Gibson Les Paul Standard Double Cut Plus

this is an update to my earlier review below. I just want to say that this guitar should definately have a coil tapped neck pick-up. also the frets are a little too tall from the factory. the gold on the bridge is wearing off already and I've been playing this guitar for less than a year! I still love the sound of this guitar even with the factory pick-ups...well,I'm considering replacing the neck pick-up or coil tapping it.I had to adjust the intonation (in my first review I mention the saddles buzzing...the intonation was off) and the pick-up height and bridge height to suit me. I paid $1095 for this guitar NEW and really I'm very happy with it overall. If you are looking for a gibson this is a great deal! its brighter then a regular LP and not quite as thick sounding...maybe a bit 'bitey-er'...perfect for my lead sound! its also lighter and the hollowed out chambers add to the sound character. this guitar looks great under stage lights,too! (mine's trans red) I rate it an 8 because of the things I mentioned above...I dont think I will ever find a 10 rated guitar.

Made in the USA in '97. 24 3/4" scale, 24-fret rosewood on mahogany set neck. Chambered mahogany body with AA (AAA?) flamed maple top. Finished in Transparent Amber polyurethane. Master Vol, Master Tone. Two humbuckers (originally Gibson factory pickups, replaced with Duncan '59 and JB). Passive electronics. Tune-O-Matic with stopbar, stock tuners, all gold hardware. GIbson hardshell case.

This guitar is great for rock, blues (though I still prefer my Strat for blues), jazz and even hymns at church. I play through a Line-6 Flextone for clean and a Marshall JCM 800 2204 for crunch. Generally the only effects I use are phaser, wah and chorus with a little reverb when necessary. It's got the classic Les Paul crunch, with better cleans due to the sound chamber in the body. The stock pickups sounded really muddy (which I feel is true of all Gibsons), so I swapped them. Now it sounds great. Ringing cleans, down and dirty crunch, gutsy overdriven blues, it'll do it all. Rating with new pickups: 10, rating with factory pickups, 8.

Quality was suprisingly good for an overpriced Gibson (that's why I won't buy them new). The only real flaw was that the fret-ends were pushing through the binding a little. You'd think Gibson would trim the tangs to prevent that. Oh, well. Bookmatched top is gorgeous, better than many AAAAA and PRS "10" tops I've seen. The lack of body binding is nice, mainly as that's one of the areas where Gibson quality is sketchy and it keeps the price down.

I gig this guitar about once a week. It's gotten a few dings and nicks, but the damage doesn't seem to be spreading. The fret ends have pushed through the neck binding in a few places, worse than when I bought it. The gold is wearing off the bridge and tailpiece where my hand rests on them. Replaced the strap buttons with Schaller strap locks. This is the only guitar I generally need (barring the need for a tremolo on certain songs). The only reason I use a back up is in case a string breaks.

No experience.

Basically, Gibsons are overpriced, and this is no exception. But getting it in pristine condition used for only $1000 was a good deal. It has some of the common Gibson quality issues (mostly with the neck binding) and the stock pickups are crap, but it's a highly versatile gutiar with great tone (when using Duncans). The neck feels great, the guitar is exceptionally light for a Les Paul (about 9-10 lbs, I think) due to the second cutaway and the body chamber. It's my favorite axe and would definitely get replaced immediately if lost. Rating is for stock configuration. With my setup, I give it an overall 9.5.

GIBSON LES PAUL STANDARD PLUS AAA carved flame top. Mahogany body and neck. Of course the flame top is maple. 490,498 humbuckers, Tune-o-matic bridge stop tail, volume and tone control, 3 way selector switch. Also gold hardware, honeyburst finish. boundneck, trap. inlays. 24 frets, this ax has the 60 thin style neck. The mahogany body is hollowed out for weight reduction vs tone. Natural body binding. Gibson standard size frets, rosewood board 24th scale. Ax comes with Gibsons Deluxe hard shell case. Also Grover tuners.

Typical Les Paul sounds. Although a little more mid range honk. I play through Fender Twins, Devilles, and a Carvin Tweed Bel-Air 212.

