Gibson Les Paul Classic

This is 2004 model. It's your classic Les Paul Mahagony body and neck along with a Maple top. The controls are the same as always. Nothing else new to say about the features.

This guitar sounds fantastic! It was used so I pulled out the burstbuckers and sold them. Installed set of pickups a Rio Grande BBQ/59 combo. Thinking about swiping out the 59 for a Texas. The sound is full, rich and with great clarity! I can get any sound I want outta this guitar except for Death Metal. Which these pickups aren't hot enough and wasn't designed for that purpose. But anyway I've heard a review saying how many subpar Gibsons are out there that you really have to try out a ton of them in order to find a gem. I wouldn't be surprised to hear something like that because of the QC of Gibson....probably alot of disgruntle employees that don't care for the company because maybe they are just focusing on making a profit instead of accessing value to the products and or employees. I haven't compare alot of Gibsons to mine but I sure as hell love it!

action is great! Low with very little fret buzz. This one did an excellent fret job. The neck is straight as an arrow. In terms of the quality of wood. Acoustically it sounds awesome! Plays like butter! Hardware and electronics were all properly done! Everything in this guitar was very professionally set up!

Gibsons are very tough but sensitive guitars. They are built big and strong but fragile at the same time. They cannot take the abuse of a Fender. If you accidently drop your Gibby from a stand or fall off your strap and not being able to catch it. Be ready to shell out around 400 bucks to have the headstock repaired. Gibson Les Pauls are notorious for the cracking headstock repairs. Just the nature of the beast! Be sure to get some strap locks and becareful.

don't know???

I've been playing for 10 years. I own 2 ESP EC-1000 LTD. Those are some great guitars for your buck that you won't have to worry about losing sleep over if it gets damage! A great compliment to my Classic! I run her through my Laney Vh100r and Marshall 1960a cab with V30 and CL80 in X configuration. The only effects I use is a Boss CE-3 Chorus and Boss D5 Delay. If it were lost? I would get it again but I would wait for a good deal like this one. I love everything about this guitar except the pickups...I just prefer a different choice for that. The weight isnt't all that great but what are you going to do? They've been made that way long before I was born so I just deal with it.

Basic two humbucker with individual volume and tone, three way switch, tone-o-matic bridge/stop tailpiece. Maple top, mahogany neck and body, rosewood fretboard. Body and neck binding in cream color. Vintage tuners.

I forgot the exact model of pickups. But I bought the classic for two reasons one was the pickups, sound is fat and crunchy. Maybe, just maybe it could have a bit more clarity in the high end but nothing's perfect!! It has no coil splitters so you gotta like a humbucking sound. I do and that's why I got a Les Paul.

Typical Gibson. Semi-handmade and not terrible attention to every little detail. But I used Carvin guitars that totally suck but they look great so my emphasis on looks have been trhown out the window. I have owned several gibsons and sometimes the finish isn]t perfect, the fretboard may have some smears of some kind. But overall they feel like a well played old guitar. Even the new ones. And to me it's all about sound and feel rather than looks!! That's why I use Gibson which seems to be the only guitar manufacturer in the old school mindset of making decent guitars that may have some astetic flaws. Amen to Gibson I hope they never change this!! A real Gibson player like myself knows what I am talking about and the slogan rings true.... Only a Gibson is good enough!!

Very reliable. The only issue I've had is with the three way switches. The open design collect dust and become scratchy or drop off altogether, I usually purchase a closed design for my Gibby's and switch them out right away. And to this day Gibsons are very reliable in my experience.

I'm mixed here. I tried to get a custom paint job. I tried several dealers that just never contacted me again so I tried to contact gibson directly. They sent me an email the very next day and told me I had to go through a dealer. Ok I expected as much, but what I don't get is why when I tried again after 3 months the dealer said Gibson had not yet given them a price quote, yet Gibson replied to my email right away? I just dont get it.

Overall these are maybe the best feeling and only true player's guitars left on the market. Too many other are thinking on the mail order market. "Let's make the guitars look good, but they can stink, as long as they look good people will order from the internet". Such as I have experienced with Carvin which deals in mail order only!! Gibsons however are a bit expensive, are they worth the price? That's for you to judge!

See all reviews below.

