❌SOLD❌ Gibson Les Paul Custom 62 Reissue White, 2000

The Gibson Les Paul Custom 62 Reissue recalls the complete redesign of the Les Paul, triggered in 1961 by poor sales, ironic for a guitar that’s now very highly valued. By 1963, the model was renamed at Les Paul’s request, and Gibson called it the ‘SG’. 

Like the original, the Les Paul Custom 62 Reissue uses a contoured Mahogany slab body with a Mahogany neck. Like previous Les Paul Custom models, the fingerboard is Ebony instead of Rosewood, and the position markers are Mother of Pearl blocks. The fingerboard and head are both bound; the body can’t really be bound due to the contoured edges. The hardware is gold plated, with Kluson Deluxe type tuners installed at the head, a stop tailpiece and Tune-O-Matic bridge instead of the optional Vibrola tailpiece or the 1961 style side-to-side trem, and three humbucking pickups. The pickup selector switch offers neck, middle and bridge (out of phase), or bridge pickup selection. The controls are for individual volumes and master tone.

This model does not reproduce the ‘Fretless Wonder’ concept, which was very low, flat fretwire. The original idea was that with these low frets, the action could also be quite low. In practice, the low, flat fret can only take a very light crown and with wear, the string quickly starts to leave the fret at the edge, rather than above the carefully placed fret slot. This introduces the potential for intonation and general tuning issues. As well, the low frets can only be dressed once or twice before replacement is required. Finally, string bending with low frets is not as easy as on higher fretwire, simply due to a lack of grip on the string.

This Gibson Les Paul Custom 62 Reissue dates to 2000 and was built at the Gibson shop in Nashville, Tennessee. It is in good original condition, with only light wear. It’s quite comfortable to play, and has an undeniably cool appearance – some might suggest a high degree of visual okayness. Fret wear is very light. The choice of the Kluson type tuners rather than Grovers helps reduce weight at the head and improves overall balance. The white finish lacquer is in overall rather good condition, with expected yellowing from age, and one small dark smudge below the bass-side binding at the 7th fret.

The original black Gibson hard shell case is included.