I bought the ax from a pro musician used, the guitar wasn't liked and used maybe a dozen times. Set up is flawless, strings changed to 10s then re-set. Strap- locks added. No complaints, His misfortune is my treasure. No flaws, although I've seen them on Gibson from time to time none here.

This ax is made to play and play and play. Don't need a back-up, unless I'm looking for single coil, p-90s. Already has strap locks, what can I say here, its all here.

Gibson is a.o.k. with me. First DC was a studio. Had intonation problems with the stop-bridge. Gibson recommended a Leo Quan BADASS. A part not made by them. What could you say about these guys?

Now this is were it gets good. Like I said the first DC STUDIO was not quite right. 59 style neck made the ax neck heavy, Intonation problems, Bridge holes drilled off center. [watch this with Gibson] and truss-rod problems. With all this aside, when I played that ax next to my Les Paul Standard and Artist Hamer Custom. I perfered the sound of the DC. More MID-RANGE CREAMY SOUND. Like a vintage Paul. Now theres also one little trick I made a perferated control plate. [remember the ax is actually semi-hollow] to act like a F-Hole. Sound was good before, now its incredable. Of course I saved the original plate. You MUST keep GIBSONS ORIGINAL. Add the 60 neck to relieve neck weight problems. Trash the wrap around stop-bridge [garbage] Now this updated version of that old studio is just super. I feel like Gibson custom made the ax for me. OH ya I also wrote Gibson years ago and told them about the sound with the electronics control plate removed. Told the don't take my word for it TRY-IT, TRY-IT. You know what they came out with the es-336 a short time later. Basically a DC-PRO with F-HOLES. But don't listen to me, I only been playing since 66. One other thought......Put the 22fret neck on the ax. Better stability and less truss-rod adjustments. Oh ya put the 57 pick-ups in all your guitars.

Made in 2001 in Nashville, Tennessee. Body: double cut chambered mahogany with carved figured AAA maple top, trans amber finish. Neck: 1959 asymmetrical slim taper mahogany with 2 octave, 24 fret, single bound rosewood fretboard, pearloid trapezoid inlay. Scale: 24 ?. Nut: 1 11/16. Hardware: all gold, tune-o-matic bridge, stop bar tailpiece, grover tuners. Controls: volume, tone, 3-way switch. Pickups: 490R Alnico magnet humbucker at the neck, 498T ?Hot Alnico? magnet humbucker at the Bridge. 490R: coil offers ?57 classic tone with slight increase in the mids, special Alnico 2 magnet, neck spaced pole pieces, four conductor shield wiring. 498T: Alnico V magnet, specially wound coil offers higher output with emphasis on mids and highs, four conductor shield wiring. Strings: Les Paul Signature .009 - .046. Case: vinyl covered Gibson USA.

Right away, the classic Gibson humbucker tone is all here. After 6 months of playing, these are my opinions. Gibson has taken the 490R pickup and increased its mid-range response to offer a more contemporary tone based on classic ?57 tonal characteristics. Roll off the tone and you get that classic jazz sound. However, I find that as you roll the tone back toward the high end it doesn?t go far enough. To really offer a contemporary tone, I think Gibson should seriously consider offering a coil tap on this pickup or probably even come up with a 498R they can match to the 498T. That to me would be a big step toward helping this guitar become contemporary. The 498T pickup is basically a rock-oriented pickup offering higher output and emphasis on the mid- to high- end tone range. When combined with the neck pickup, it helps to offer tones the neck pickup can?t. But without separate tone and volume controls for each pickup it is not possible to dial in all the tones you want. Obviously, this is not the Jimmy Page Signature Les Paul. But it is a Les Paul and all the basic Les Paul tones are there. In all fairness to Gibson, I think for the money they are offering a good tone palette and this guitar indicates to me that this guitar-making behemoth is attempting to respond to contemporary player preferences.

