent me a replacement even before I sent the old one back! But it all started with a call to Gibson, and they were pretty helpful.

I have played off and on for about 18 years. I'm a hobbyist who plays for huge, live audiences in my head, and sometimes I play at church. I know what I like, and I have grown to love Les Pauls. I have had a few "heros" who have used Les Pauls, and this turned me on to them, and now I own 5 Epiphone Les Pauls and 2 Gibson LPs. This is my first "real" Gibson LP, but I have played others in the past.
This is a true Gibson LP. It feels right, it plays nice, it looks good. This is your iconic, quintessentail rock guitar. It is the best I own, but not necessarily my favorite.

Having said this, if it were lost or stolen, I would probably just shell out another couple hundred bucks or so and get an LP Standard. Nothing against this guitar, but they're not called Standards for nothing.
But this is a good guitar, and I wouldn't discourage anyone from buying one.

For the european axe mates, I would like to post in french for a change...

Cette gratte poss??de toutes les caract??ristiques d'une ancienne LP: tout acajou extra clair (devient introuvable), ce corps est chambr??, 22 cases, table en ??rable avec binding sublimissime en Honeyburst, 2 mic 57's non couverts, un manche 60 plus fin et tr??s bien fini avec un binding de t??te, des m??caniques gibson tulipe vintage.

Alors l?? y a pas photo, c'est du gibson pur jus, cr??meux ?? souhait au travers d'un bon ampli ?? lampe fender, et nerveux sur un bon vieux marshall. Quelle bonne id??e d'avoir remplc?? les mic. c??ramique de la s??rie classique par ces 57 fabuleux. l'??quilibre des deux sons est parfait pour le rock blues, et peut aller jusqu'au m??tal non digital.
Sur un pod c'est le nirvana...

Parfaitement r??gl??e en action, justesse, courbure, hauteur micros. RAS. Parfait

Cette gratte ne risque rien que le passage du temps. Ma vielle SG de 1967 me prouve depuis longtemps la classe de ces instruments. Sera encore plus belle avec quelques pets!

Je ne sais pas

C'est une tr??s tr??s bonne Les Paul, fid??le ?? l'esprit de que l'on s'en fait, et avec un son respecteux de la l??gende. Cette guitare est tout simplement fabuleuse et indispensable. Le cours de l'euro nous la rends plus accessible

I won't restate what everyone else has - '57 classic humbuckers, etc.

This guitar DOES have a chambered body, which is great for weight relief and added sustain/resonance.

The strap nuts are tiny! I've put strap-locks on simply because a real easy way to devalue your Gibson is to drop it and snap the headstock because the strap came loose.

Also, the nut at the headstock (I don't know the technical term) is made of plastic. For shame! For a guitar this expensive, some sort of bone is called for. The plastic makes the strings grip more, making tuning unreliable - a soft lead pencil helps this quite a bit, but still ... you should not have to resort to a soft lead pencil to get smooth tuning on an upscale guitar.

Otherwise, all is good!

The sound will depend very heavily, of course, on your amp and effects.

I am running mine through a Fender BluesDeluxe Reissue, which is very heavy on trebble. It runs through an MXR SuperComp, and I interchange a Boss BD-2 Blues Driver and an MXR Distortion+ for distortion.

Playing classic rock like Led Zeppelin sounds amazing on this guitar - the '57 pickups really shine on this. I also play Alt Country (ie. Ryan Adams), and it works very well for that as well - with the settings right, it can get a sound similar (but NOT the same) as my rhythm guitarist's '73 Gibson ES355 - the sounds complement each other very well. My band jams on the blues quite a bit, and again this guitar works perfectly for it. The lead pickup is incredible for distorted leads and riffs, and the clean has a very bright but smooth tone with both pickups on or simply the rhythm pickup.

VERY good dynamic response - the guitar really picks up delicate playing.

My roommate is a metalhead, and to both of us, it sounded good when he cranked the gain and shredded it through his 100w Randell, but that is definately not what this guitar was designed for. He uses a Jackson V something or other - I like mine better.

For me, I have trouble containing the high end, but a lot of tweaking on your amp will eventually solve that. Not huge sustain, but a compressor/sustainer will take care of that easily.

Put simply - this guitar sounds amazing. It really has that classic tone and response to it, but believe me, it take a lot of tweaking. I've been playing mine for several hours daily for about five months now, and I am still tweaking - it is very sensitive.

