The Tone difference 1959 Gibson Les Paul - AKA The Holy Grail

The 1959 Gibson Les Paul is known as the holy grail of electric guitars by guitar lovers and collectors, they are worth a fortune, and you'll be lucky to find one for sale. This guitar made countless guitar heroes famous...(continued after the video)



The Tone
Why is the 1959 Gibson Les Paul so valuable, it's due to one word - TONE. Vintage guitars always have their own character to them but the 1959 Gibson Les Paul is something else, Les Pauls already have the reputation for being sustain monsters giving a rich fat tone, and a vintage Les Paul will give that and more. The pickups fitted on the 1959 are also one of the sweetest sounding pickups ever made. Gibson are constantly trying to recapture the tone and specs of the 1959, that's why every year there seems to be a new 1959 VOS reissue released.

Tone is a very subtle and subjective thing, but every guitarist that cares about how their guitar sound knows about it. One thing about a vintage guitar is the wood has aged and has adjusted to the vibrations of strings, this is what gives it more tone and sustain. I found a video from guitar world with Paul Riario playing Larry Dimarzio's all orginal 1959 Gibson Les Paul and comparing it with his 2002 Gibson Les Paul Historic reissue. The difference is, to say the least, noticable, so noticable infact that I had to share it with everyone. He plays it acoustically first and you can here the sustain and warmth, not many reviewers do this, I think all guitar reviews/comparisions should follow this example whether it's an acoustic guitar or not, to hear what the guitar sounds like unplugged is essential.

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