This is the area where I think Gibson has really nailed it. Everything about this guitar reflects a commitment to quality. The binding on the neck melds with the frets as though they were a one-piece unit. The neck and fretboard are fast and consistent. The action is typical Gibson, soft and lively. The pickups are noiseless and reflect contemporary preferences. The set neck joint is solid and tight and offers good accessibility to the top end frets. The guitar is light, simple, and well balanced. If I have to comment on anything I must say it?s high time to adopt the lockable bridge and stop tailpiece. Everybody on all fronts has always complained about having to pick these up off the floor during string changes and routine maintenance. Not only can they get damaged, but having to handle these parts affects set-up. On the issue of set-up, the guitar really just needed to be tuned and it was very playable. It was set-up for .009s at the point of purchase. I changed to .010s with minimal set-up issues. One area where Gibson always gets itself into trouble is with the varying presentation quality of their figured maple tops. Even the AAA tops vary widely and the ones you see in the hands of collectors never seem to find their way to the market place. If collectibility is something you are thinking about, exercise extreme scrutiny. As far as my top goes, I couldn?t give a rat?s ass. It?s figured, it?s flamed, there is lots of grain, and it has personality. More importantly, it fits the guitar and looks like a quality job. PS ? If you want your Gibson to appreciate in value, baby it and don?t change anything - keep it stock!!!

Like most guitars out there, Gibsons can fall victim to all of the pitfalls any player might encounter. I am quite certain that this guitar would be stolen long before it ever broke down. The gold hardware will wear faster than any other material you can make hardware with. Strap locks are almost never included with stock guitars including Gibson. Gigging without a backup is a personal choice. If you could do it with any guitar, you could do it with this one.

Never had any reason to complain about Gibson customer service. My experience to date has been 24 hour response.

The Les Paul is one of the most successful guitars on the face of this planet. The double cut has been around for a while in various forms. This particular form appeared in the mid-90?s and has done very well. So much so, they reintroduced it for 2001 after having discontinued it in 1999. As to how collectible this guitar will be, only time will tell (so far, not very from what I can see). The buzz about this guitar seems to be that it is a PRS-beater. In terms of material, craftsmanship, and price I think Gibson is all over PRS. However, in terms of tone and general aesthetic I think most contemporary players would still probably choose PRS. That is because PRS has a sheen to its tone that this guitar does not have and, apart from that set neck from hell, the PRS still looks better (or should I say more contemporary). I personally prefer this instrument to PRS. Then again, I don?t consider myself a contemporary player. I consider myself a rock guitarist, but I come at it from the traditional styles of jazz, blues, and r&b, etc. That is probably why I feel perfectly at home with this guitar in hand. Considering where I come from musically, everything about this guitar is familiar. If it were lost or stolen, I would have to think twice about replacing it. If money were no object, I would probably approach a luthier about a custom job. I would love to see Gibson throw the guts from the Jimmy Page Signature Les Paul into this guitar. I think they would really have something if they did that. But, in all fairness to Gibson, they are a big fish in a small pond and it is easy to take a shot at them. As mentioned before, I think this guitar indicates that Gibson is willing to consider contemporary player preferences. But, they also could do a lot more to contemporize this instrument. Perhaps the legacy of the Les Paul only allows them to move so far, so fast. If you are a vintage Les Paul snob, it will pain you to hear that the clowns at the Kalamazoo plant didn?t now quality tone wood from firewood and often built those old guitars from whatever was on the woodpile. Rest assured, the new Gibsons might not be as collectible, but they are much better tonally and this guitar is no exception. Why pay more?!?

2001,made in nashville tenn usa,24 frets,carved aaa flame maple top,1 vol 1 tone 1 toggle,2 humbuckers:490r alnico neck,498t 'hot alnico' bridge, transparent red,slightly thinner body but basic les paul shape with 2 cutaways instead of usual 1,tune-o-matic bridge,grover tuners,gold hardware,24 3/4' scale,nice looking case with satiny inner cover sheet(case is vinyl covered and will probably loose it's looks quick with regular gigging)
could have better tuners

suits my style perfectly! I use a digitech rp2000 straight into our pa board. guitar is not noisy at all. the bridge pickup gives the greatest lead sound i've had from any guitar!(but that's just me!) not a super versatile sounding guitar...coil tapping the neck pick-up would help...but that would probably void the warrenty

set-up was not too bad...I'm still adjusting it to suit me.the only thing is the saddles buzz a little on certain notes...I'm still messing with it.

gold hardware supposedly wears out quick...had to install strap locks...finish should last...i rarely gig w/out a back up

dont know

20+ YEARS i also play a jap charvel/jackson if it were lost or stolen i'd want another one has a great look and feel and sounds terrific!! i did my homework before ordering this guitar...compared to les paul standard and lp classic. for the money i don't see how you can beat this guitar!