The action is very good. The factory set-up is highly sub-par, but a trip to the local luthier will take care of that. Set properly, it is like playing butter. Smooth as any other gibson.

Pickup height had to be adjusted, but such is life. For some reason, the factory setup is never anywhere near full potential.

The finish looks nice, but wears easily. Although I have been playing with my band several hours daily, but there is significant belt-brash on the back - I have paid good attention to always have my shirt over my belt and I never wear a sharp or pointy buckle, so that seems unavoidable.

Otherwise, all good. Great action, nice looking finish, beautiful fit. I've heard complaints about the wiring, in particularly the user below me. I don't know much about that, but it seems like something that a prospective buyer should research.

I do not gig with a backup, and I do gig regularly. As mentioned, this guitar gets an average of three hours a day. Aside from the finish showing signs of wear (a few scratches from the pick, substantial belt-brash on the back), everything is still solid.

As mentioned in the features section, GET STRAPLOCKS! For the love of God and all that is holy, do not put a chunk in your body or lose your headstock because you were too cheap to put $20 straplocks on a $2000 guitar - the strap-nuts are tiny and completely unreliable.

Never had to deal with Gibson, have had all work done locally.

I give this guitar an eight. It is ALMOST perfect, but things like the plastic nut, small strap pegs and the easy to scratch finish bring this guitar down. With a couple of adjustments, I love this guitar - it sounds amazing, plays like a charm and still looks beautiful. However, for the amount of money spent, I feel like I should not have to worry about replacing the nut, the strap pegs being too small and the finish should have a little more durability.

Additionally, if the wiring is in fact cheap, then Gibson really should have done a little better.

Would I buy one again if lost, stolen or damaged? Probably, but for blues, country and classic rock, I might also save and replace it with a Gibson ES 335-355. It's a damn good guitar, and will have great resale value when/if I sell it, but I feel like if you're only going for sound and action, you'd get a better value getting an LTD Les Paul Deluxe and putting Gibson '57 Classic pickups in it - they stock Seymore Duncans are much worse than the Gibsons. Basically, I'd likely buy another one, but I would definately think twice.

2008 USA Classic Antique in honey burst finish. Mahogany back and neck, flame maple top, rosewood fingerboard, mother-of-pearl trapezoid inlays, cream binding and trim. '57 Classic pickups, nitrocellulose lacquer finish, plastic nut, vintage "Gibson Deluxe" Kluson-type tuning keys, thin '60's neck, hard case. All other features are standard US Gibson spec. A great looking guitar with the features you would expect.

This model has internal chambering to lighten the weight and increase acoustics, and it works. However, the chambers make it feedback sensitive. I have another Les Paul that is identical in construction (including wires, keys, etc.) except for the chambering, and it does not sit on the verge of feeding back. Playing through a Mesa Road King combo and 4x10 cab with V-30's, I have to be real careful about feeding back, regardless of volume levels. It's livable, though, and worth the trade off for such a nice sound. Otherwise I'd give sound a 10.

Decent 'one size fits all' factory setup. The wiring is ridiculously cheap, and deplorable for a $2000 US made Gibson. In fact, the stock wiring on my Korean Epiphone is better. I gutted all of the wiring and installed proper-gauge vintage cloth-covered wires, vintage Sprague bumblebee caps, Sprague volume mods, and shielded all the cavaties with copper foil.
Nobody had this guitar in stock, so I special ordered it and received it directly from Gibson. It arrived in a case with a torn cover, and it wasn't damaged in shipping. Also, the two halves of the flame maple top are pitifully mis-matched. I didn't expect a book-matched top, but I do expect a blend between the two that isn't noticeable at a glance. My $700 Schecter has a lot better top and quality control. The bridge was drilled a bit off, so if you go up in string size your intonation won't set perfectly unless you use the stopbar inappropriately or raise the bridge to compensate. The nut is very short and was cut very shallow. I can't say yet whether or not I like this - it's just a new thing that I haven't played before. As long as the strings don't pop out, there might be less problems with sticking. Otherwise I'll have to put in a bone nut. The holes for the tuning keys weren't drilled perfectly perpendicular to the headstock face. I could go on and on with the nitpicks, but you get the idea.

Changed all of the hardware and wiring, except the pups and toggle switch.