This guitar would suit many styles of music and sounds fantastic. I have been playing for 18 years and have settled on Les Paul, PRS Mccarties, and Strats as they seem to have some of the best tone and vibe compared to many of the copy companies. I tried to like many others but came back to the big three. There is just a vibe alive with these and the Les Paul stands tall against most others. The tone is amazing, great clarity, sustain, and a depth I do not hear in other guitars. I replaced the stock pots/and caps to enable me to better use the tone and volume controls but the pickups have great clarity for clean to blues to metal. I will probably change the pickups to WCRs but you could do fine with the stocks. Great resonance.

Wonderful action after a nice pro set up and tremendous build quality! I am very impressed and stands up to my Hamers and PRS.

Never had a problem with any Gibson!

Fantastic!

Great guitars and has al the vibe and tone in the world. You can't beat an LP. Period.

It's a 2003 classic 60 LP, standard features.
I think it's ridicolous that a 2000 euro (=$) guitar doesn't have the straplocks... wtf they are thinking at Gibson?

I'm disappointed with pickups. They're extremely muddy even at a big distance from the strings. Almost not usable with a metal distortion, it fuzzes too much. The sound is never clear, even lowering the distortion or with a standard crunch. Not usable for a clean sound because of the power of the pickups.

Set up was not good. The pickups height was wrong, the action was wrong. The fretboard needed work with a leveler, the 3rd string didn't sound good. Disappointing for such a expensive guitar.

I hope it will last.

Never dealt with the company

It was a gift... I would never buy such an overrated guitar. The astonishing look doesn't justify the lack of care in luthier work and the lack of good sound. Disappointing.

- 2004 Gibson USA Les Paul Classic
- Opaque Copper Natural finish which looks stunning under various lighting (looks quite similar to the Bullion Gold at times). Discontinued in 2005!!!
- Transluscent natural finish on the back and sides...truly sexy.
- 1960 slim tapered neck which is very comfortable yet full enough to hold the sustain and provide tone
- Gibson 496 Rhythm and 500 Treble ceramic pickups (pretty damn hot)
- Lush hardshell case with combo lock and velvet cover...very sweet

The rest you should all know if you consider yourself to be guitarist :)

Take a good look at the exact model and finish here:
http://www.gibson.com/Files/images/lpcscnnh_wall.jpg

Perfect 10 - no nonsense and no frills, just top quality materials you'd expect from a guitar of this price range. A little heavy on the shoulder after some 30 minutes of playing (~4.5 kg guitar)

Unplugged: Deep, full and solid. Very warm. Incredible sustain - hardly any string vibration is lost to the body.

Plugged: Taking into account the construction and woods used, the pickups are well balanced, very full, very hot and freakin loud! Tone wise they have punchy bass, thick and searing mids, and clear highs to cut through just nicely. When clean, they provide a good solid rhythm sound, but as soon as you turn up the overdrive they start to rough up and roar quite noticeably, which is what you'd expect from this rocker of an axe. Lower overdrive levels provide a great blues vibe on the neck pickup and classic rock open chord rhythm on the bridge. With mid-high overdrive, they provide a great rocky tone and character just right for power chords. As for lead, just think Slash all the way - they roar, scream and even sing - tons of character and immense sustain.

I play mainly rock and blues with some funk, pop, classical on the side (and dabble a bit on the jazz..well, I try). Having said that this axe is a rock guitar all the way, and one flagship of a rock guitar I reckon. Though it will cover blues on the lighter end and border on the line crossing over to metal on the heavier end. Anything cleaner than blues is not gonna happen on this axe - it's not made for those styles - too hot and rough.

I play through a Traynor Custom Valve 40 (YCV40) amp with a Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive, Boss RV-3 Digital Reverb/Delay and CE-5 Chorus Ensemble pedals. It drives the amp well - perfect rock setup that can still cover heaps of ground.

Perfect 10 - I bought it as my primary rock axe and it does just that no worries.

Factory set up was OK, but not perfect. Action is nice, but I get a bit too much buzz on certain frets. Intonation is near perfect, but a bit off that you can tell. Pickup height seemed alright though the bridge was a fair bit too loud over the neck, so I lowered it. The rest is just fine. Beaut guitar. Finish is flawless and doesn't mess up easily - should last forever. You get what you pay for.

