"A Stunning Recreation of a Legendary Les Paul"
One of One Hundred Joe Perry Les Paul's Specially Aged by Tom Murphy
 

2013 Gibson Joe Perry '59 Les Paul Standard aged by Tom Murphy

This Joe Perry Les Paul Standard is one of just a hundred guitars specially made in 2013, each one aged by Tom Murphy. This superb guitar, perfect in every detail, has a perfect 'Burst' weight of 8.40 lbs. Two-piece book-matched solid carved flamed 'Tobacco Burst' maple top with single-ply cream binding on a one-piece solid mahogany body. One-piece grade 'A' mahogany neck with a nut width of 1 11/16 inches, a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches and a very comfortable 'meaty' neck profile. Bound rosewood fretboard with 22 medium jumbo frets, inlaid pearl trapezoid position markers and black side-dot markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and "Les Paul Model" silk-screened in gold. Individual 'single-line' Kluson Deluxe tuners with single-ring-ring Keystone plastic buttons. Serial number "Perry 014" stamped in black on back of headstock. Single-layer cream plastic pickguard.Two perfectly balanced Gibson 'Custombucker Alnico 3' humbucking pickups with cream plastic surrounds and outputs of 8.06k and 8.09k. Four controls (two volume, two tone) on lower treble bout, plus three-way selector switch on upper bass bout. Gold-plastic bell-shaped "Bell" knobs. ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic non-retainer bridge with metal saddles and separate stud tailpiece. Inside the control cavity, on the inside edge of the maple top is "9 0663" and "R9" stamped in black. This guitar is in 'mint-aged' (9.50) condition. Housed in the original Gibson Custom, five-latch, shaped brown hardshell case with burgundy plush lining (9.50). Complete with the original black leather folder containing the Gibson Custom Certificate of Authenticity: Joe Perry 1959 Les Paul Aged / Perry 014 / The guitar bearing the serial number above is 1 of 100 Aged instruments / hand-built by Gibson Custom, where highly skilled artisans are / committed to carrying on the company's century-old tradition of / creating exquisite, investment-quality instruments. This guitar / boldly reflects the highest standards of imaginative design / and masterful craftsmanship." Signed in silver pen by Joe Perry and also by Rick Gembar, General Manager, Senior Vice President, Gibson Custom Shop.

The Joe Perry 1959 Les Paul

"Of all the great original 1959 Standards out there—a pretty small number to begin with—Joe Perry’s own Les Paul has long been acclaimed as one of the finest. The rich, road-worn character of this guitar, serial number 9-0663, is utterly moving, and it seems to throb with the wealth of music and experience earned over decades of being played on stages and in recording studios around the world. In Joe’s own words, “It’s got everything a great Les Paul is supposed to have. The neck isn’t quite as fat as, say, a ’54 Goldtop, but it’s still got a good, meaty neck. It’s not a high-output guitar, so it’s got a lot of tone… And it’s got all the natural sustain and warmth, and when you turn it up it growls.”
As stunning a tone monster as this guitar is, however, the story of its passage in and out of Perry’s hands over the years is equally riveting. Slash, Boston area guitar legend Billy Loosigian, and Eric Johnson have all owned number 9-0663 over the years, as it did the rounds through the various ups and downs of Aerosmith’s career. Once it was clear that Joe had made the shift from struggling to thriving as an artist, he sought to recapture his most cherished axe for good. Many years, many phone calls, and many near misses later, this amazing 1959 Les Paul returned to the man who seemed destined to call it his own.
Thanks to Gibson Custom and Joe Perry, you can now own the closest possible thing to Joe’s most prized guitar, in the form of one of a very limited run of replicas based on exclusive access to the original. The Joe Perry 1959 Les Paul was created from painstaking examination and measurement of the original guitar, and delivers the full tone, feel, and look of this highly prized ’Burst. It is available now in a limited run of 50 guitars aged and hand-signed by the artist, 100 aged guitars, and 150 finished in Gibson’s VOS process.
Gibson Custom has gone to great lengths with the Joe Perry 1959 Les Paul to create a guitar that possesses the very spirit of the original. The recreation starts with a solid, one-piece premium lightweight mahogany body married to a hand-selected maple top. The guitar is finished in an exclusive Faded Tobacco Burst with Historic “Vintage” aniline red and dark walnut dye on the back, sides, and back of the neck, just like the original The hand-aged examples show characteristic wear that authentically matches the playing wear on the original, while the VOS guitars display a gently-aged patina in the finish and hardware. The neck is carved from a single piece of quarter-sawn mahogany and profiled to a full and sweetly rounded ’59 shape derived from precise measurement of Joe’s own guitar, then topped with a one-piece rosewood fingerboard inlaid with period-correct cellulose trapezoids. A set of Kluson Deluxe tuners, a lightweight aluminum stopbar tailpiece, and ABR-1 bridge complete a period-correct hardware complement, while vintage cream binding, gold Top Hat knobs, and a cream plastic pickguard enhance the guitar’s vintage looks.
The Joe Perry 1959 Les Paul sounds every bit as phenomenal as it looks and feels, thanks to a pair of Custombucker humbucking pickups designed to closely match the original PAFs in Joe’s guitar. Each is made with an Alnico 3 magnet and wound with accurate plain-enamel 42 AWG plain-enamel wire to specs determine by close measurement of the original pickups, with a neck pickup that reads around 8k ohms and bridge pickup that’s slightly hotter at 8.5k ohms for plenty of authentic growl. Controls include the traditional independent volume and tones, with “bumble bee” tone caps on the latter, and a three-way Switchcraft™ axial toggle selector. Put it all together, and it’s like making this well-traveled, rock-history-making Les Paul your very own—but the Joe Perry 1959 Les Paul is only available in strictly limited numbers, so reserve yours now at your authorized Gibson Custom dealer. Each guitar includes a Brown Custom Shop hardshell case, along with Certificate of Authenticity, owner’s manual and adjustment literature, and Gibson Custom’s Limited Lifetime Warranty and 24/7/365 Customer Service. (www2.gibson.com).

This very limited production guitar was offered by Gibson for $15,000 - and sold out almost immediately.