Gibson support is available 24/7, which is nice. However, there assistance is slow and leaves much to be desired. They gave me such a runaround about replacing the case that was damaged at their factory, and didn't even want to discuss the pathetically mismatched top on the guitar. I expected a lot more from Gibson.

Now that I've done all of the mods that I wanted, I love this guitar. It is my favorite, but it came at a high price. I don't think that Gibsons are a good value (I've owned 'em since '79), but they have good resale value and you know what to expect. If you can find an Epi Elite that you like, it's a much better value at roughly half the price, if you don't care about the hollow chambering of the Gibson.
Also, whomever engineered the potentiometer layout for US made Les Pauls needs to go back to school. It came with 300k linear taper pots for the volume controls and 500k logarithmic tone pots - can you say *** backwards?

I got the guitar of the week version with the mahogany top in red gloss finish. Same old les paul features that we all know and love. I lucked out and got a solid 1 piece back and can you believe it a 1 piece top (very cool) 57 classics for the pickups and standard gibson plastic tuners this should deff be a colectible someday (i hope) i only gave it a 9 because I would have prefered grovers and pickup covers but i fixed that with some mods.

at first it was a little dark with the mahogany top and 57 classics which are a very warm pickup anyway. I swapped them out for a burstbucker 1 in the neck and 3 in the bridge and it brightened things up nice. I also added grovers a switch i do on all my guitars. Classic les paul tone all the way great thick tone and sweet sustaine. I love the middle position with the burstbuckers clean very nice and sweet sounding. Stock I would have givin it a 8 but after the pickup and tuner swap its a 10 hands down. The 60's neck plays very fast and i am pretty sure it is chambered so it is rather light. Which to me I would rather like it solid but its a minor quam. Overall great sounding playing paul.

The guitar out of the box had ridiculously low action but I always have new guitars professionally set up so after that it was spot on and played super fast. The finish is to die for that mohogany top is beautifull to look at and the fretboard and binding were all done great as were the frets. Sold instument should last years and years.

should be fine never had a problem with any of my gibsons i have had 9 over the years.

Overall a great guitar I play classic rock ala Zep Stones Neil Young kinda stuff. I run it through a victoria 5112 champ and a Fulltone ocd Heavenly tone.

AA flamed figured maple top, Mahagony body back and neck, '57 classic humbuckers uncovered, 1960's slim taper neck, britewire strings .10's, beautiful guitar overall.
I really like the '57 classic pick-ups best of all the gibson series pick-ups. They are not the hottest pick-up gibson has, but they have beautiful tone, and still plenty of "heat". IMO, they really allow the wood of the guitar to thicken the tone that comes through.
Sure an ebony neck is nice, and AAAA flame is better than AA, which some other les pauls have, but the price reflects all this. As far as features that account for sound in a les paul or any guitar for that matter, this has everything I wanted.

I play everything from classical to jazz to hard rock to metal. There is a reason that everyone references and trys to emulate the les paul, and that's because it has a beautiful tried and true sound. With proper distortion, you can go metal with this, but it really excels at rock. For gritty rock and roll like Aerosmith, G'N'R', etc, there is no greater tone monster, with an edge and bite to it. It has a beautiful clean sound too for jazz and blues.
By the way, for getting the real sound out of this, get yourself a good tube amp. Don't waste $2000 of sound potential on a solid state. I have both and it is a world of difference.

The finish is gorgeous. I have the guitar of the week #2 fireburst. Nitro laquer lets the wood breathe, the binding looks great, there are no blemishes in the wood itself, and nickel plating really looks great too.
At first, I was not crazy about the action. It was not as fast as my ibanez. The ibanez has a thinner neck, lighter gauge strings, EMG 81 active pickups, and a locking tremolo system. After playing about a week however, I cannot go back to my ibanez, except for speed metal, and EVH stuff where I need the whammy.
What I really noticed with the les paul is the how important your playing style is to the music. The active pick-ups of the EMG's just don't capture that. If you are new to music, maybe that is a scary thought. But if you are seasoned (I have been playing 15 years), this is great. Every nuance of your picking and fingering comes through. It gives great versatility. The cost of this however is a little stiffer play, but for me I like that. Now having had this guitar for just short of a year, I cannot go back to the ibanez feel.
I do agree with other postings and think a bone nut would have been nice, but no les paul has that and to be honest few other options from other manufacturers do either.

