❌SOLD❌ Gibson Les Paul Standard Solidbody Electric Cobalt Burst 2018

We’ve just received a number of new 2018 models from Gibson, and this absolute gem was in the package – a Gibson Les Paul Standard in Cobalt Burst, a dynamite blue finish.

The Les Paul Standard has been around for 60 years now, and while there have been a few variations, it has remained largely true to the original design. A solid mahogany body is capped with carved, figured maple, a mahogany neck with bound rosewood fingerboard is set in, and a pair of humbucking pickups are installed with individual controls.

The 2018 Les Paul Standard follows this model, but there are a few changes that I would argue are real improvements. First, there’s some light weight relief built into the mahognay back. In this case, the weight is brought down to 4kg or 8.8 pounds, still a comfortable level.

The neck is an asymmetrical slim taper with rolled edges. For my hands, this is one of the more comfortable and practical tapers. It’s wide enough to cleanly compose complex shapes, but narrow enough to allow partial barres with any finger (or thumb).

At the head, the Grover Roto-Matics have been upgraded to locking models, nothing fancy, just a thumbwheel operated lock. Originally, locking tuners were targeted towards tuning stability with trem systems, but it turns out that they are a real boon for rapid string changes on any guitar.

The wiring looks traditional, but it’s not. BurstBucker Pro units installed with all coils accessible, the controls are push / pull pots. The Volume control push/pull operates the coil taps or splits. The Neck Tone control push/pull puts the pickups in or out of phase, and the Bridge Tone control selects inner or outer coils in split or tap modes.

But wait, there’s more!

As well, inside the control cavity there is a 5-row DIP switch. The first two DIP switches are for neck and bridge pickups and select between splitting or tapping the coils through a filter. Switches 3 and 4 engage a high pass filter (a treble bleed circuit, to retain highs when turning the volume down) for each pickup. The fifth DIP switch is intended to suppress transient signals when connecting to a digital audio interface or DAW.

You’ll spend a bit of time with the controls and switches finding many new sounds, but it’s easy to push it all down and get the original Les Paul tone.

I like this guitar, a lot. The blue Cobalt Burst caught my eye right away. The top is done with the burst and the back, sides and neck are a dark blue tint. It’s very nicely done and has a lot of depth.

The original Gibson hard shell case is included.  And while it’s not installed or drilled for, a creme  pickguard is included.