Inspired by the legendary Les Pauls of the late 1950s, Gibson’s Les Paul Standard ’50s Plain Top delivers all the best of golden-era Gibson tones, looks, and vibe. This guitar’s mahogany body and maple top deliver a one-two sonic punch of warmth and clarity, marked by the mammoth sustain that’s defined the Les Paul since 1952. Under the hood, two Burstbucker pickups brim with an open, airy, and dynamic PAF-style punch. Fans of a chunky neck will be sure to appreciate the old-school chunk of the mahogany neck’s ’50s Vintage profile, while the 12-inch-radius Indian rosewood fingerboard’s 22 frets are Plek’d to perfection. A thin nitrocellulose finish completes the package, allowing your guitar gracefully age and develop over time — just like Gibson’s original 1950s Les Pauls!

Full-feeling ’50s Vintage neck profile  

Les Paul fanatics who prefer a chunky neck will find much to love in this guitar’s ’50s Vintage mahogany neck. Full, round, and not too substantial, the ’50s Vintage neck profile harkens back to the Les Paul’s earliest days, when baseball bat necks were the norm, not the exception. And while this guitar’s robust neck construction certainly dictates the instrument’s feel, many Music Experience guitarists contend that a mammoth neck is key to the Les Paul’s prodigious sustain. It’s all topped off with a beautiful slab of Indian rosewood, then finished off with a classic 12-inch radius and acrylic trapezoid fingerboard inlays. Finally, a precision Plek job from Gibson’s luthiers ensures that the Les Paul Standard ’50s Plain Top features some of the finest fretwork in the guitar world, playing cleanly up and down the neck.

The power of the PAF  

No other Gibson pickup boasts the pedigree of the PAF (Patent Applied For) humbucker, a pickup that set the humbucker standard upon its introduction in the late 1950s. The Les Paul Standard ’50s Plain Top’s Burstbucker 1 and Burstbucker 2 pickups offer an ultra-authentic sonic re-creation of the PAF, including an unpotted construction, Alnico II magnets, and a lower-output asymmetrical wind. The result? An open, airy, and articulate tone that captures all the warmth and dynamics you’d expect from a vintage humbucker, with an extra helping of crystal-clear note definition. Plus, while vintage Les Pauls had identical PAF pickups in both the neck and bridge, the Les Paul Standard ’50s Plain Top’s bridge-position Burstbucker 2 sports a slightly hotter tone to better balance with the neck-position Burstbucker 1’s output.

A truly timeless tonewood duo 

Maple and mahogany. This combination might be an absolute staple of the guitar world now, but it’s worth mentioning that Gibson introduced it with the very guitars that the Les Paul Standard ’50s Plain Top re-creates. Why does it work so well? The stout slab of mahogany that forms the Les Paul Standard ’50s Plain Top’s body gives you a warm, rich, and resonant tonal foundation. However, vintage-style Les Pauls are all about clarity, hence the treble-enhancing carved maple top, an elegant upgrade modeled after Gibson’s iconic archtop guitars that preceded the Les Paul. And somewhere in this lauded solidbody, single-cut tonewood formula lies the secret to Les Paul’s most revered feature — a simply unparalleled level of sustain!.

What Gibson Says...

The new Les Paul Standard 50s Plain Top returns to the classic design that made it relevant, played, and loved – shaping sound across generations and genres of music. It pays tribute to Gibson's Golden Era of Innovation and brings authenticity back to life. The Les Paul Standard 50s Plain Top has a solid mahogany body that delivers warmth and sustain, while the bound, carved, plain maple top provides a bit of additional brightness, bite, and note definition to the classic Les Paul tonal formula. The Les Paul Standard 50s Plain top has a mahogany neck with a rounded, 50s Vintage profile that feels wonderfully substantial in your hands without being too beefy or clubby and is topped with a bound rosewood fretboard and acrylic trapezoid inlays. The 12" fretboard radius is "just right," whether you're strumming first-position chords or laying down a blistering solo with lots of string bends further up the neck. The Les Paul Standard 50s Plain Top is equipped with an ABR-1, the classic-style fully-adjustable Tune-O-Matic™ bridge for excellent intonation, an aluminum Stop Bar tailpiece that is mounted directly to the body for outstanding sustain, Vintage Deluxe tuners with Keystone buttons for a classic visual appearance, which together with the Graph Tech® nut deliver rock-solid tuning stability, and gold Top Hat knobs. The Burstbucker™ 1 (neck) and Burstbucker 2 (bridge) humbucker™ pickups sound fantastic for everything from crystal-clean tones to heavily distorted ones and help keep annoying hum at bay. They are loaded with Alnico 2 magnets and wired to individual volume and tone controls with audio taper potentiometers and Orange Drop™ capacitors. Now available in vivid custom colors, a hardshell case to keep your investment safe when traveling completes the package.