It has not failed me, and I do not see it failing me anytime soon. There are some nicks now in the nitro laquer finish, but that's normal for this type of finish with time and use. By the way, gibson britewires .10's are extremely reliable too. No one wants to break a string on stage, and I swear by the these. Great tonal sound and adds reliability overall. As far as the main hardware goes, don't beat your guitar, and it shouldn't give out. I would never gig without some back-up, but that's just being careful. I do not use strap locks. I have never needed them. If you want locks, just put them on. They are easy and cheap.

Never had to deal with them. Can't rate it. I always think though, if you never have to deal with them, isn't that a reflection of the overall quality. All the Gibson owners I know have never had to contact them.

Here is my set-up. Gibson Classic Antique Les Paul -> Damage Control Demonizer Preamp -> Boss ME-50 -> Fender Twin Reverb '65 Reissue. I also play, Ibanez, ESP, takamine acoustic, and a fender bass, and have a bass amp, other pedals, effects and guitar toys as well. This guitar is extremely versatile and allows the player to express him or herself completely. Music is like telling a story. It's not what we say, but how we say it, that makes it into a great story. I can play light, and the sound reflects that in an creamy open tone, or if I want to mangle the strings, this guitar screams with edge, malice, anger and bite. Either way, you get a thick heavywood tone that only a les paul can deliver.
It's a lot of money, but I wish I had not waited so long to get this. I play more now, and my style has improved greatly since the tone now includes my every small nuance. Stealing it is not an option, because it doesn't leave my side. Charlton Heston will part with his guns long before I part with this.

my score is low here because let's face it, it has NO: locking tuners, coil splitting, a plastic (!) nut, and the strap buttons are a must-replace. i think everyone knows all of the vital statistics of this guitar so i'll go into no further detail. i believe the main differences between this "antique" classic vs. the regular classic is that the Antique has the '57 pickups, different binding, and the body is chambered for, "weight relief". i have to say, and i know i'm probably alone here, i wish gibson used a steeper fingerboard radius of 7.25 or 9.5 like fender. i like to be able to reach over w/my thumb to fret strings w/some of the chords i use and this neck just won't let that happen as cleanly as i'd like. yes, strings are less likely to fret out when bending if you have a flatter radius but even with my strat's 9.5 radius i can bend to the sky and not fret out, AND still be able to pull off thumb-fretting. another thing worth mentioning here- i've noticed that gibson is doing two-piece backs on some guitars within a same model. if you MUST buy online, make sure you ask if the body is a one piece or not! i made sure i got the one piece. also has a nice flame top (worthy of a PRS 10 rating by today's standards) in honey burst, and weighs in at under 7.5 pounds.

with all gibson's shortcomings, one thing they DO have is THE SOUND. you never hear anyone getting excited talking about that classic 1987 PRS sound, or vintage BC Rich sound, or whatever. like it or not, the LP is THE bench mark for humbucking sounds. like the reviewer before me, i'm a strat guy first and foremost but i DO record a bit, and as such some things you MUST use a humbucker equipped guitar for. my past experiences w/LP's was that they had two sounds, harsh and mud. not this one though, what a surprise. i really, really like the sound of it and play it quite a bit. i like the fact that it's a shorter scale length than my fenders as it forces me to play differently. this is one of the biggest reasons why everyone isn't playing Line 6 Variax guiatrs- DIFFERENT GUITARS MAKE YOU PLAY DIFFERENTLY. go figure.

i played PRS guitars for years simply because i found gibson's workmanship to generally suck overall. i have to say they've gotten much, much better...unless i just found a good one. the finish is nitro/laquer, which is an "add-on" for a fender. it's a nice thin finish too as you can actually see a slight sinking of the finish into the wood poors if you get up close enough. kind of like how PRS finishes used to be. this guitar still is lacking in the workmanship department in one area though- the binding. i can actually feel the junction between the binding and the neck wood, and also in other parts of the guitar as well. does it effect sound and playability? no, but still! they really came close with this one. if it weren't for the binding issues, this guitar would be as near perfect as you can get with a production guitar.

we'll see. we all know we must do whatever it takes to avoid headstock breaks with any gibson. just be carefull, right? points deducted for the ease and frequency in which this seems to happen.