7 - due to imperfect factory set up.

Built like a freakin tank. Will live the road trips and all. Only draw back is the small strap buttons and weird angle of the one near the neck...it kinda makes me a bit worried the strap would come lose especially when you're rockin it out. I think strap locks would be a great idea to avoid any regrets...

9 - those strap buttons!

Not bad...they reply on email within 24 hours and are polite and provide adequate detail. The website and manual are all that's really needed, but would be nice to have factory specifications mentioned. Though they probably ignore you if you don't quote your serial number in my experience.

Been playing almost 8 years. I also own a 2001 PRS Santana SE, Yamaha CPX8 electric/acoustic and FG-401 acoustic. I also have an old classical I intend to bring back to life one day. You know my amp and pedals from above. I would most definitely replace it if it were stolen, after beating the crap out of the person who stole it and giving them slow, painful end.

I compared it to the Les Paul Classic Double-Cut which I originally intended to get because I liked the single volume/tone controls and pickup selector down near the bridge, but they were out of production this year...but I reckon it's a blessing in disguise because if you're gonna get a Les Paul, GO FOR THE REAL THING. The double cuts are a go at the PRS market, cause they're lighter, brighter and only Les Pauls by name.

Everything else is just what you'd expect from this Les Paul. It was made to rock and rock hard, and it does that just that.

9 - does what it was meant to do, cheaper than the Standard but just as good quality in my opinion. Worth the money if you can afford it. 9 because of the imperfect areas I mentioned up above.

I've already given a write up on this guitar. (14/11/04) But I've just recently put two Seymore Duncan 59' Zebra's in the Neck and Bridge The sound of the guitar has just been transformed. I can highly recommend this to anyone. The original were starting to get on my nerves after a while. As they can be a bit "harsh" and "brittle" sounding. Where as the 59's are not quite as high output, more vintage sounding. But they do seem to have more sustain.

2 ceramic pick-ups, set mahogany neck, rosewood fret-board- yellow inlays. 50's slim taper neck. and if you need to know more search the website or others reviews i tried to cover thing that maybe others did not list in specifics.

this guitar sounds amazing. however it really depends on its intended use and very heavily on the players ear. with the right amp and cab as well as having a skilled player behind it can amaze you. it is a very fat warm toned guitar and sounds a little fuzzy and compressed. due to the pickups. these ceramic pickups in vein of harmonics.----- there is one minor problem with the classic and other guitars by gibson using the ceramic pickups i.e.. flying v and explorer.... that being that at high levels with a high gain amp this guitar will produce a microphonic feedback. this is because of the pickups not because of your tubes and there is no gate that will rid you of it. this guitar was designed to be used with mid gain to low gain amps. so buyer be ware this guitar will give you alot of noise in comparison to other les pauls. if you are dead set on this les paul try all the ones the store has because you will hear a difference between each or all of them and dont be picky about color find the one that sounds the best. regardless of what others have said les paul made by gibson have a distinct sound and can not be replicated. heritage guitars sound worlds different and feel different hamer's do as well but it is all it sounds "like" it , but sounding like something is not that thing being it. the only other guitar i can say resembles this is a vintage les paul custom. with original pickups for years i would say 1973 to 1986 and some newer ones as well. do your self a favor and try out all different types of les pauls. there is nothing like the natural sustain of a les paul as well as its rich tonal range and warm thick sound. i have looked everywhere.

finish is fine. get you guitar professionally set up for you and your string choices as well as they style you play.


so for all of you who care i am judging this based on my action that i set so yours might be different but for me mine is rated as follows

it is a gibson. tuners are fine these tuners are made for gibson by grover but have the gibson name on them they are not bad. they go out of tune but if they are going out of tune often they you should probably have your guitar set up, and if the problem persists than you should looking to locking tuners. i have giged with this guitar it is great however i have to use the rhythm position as a kill due to the amount of feedback i was getting from the pickups. as far as i can tell and as far as other gibsons i have owned they last forever if you take care of them but they will break like anything.

never dealt with them.

amazing guitar the best thing to do is take your head amp combo whatever you have and try it with this guitar and others if you like the sound and feel. this guitar is for you. i play professionally and i am not a studio guitarist. i play black melodic death metal or now commonly called metalcore. so if this guitar works for you and your sound get it it is all preference based as far as an overall rating. this guitar has been good to me and it had the best tone out there as far as new guitars are concerned. i hope this helped.

