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QUIRKY VINTAGE: GIBSON 50TH ANNIVERSARY 2008 LES PAUL TRIBUTE � Bob Cianci
I’ ve learned along the way that not all quirky guitars are old, nor do they emanate from lesser-known manufacturers. The 2008 Gibson 50 th Anniversary Les Paul Tribute is as quirky and odd as they come. You might consider this guitar Gibson’ s duck-billed platypus for that matter; a mish-mash of features individually seen previously on standard Gibson models, but never together on one guitar. What were those wild and crazy guys at Gibson’ s custom shop thinking back in‘ 08?
Limited to a run of only one hundred units, this 2008 Les Paul Tribute sports a one piece Korina body and one piece neck, featuring the infamous split headstock that graced early Explorers in 1958, along with a rosewood fingerboard. The nut width is 1-11 / 16” and the neck is joined to the body at the 16 th fret. The serial number LPT 076 is stamped on the back of the headstock. Vintage style cream binding runs along the top. There are three custom-wound Burstbucker pickups, three volume controls. and one tone, and the same horizontal pickup selector featured on vintage Gibson ES-5 guitars. CTS pots and specially
made bumblebee capacitors complete the electronics package.
The guitar may or may not be weight relieved, but it is very light, with an estimated weight of around six pounds, making it very playerfriendly. Strapping on it was a delight. There was no neck dive, and it was equally comfortable when played in a sitting position. Bent notes and single note runs rang out nicely, and chord work was equally effortless. Perhaps it’ s the Korina wood, but the guitar’ s natural tonal vibe was on the darker side. It didn’ t have much in the way of high-end response going on, but if you like that darker sound, you’ ll gravitate toward this model. I could easily get used to having this guitar around the house, were it not for the steep price.
The neck is a clubby’ 50s profile“ baseball bat” that was very comfortable in this writer’ s hands, but may be unacceptable to others who prefer a thinner‘ 60s profile. The neck sports twentytwo medium jumbo frets and there was no sign whatsoever of fret wear, indicating this beauty has very little playing time under its belt. All hardware is gold, including the Kluson tuners, Tune-O-Matic bridge, and stop tailpiece. The nitrocellulose finish is called Natural Antique,
and it reminded me of the color shade of the original’ 58 V’ s and Explorers, which makes sense, given the Korina construction. A silver raised plastic logo, exactly like those used on early Flying Vs, is attached to the headstock. It looked very classy, and it’ s unsurprising, given this guitar’ s varied features. A classic brown Lifton case completes the package.
After doing a little research on the‘ Net, it seems there’ s a rumor that not all of the one hundred scheduled guitars in this run of 50 th Anniversary Les Paul Tributes made it into production. If that’ s the case, this guitar is rarer than we thought, and this particular example may be one of the last ones made. We may never know, but in the past, Gibson has cancelled production runs when a guitar fails to sell, and they have been known to take unsold examples, salvage the hardware and electronics, and occasionally( and regrettably) cut the bodies up on a band saw, or use the allotted remaining wood for other guitars. Anyone for dumpster diving?
The 2008 50 th Anniversary les Paul Tribute combines the materials and features of several classic vintage Gibson guitars in a very interesting, odd, and imaginative way. The price of this one is $ 4500.
10 Nov � Dec 2016 CollectibleGuitar. com