surprise, surprise! i called to find out what the deal was with this model as some people were saying it was chambered, others said no. called gibson and was speaking to a knowledgeable person within two minutes. he explained that it was chambered for "weight relief" due to years of people complaining about the weight of a LP. he mentioned that they discovered that doing this actually improved the tone of the guitar so they decided to make it a permanent feature on this guitar. it was funny because he then went on, awkwardly, saying how it was different from the chambering they did on their other high end LP's- i can't remember which models. you could tell he was trying to put it accross in a way as not to discredit the mega price tag on their other chambered instruments. whether it's the same method or not, i don't care because however they did it WORKS. one of those happy accidents i would imagine.

aside from the binding issues, this guitar perfectly met, and in some cases exceeded my expectations. a guitar in this price range should come with locking strap locks though and while i'm thinking of it, DITCH THE PLASTIC NUT!! this isn't a $200 Danelectro! it DOES have the important things though- killer tone, and playability.

2007 Gibson Les Paul Classic Antique Model. Standard Les Paul features that pretty much everyone knows; mahogany body (very nice grain on the wood), maple top with a nice AA flame to it, uncovered '57 Classic and 'Classic Plus pickups, vintage tulip tuning keys. The Gibson logo on the headstock and the crown inlay (which are normally found on the SG and ES-335) are done in mother-of-pearl, which is real sweet. The weight of this guitar is what sold me. Could have sworn this thing was a chambered body but I checked with the guitar tech at Guitar Electronics in Phoenix and they assured me it's a solid body. It weighs about 7-8 pounds. At this point in life, wearing a 11 pound anvil over my shoulder isn't the best option in the world. The only feature I will NEVER like on Gibson guitars are those RIDICULOUSLY SMALL strap buttons. Immediately put on Dunlop strap loks. It's been said before and it will be said again; "Gibson, PUT MORE ROBUST STRAP BUTTONS ON YOUR GUITARS!!! WE PAY ENOUGH FOR THEM!!!"

Of course, this is where the Les Paul slays the competition; it's sound. I play rock and roll of all kinds and am active every Sunday on our church's Praise & Worship team. This is my setup: Les Paul to Dunlop Slash Wah Pedal, MXR Edward Van Halen Phaser, Aphex compressor, Digitech Screamin' Blues overdrive pedal and then to either a Vox Valvetronix modeler or a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe depending on whether or not I play direct to the House board or through my amplifier. The guitar does get a little noisy with a lot of gain but that's par for the course. This guitar sounds so sweet. The tone controls do a great job rolling off the highs and have a smooth taper to them. The neck pickup does the classic Eric Clapton/Slash "woman" tone no problem. The cool thing though is that you can get that sound of the bridge as well! Even though the pickups are "vintage" '57 classics, they can absolutely scream as well and are quite articulate. Played "Crazy Train" last night at a gig and it just wailed. Gets some countrified sounds, jazz and of COURSE rock & roll.

The action was fantastic, everything was tightly buttoned up, the top was matched perfectly, the frets are polished, the wood is fantastic, pickup selector switch is solid. HOWEVER, the nut was cut horribly on the high 3 strings. I had horrible fret buzz on the b string; something which I just missed when I played the thing at the store. It cost me $50 bucks to fix but the reason it gets such a low rating is this. Shouldn't a guitar that costs 2 grand be perfectly setup?

The weight and the action were the 2 selling points to me. The neck is the 60's style thinner neck and that coupled with low action allow some fast runs. Played the solo to Crazy Train with little effort.

I have played live with it every week since owning it and it has held up great. Stays in tune very well not that the nut has been repaired. Even with some wide string bends it stays in tune solidly. I did knock off 2 points for the strap buttons. They just flat out stink and if I kept them, the neck on the guitar would have probably snapped in half by now.

Disclaimer: I am VERY VERY picky when it comes to customer support because it's what I do a living as a tech support rep for Verizon Wireless. I called Gibson because of the fact that the nut was cut improperly when I got it. Since it was taken to my local tech, I pretty much knew that I wasn't going to get reimbursed the money but I just wanted to check. When I called Gibson and told them my issue, the VERY FIRST THING out of this guy's mouth was "no." Now one of the 1st things i was taught coming out as a customer service rep a few years ago was never, ever use the word as your 1st thing. When the guy said no, I just basically shut him out and knew he wasn't worth a crap to me. I don't know if all Gibson customer service is this bad, but this particular individual flat out does not belong in the profession. I hate the fact that Gibson's products and name recognition allow them to skimp on things like customer service and even a basic setup out of the factory.