2001 US made, 24 Frets (very cool, most gibsons are only 22), 1 tone, 1 volume, AAA Flame top which is absolutely beautiful, the finish is midnight burst which is an exclusive from MARS, nickel hardware, Grover tuners as opposed to the normal Gibson plastic things, 59' style neck, came with the usual Gibson Case, its your standard Gibson stripped to the bare nessecities, its everything I need and nothing I dont

What can I say, classic Gibson tone, its great, the tone chambers at so much depth to this thing and are the reason that this baby can still sound like a les paul standard yet weigh about half as much, the humbuckers are extemely versitile and play both clean and distorted very well. I play variety of muscial styles and this thing has gone through all of em very well, from classic rock, to crystal clear clean playing, to all out distorted punk and metal, this thing can do it, I play through a GT-3 guitar processor which helps a lot and I play through a Crate GFX 65, the amp is ok, but when I plugged this baby in, everything instantly sounded better than before, it was awesome, I have been playing a yamaha tele copy, and this this had much higher output (humbuckers obviously help over tele singles), better sustain, better lows while still keeping the brightness in the bridge, the sounds are very tweekable with my processor and the variety is endless, this guitar does not have everything, I eventually want to put some black saddle peizo pickups in it, and put some seymour duncans in (not to say the stock gibsons sound bad, that is just a personal preferance), but for now, this baby is sweet

Factory set up was acceptable, I changed the strings to tens strait out of the box, and therefor had to do some truss rod adjustments and things of the sort, the intonation was not bad at all and required minimal tweeking, the pickups were a little high for my liking so I lowered them, once again at no fault of Gibsons, just a personal thing. The finish was beautiful, it contained a couple very minor flaws, but nothing noticable if you are over 3 feet away, the G string goes out of tune when bent, this is a problem that will have to be fixed and one I am not very pleased with, but all and all the guitar was good from the factory and it could have been much worse so Im not complaining to much

This guitar feels very solid and seems like it should last a long time, however only time will tell, I have heard stories about the fragile gibson headstocks and I will watch out for that, the finish isnt going anywhere, one thing I do not like about this guitar is the strap buttons, they are very small and seem very unreliable so strap locks are the next thing on my list, it seems very dependable, its a gibson, enough said. Anyone who would gig without a back up better have mad string changing skills and a few other packs with em, I prefer to always have a backup

OK, here is where I have a little problem with gibson. I ordered this guitar from mars after (to my great dismay) the one in the store had a ding in it. Since the guitar is exclusive to Mars, they only stock one at a time and had to order one from the company which is no problem, I was expecting to order it anyway. After a whole month of mixed up orders, misscommunication, and hard work, the dude at mars finally got it in, needless to say I was less than pleased with gibsons effort to get my guitar to me, however the people at mars were very helpfull and gave me an assload of free stuff, including a free set up and a few midifacations I wanted, so I am greatful to them, but once again very dissapointed in Gibson

I have been playing for about 5 years, I have never owned a guitar of this quality before and feel very lucky to have one. This is in my opinion the best deal that gibson has to offer. If it were stolen I would beat the hell out of the guy and then cry becuase I dont have enough money to get another one, my favorite feature on this guitar is the finish, it doesnt get any more beautiful that this, the color on top of the flames is gorgeous, the best looking guitar I have seen in a long time, I also prefer the double cut to the single, but until now they just havnt had a double cut of this quality, yay gibson finally got smart and wanted to work on the PRS market for a while, good choice! I compared this to many other les pauls in the store and this one had the most "life" to it, the others sounded somewhat sterile and when played unplugged, just didnt have that resonance and vibration that this one had. I wish the pickups were exposed coil, but that will be taken care of in my free set up, and I wish that Gibson would put a coil tap in there guitars, if I had all that and a peizo system on this baby I would be in heaven, but all and all this guitar rocks and I will cherish it for a long time to come

2001 100% kickass American axe!!! Just got it today. Trans Red, AAA top, gold hardware, VERY light. 2 hums (Alnico 2 490R, and Alnico 5 498T), 1 volume, 1 tone, Grovers.
Just what is needed, nothing more, nothing less. Perfect.

