Gibson Les Paul Standard (1958 - 1960)

The original Gibson Les Pauls were developed in conjunction with Les Paul and Ted McCarty, president of Gibson from the late 40’s to the late 60’s. ¹ The Gibson Les Paul Standard model was produce from 1958 until 1960 and was re-introduced in 1968 and has been in production since.

In 1958, Gibson changed the top finish on the regular Les Paul model from the gold color used since 1952 to the Sunburst finish already being used on Gibson’s archtop acoustic and hollow electric guitars. These Sunburst-finished guitars were later referred to as Les Paul Standards to differentiate them from the earlier Goldtop. The hardware specification was the same as that of the ‘57 Goldtop, featuring the new humbucker pickups. Today, the Gibson Les Paul Standard has BurstBucker pickups on the Vintage Original Spec models and Burstbucker Pro on the lower end models bearing the ’Standard’ name.²

The Gibson Les Paul featured PAF pickups that were invented by Seth Lover in 1955 and were added to Gibson solidbody guitars in 1957. A small decal on the back of the pickup was placed with the phrase “Patent Applied For”, giving the pickup the PAF label now associated with the vintage pickups.³

Gibson’ production records:

It’s estimated that more than half of the 1958 Gibson Les Paul Standards were goldtop as opposed to the sunburst finish often associated with the Standard.⁴

Original Gibson Les Pauls from 1958 to 1960 are considered some of the most collectible guitars around, fetching prices in the hundreds of thousands USD.

Sources

¹ Wikipedia – Ted McCarty

² Wikipedia – Gibson Les Paul

³ Vintage Guitars Info’s Gibson PAF (Patent Applied For) Humbucker Pickup Info

⁴ 1958, 1959, 1960 Gibson Les Paul Sunburst Standard Guitar