Dark Cherry Mahogany Les Paul Custom

This specially ordered 'Cherry-Mahogany' 1993 Gibson Custom Shop three pickup '59 Reissue Les Paul Custom weighs 9.90 lbs. Solid mahogany body, one-piece mahogany neck with a wonderful typical '59 thick profile, a huge nut width of just under 1 3/4 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Ebony fretboard with 22 frets and inlaid pearl block position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl five-piece split-diamond inlay. Two-layer (black on white) plastic truss-rod cover with "Les Paul Custom" engraved in white. Serial number ("9 3221") inked-on in black on the back of the headstock. Gold and black "Custom Shop / Edition" decal also on back of headstock. The top of the guitar has seven-ply binding, the back has five-ply binding, the headstock has five-ply binding, and the fretboard is single-bound. Individual Grover Roto-Matic tuners with half-moon metal buttons. Three '57 Reissue PAF humbucker pickups with black plastic rings and with outputs of 8.08k, 8.02k, and 7.94k. Each pickup has a small rectangular black "Patent Applied For" label on the underside. Five-layer (black/white/black/white/black) plastic pickguard. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch. The potaentiometers are stamped "137 9342" (CTS October 1993). Black plastic bell-shaped "Bell" knobs. Gibson ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic retainer bridge with metal saddles and separate stud tailpiece. All hardware gold-plated. This guitar is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition with just a couple of small marks on the top. Housed in the original Gibson brown hardshell case with purple plush lining (9.00).

This amazing guitar features a one-piece mahogany body with a one piece carved mahogany top. The neck is also one-piece mahogany. The finish is a remarkable Dark Cherry Mahogany which is quite similar to the 'ultra-rare' Cherry 1959 Les Paul Standard pictured on page 39 of Tony Bacon's Fifty Years of the Gibson Les Paul. We have seen quite a few Custom Shop Les Paul Custom's with the usual black finish, sometimes in white or different shades of Sunburst, BUT - these guitars are usually based on a 1957 or a 1960 Custom. We have never seen a Custom Shop Les Paul Custom with a '59 serial number and all the '59 specifications including a remarkably accurate neck profile, let alone in a unique color as this one is…

"Special one-off custom orders were available from Gibson's original factory in Kalamazoo from its earliest days, but a bona fide Custom Department wasn't officially established until the 1960's. There was a Custom Shop at the current Nashville factory from 1883 until 1988, and then from 1993 as a separate division and under a separate roof just along from the main plant… known as the Custom/Historic/Art division. The Custom Shop's purpose has been and is to manufacture special models, custom-order one-of-a-kinds, and limited edition production runs in relatively small quantities. These have included exclusive guitars for dealers such as Guitar Trader, Leo's, Jimmy Wallace, Norman's Rare Guitars and others. Some Custom Shop instruments have been elaborate versions of stock items, employing higher quality timbers, better hardware, or impressive finishes - for example some models extravagantly inlaid with pearl by Greg Rich, or the Web-Slinger One with John Ronita's Spiderman artwork. Custom Shop guitars sometimes carry an identifying logo on the back of the headstock." Tony Bacon Fifty Years of the Gibson Les Paul, p.132).