I own 2 guitars and they're both Les Pauls; this Classic and a Studio model. Well by giving it a "10", it would be "fantastic value." This guitar, at 2 grand is NOT fantastic value. The bottom line though is that this is professional level Les Paul and I love it to death. The sound on it is killer and I can't imagine playing another kind of guitar anymore. I love the effortless playability, the killer sound and the fact that people drool over it :-) Even though there were some issues when this guitar was 1st purchased, I absolutely love it and don't foresee myself getting rid of it.

Vintage Sunburst color 2007. Pretty much all of the standard features listed for the Classic Antique model from Gibson.com. Got if off ebay brand new for $1500, certified authentic. Great deal! The big pro's on this thing are the pickups, weight and classic bindings. Beware, though. I see listings occasionally from so-called "dealers" trying to pass off the regular classic models as the antique version. If you're looking for one, make sure you know the differences (i.e. white interior case, the pickups etc...).

This thing is light!! It's lighter than my Fender American Deluxe Strat. I think normally LP's are heavier than Strats, but it is lighter (and more fun to play on those longer sets for your back). Definitely can tell it's chambered in the body.

This is my first LP after playing strats for 30 years and I couldn't be more pleased as having the Antique as my first introduction to the LP world (though I'm sure some LP purists may scoff at my first choice). I play in all sorts of bar bands with material all across the board and always had a strat as my answer to cover the versatility needed. But I always knew that if you wanted the LP sound, you're going to have to get one. And this thing gets the sound I definitely have sought after for so long.
I usually have a series of effects running in a V32 tube amp. I have found that I don't use as many effects when using the Classic Antique.
OD and distortions come out tighter and richer through this thing. Wonderful sustain, clean or dirty. The neck positions is definitely my favorite. However, I haven't yet found the ultimate sweet spot in the bridge humbucker position yet where thin meets thick, but it's getting there. (it's a tedious job, but it will be rewarding when I get it just right).

Coming from a strat guy it's hard to believe, but I have to give this part a 10. Semi-low action that contours the thin neck just right and slopes outward toward the lower strings. This git was setup up about as perfect as I've felt a guitar could be setup. Everything felt... well, premium. Maybe I'm just new to the feel of LP Classics, but this thing feels incredible in my hands. I am spoiled by locking tuners, but I don't see a need to mod the headstock just for this purpose. My only problem is adjusting to the smaller neck scale and the archtop type of feel to it, but that's my problem and not the guitars. I string 11-50's on my strat and use the same on the LP. I may need to up the gauge as the tension definitely feels looser and I tend to overshred and overbend because of it. I have found my technique needs to be more controlled and precise when playing the LP and though I complain about it, that's probably one of the best things to happen to my playing style at this point in my life. In other words, I need to approach this guitar without forcing the effort I usually put on my other guitars. By removing all that fluff, I wind up playing the guitar more purely the way it was intended to be played if any of this makes sense (it does to me at least).

I've only had it for 3 months, but I've gigged with it at least three times a week in 3+ hour sets, and practice with it as much as I can during the off dates. I've not had any problems with it so far. I replaced the strap buttons with dunlop locking for my peace of mind (I do that with all my gits except the Am Dlx comes with Schallers already). I always have at least two guitars as backup in case of those mid-set string breakages (more due to my overexcessive strumming rather than the fault of the guitar). I've yet to break a string on this thing; however. Definitely dependable so far and looks built to last with the achilles only being the thin part of the neck to the machinehead. Keep it away from the drunken dancers and you should be fine. After strumming on this thing for quite a while, I would think the finish would be scratched up in the area where LP's usually have a pickguard plate, but the finish still looks great for me not to consider applying one.

I've not dealt with Gibson yet; though I live where their custom shop is here in Nashville if I ever need them.
Warranty is still valid,though.

I definitely would get another one if this was stolen, broken or lost. Moreover, I would start looking at other models in the LP family. And while I really am eager to add something from the VOS line or a black beauty or even sg's to my private guitar collection, I consider the classic antique a beautiful workhorse guitar that's going to supply me with the most usage in my musical life from the LP family. Great guitar.