2012 Gibson Les Pauls

Checked out the new 2012 Gibson Standards today. These guitars rock! They have Burstbucker Pro’s, Rosewood fretboards, 18:1 Grover Tuners, TonePros bridge and stoptail, and have great new features to their electronics.

I was very impressed with their new switching. Outside of the


standard 3 way, 2 volume, & 2 tone you find on a Les Paul, all 4 knobs have push/pull pots. The push/pull pots on either volume work as a coil tap for that respective pickup. The push/pull pot on the tone knob of the neck pickup works as a phase switch for out of phase tones when in the middle pickup position. When in single coil mode, the neck’s push/pull pot chooses which coil of the pickup to use as the single coil. The final push/pull pot on the bridge pickups tone pot is the pièce de résistance. When engaged, at any time it will access the “pure-bypass”. The pure bypass basically wires the bridge pickup straight to the output with no volume or tone controls. Putting the bridge pickup straight to the output gives increased volume and brightness, similar to what happens when you switch an esquire to the third position.

These instruments also have a their slimtaper neck profile and a compound radius of 10 inch radius at the neck and 16 inch radius at the end of the fretboard. The guitar plays great! They come in a some beautiful burst like honey burst, iced tea, & fireball, two translucent colors Amber & Black, and solid colors like goldtop, ebony, and blue mist.



What a cool Guitar!