I play rock, blues, punk, ska, and a little metal. My main influences are Ben Harper, Aerosmith, Satriani, Hendrix and the Beatles. I play straight through a Marshall VS30R (soon to be upgraded). This guitar sounds very, VERY good. Very full sound, twice as thick as my old guitar. Not much variety, but what it does, it does well. Great distorted sound, great clean sound, and that's it. Just a little too bright on the bridge pickup with no distortion. Otherwise excellent.

Very well set up and everything, just not in tune at all. Nice craftsmanship, nothing like any of the horror stories I've heard about Gibson's new stuff. Beautiful wood and finish.

Seems durable, and reliable. I can depend on it as long as I get some straplocks. The stock ones are tiny.

I had to call Gibson once for a small question and they were very helpful. I had absolutely no problems with them at all. Great warranty.

I've been playing 7 years, and I'm only 16, so that's almost half my life. I've had many guitars, and right now I also own 2 Epiphones(PR200, and LP Special 2), a Gremlin, and a Washburn MG44 (yuck!). It was about time for a real guitar. If it was stolen I would probably go insane. I love everything about it, just a beautiful utilitarian guitar.

* 2001, US made (naturally!)
* Carved AAA quilted maple top, mahogany back
* Translucent Red ("oxblood?")
* 24-fret, 24 3/4" scale,
* '59 slim-taper neck, single-bound rosewood fingerboard w/
trapezoid inlays
* 490R and 498T Alnico mag humbuckers
* Gold hardware w/ Grover tuners
* 1 vol, 1 tone, 3-way p/u selector

This guitar is all that I expected from something bearing the Les Paul signature! Brighter than a single cut, but still very full, due I suppose to the chambered body. Warm clear sound on clean channel and really delivers that classic LP voice when driven. Not quite as versatile as those single cut behemoths (only 1 each vol and tone knobs), but still able to get an excellent variety of sounds, and what great tone! It does everything I'd hoped for and more.

This thing was brand new out-of-the-box, and had just been put on the "wall" at Mars. I was quite surprised to find the factory set-up to be very adequate, however Mars offered a free set-up and I think I'll take them up on it and have the action lowered just a tad. Intonation and playability absolutely first-rate. The finish was absolutely perfect and I went over it like Sherlock Holmes. I had read of some bad experiences about LP quality, but I'm telling you this guitar was flawless. Perfectly bookmatched top and a quilted translucent finish that knocked my eyes out. I love that long scale neck and the way it screams at the extreme upper frets. It is a bit neck-heavy (no big deal to me) yet very light weight overall. Sleek and smooth, slim taper handle, silky binding and action like squeezing butter. But then again, I'm a heavy gauge Strat veteran and I've been used to mauling the fretboard so I've had to de-program myself into that "light finger" requirement for playing a Paul. As good as any PRS I've played or seen. This beauty is winning me over big-time!

I've read of the fragile headstocks on LPs, so I'll be extra careful. It seems to be durable enough to me - time will tell. I do know that I could bust rocks with my American Strat, though.

Never had to deal with Gibson and hope I never have to. Mars has an excellent staff of luthiers and I've had nothing but great experiences dealing with them.

I've been playing for over 32 years and have owned a small variety of acoustics and electrics, including a Silvertone (my first), Kay, Guild, Takamine, and Fender. My current amp is a 40W Fender HR Deluxe upgraded with a Celestion Vintage 30 speaker. Perhaps a Marshall or a Mesa is in the future but this old fart is quite happy for now, as I haven't gigged in years. This is my first Gibson and the only thing I regret is that I waited so long to get one.