Epiphone IGC 1959 Les Paul Standard Reissue

Epiphone IGC 1959 Les Paul Standard Reissue - Sunburst Fade

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Epiphone IGC 1959 Les Paul Standard Reissue - Sunburst Fade

There are Les Pauls, and then there are 1959 Les Pauls – three little digits capable of making guitar nerds lean forward in their chairs and start discussing neck tenons, capacitors and pickup magnets with alarming intensity. The Epiphone Inspired by Gibson Custom 1959 Les Paul Standard Reissue in Sunburst Fade takes that legendary late-'50s recipe and recreates it with a seriously impressive collection of vintage-inspired details.

This isn't simply a regular Epiphone Les Paul wearing a particularly handsome burst. The Inspired by Gibson Custom model was developed in partnership with Gibson Custom, with construction, hardware and electronics chosen specifically to bring it considerably closer to the feel and specification of the revered 1959 originals.

It starts with the classic combination of a genuine mahogany body and carved maple cap, topped with a gorgeous AAA flame maple veneer. The Sunburst Fade finish lets that figuring do the talking, while Epiphone's Vintage Gloss finish gives the guitar a softer, more old-school appearance than a mirror-like modern gloss. Cream binding, nickel hardware, gold Top Hat knobs and the familiar Les Paul silhouette complete an instrument that looks like it should already have several decades of good stories attached to it.

The neck gets equally serious attention. It's a one-piece mahogany neck with a long neck tenon, using Epiphone's vintage-inspired 1959 Rounded Medium C profile. This is deliberately fuller in the hand than the slimmer profiles associated with many later Les Pauls, giving players who enjoy a substantial vintage neck something properly satisfying to get hold of.

A bound rosewood fingerboard carries 22 medium-jumbo frets and genuine mother-of-pearl trapezoid inlays, with a traditional 12" radius and 24.75" scale length. Up top you'll find the Gibson-style Open Book headstock, complete with an aged mother-of-pearl Epiphone logo and gold Les Paul Model script. Even details like the vintage-style side-dot placement have received attention here.

Then we get to the bit that makes this model particularly interesting: actual Gibson USA pickups.

A pair of Gibson Custombucker humbuckers with Alnico 3 magnets provide the voice. These are exactly the sort of pickups you want in a guitar chasing vintage Les Paul territory – articulate and responsive when played clean, rich through a valve amp beginning to work, and capable of delivering that glorious combination of warmth, bite and harmonic complexity when you turn things up.

And Epiphone hasn't put premium pickups through bargain-basement electronics. The Custombuckers are hand-wired to CTS potentiometers, with Bumblebee-style paper-in-oil capacitors, a Switchcraft three-way selector and Switchcraft output jack. It's a properly considered electronics package rather than a flashy pickup upgrade sitting on top of otherwise ordinary components.

Hardware follows the same philosophy, with an ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic bridge paired with a Gibson Historic Reissue aluminium stop bar. Epiphone Deluxe tuners with Single Ring Keystone buttons finish off the vintage look while keeping tuning duties suitably straightforward.

And because a guitar this handsome deserves better than being wrapped in somebody's old duvet on the way to rehearsal, a brown Inspired by Gibson Custom hardshell case with pink plush interior is included.

The 1959 Les Paul Standard has inspired decades of obsession for good reason. This Epiphone doesn't pretend to be a priceless original that's spent sixty-odd years hiding under someone's bed; instead, it takes an impressive number of the ingredients players actually care about – mahogany, maple, rosewood, a long neck tenon, Gibson Custombuckers and proper vintage-style electronics – and puts them into a guitar you're actually allowed to take to a gig.