2003 3 i think. you know all the specs. i dont own it, i played one for about an hour while shopping for a new guitar. pretty heavy for a paul.

sound wise, this is a great guitar. the ceramic pickups have great output and makes for a great blues-based rock sound (think gnr or acdc) also pretty versatile for other styles as well.

this is the reason i did not buy the guitar. the inlays are supposed to be "aged yellow". the ones on this paul were definitely the color of mountain dew. gross! that and the binding was so off-white that it looked almost orange. combined with the black finish, this was one ugly guitar.

built like a rock, heavy as hell. just about the same as any other paul out there. good ol gibson quality for sure.

i havent heard anything about gibson support either way, so no answer for this one

i've played about 9 years now and i've always been a fender guy. i started using a friend's les paul studio a few months ago and fell in love with it. I decided to go shop for a new guitar and was looking at the pauls at the store. this one sounded awesome but looked like monkey butt. i wasnt about to spend $1400 on something that sounded great but looked terrible. i ended up getting an sg standard in ebony finish which not only looks gorgeous, it sounds amazing (a little brighter than the pauls though) and it's much much lighter.

2005 les paul classic sunburst,carved maple top,great exposed pickups,very nice slim neck,gibson lps are heavy,this is my only draw back this is a sweet rock unit,i hated the green enlays but i also hate the white ones on the standard lp to bright,i can live with the green cause the sound.

wow,wow ,pow ,this is a the rock lp you play zep,sabbath,motor head,these pickups rule the meanest lp made by far,if you play radio tunes get the standard

overall good fit finish action a solid 9

this guitar is a tank 9 lbs of guitar,i find the strap bottons are to small so a 9

gibson is huge it takes time to get service

i traded for this guitar , i love it,its like being young again,go try this guitar,and make your marshall stack scream

Since the Les Paul is probably the standard by which all other guitars are guaged I will assume that most reading this know the features. Basica two pickup, three position switch with tone and volume for each pickup. Mahogany body, maple cap, mahogany neck. Pretty standard stuff.

This guitar sounded great through my Budda SD30 and Genz-Benz Reflex 2x12 cabinet? Sustain was very good, tone was fat, no harshness and it had a very good rock sound. Lots of bottom and fat upper mids without being too trebly. I really love the sound of Les Pauls.

Initially I was very pleased with the guitar. The action was perfect, fretwork was clean and smooth. Finish was good but not as good as some guitars I have. Tuners while being the much maligned Klusons were tight and remarkably smooth and the guitar stayed in tune. Neck played light lightning. That is where the kudos stop.

At the 12th fret there is a scallop for lack of a better term where the person sanding the neck slipped. Close to the binding on the 6th string side is a gradual indentation from either and attempt to fix a dent or a slip of the hand. It was unnoticeable at first but could be felt and I was able to get a good picture of it and put it on a Les Paul forum. The people on the forum could not believe that such a QC mistake had made it through production. So I decided to send it back to AMS for a trade up to a Standard in hopes the QC is better on more expensive models. I would have loved to keep the guitar since it did sound and play well but for $1800 shipped its just too big a flaw to overlook. I have owned in excess of 20 guitars in my life from the cheapest Jay Turser to some custom stuff and I have never seen a neck flaw like this on any of them. Its a shame but I still love Les Pauls.

I would imagine thigs guitar could take a lot of careless use. Perfect working mans guitar.

Didnt call Gibson directly but I play on sending them an email with a picture of the flaw. AMS are top notch people and I will always do busines with them.

Been playing guitar for 24 years. I wish I would have been able to play this guitar before buying. Unfortunately where I live they dont stock too many Les Pauls. I have mail ordered several guitars and this is the first one that I have send back. Be warned I have been told on many ocassions not to buy a Gibson sight unseen due to QC issues.

I do love the sound of a Les Paul. Nothing sounds like it..not even PRS which some people claim. The closest I have some is a Hamer Artist. Infinitely better built than the Gibson its just not a Gibson Les Paul. I wish you could order the Classic with better tuners but they really arent too bad. Im still a fan of Gibson but you just have to be careful buying one, they are like snowflakes, no two are alike.