Gibson has unveiled a limited edition run of its most-famous electric guitar with the Les Paul Standard Double Trouble offering a neat vintage-inspired twist.
Offered as a ‘50s style or ‘60s style, the Double Troubles take the metal housings off the humbuckers, revealing a pair of double-white bobbins on the pickups. As the In old money, i.e. when the PAF was the only show in town, this would be a holy grail vintage find.
“This is a really fun limited run with some really important history behind it, celebrating humbucker bobbin colors seen only in 1959 and 1960, which have become part of the lore of Les Paul Standard models as well as the legend of our humbuckers themselves,” says Mat Koehler, Gibson's VP of products, speaking to the Gibson Gazette.
We don’t have PAFs here, sorry; those pickups are thin on the ground. But we do have two of Gibson’s contemporary takes on its classic ‘bucker, with the BurstBucker 1 and 2 on the ‘50s model, the Burstbucker 61R and Burstbucker 61T on the ‘60s.
It will be interesting to hear how these electric guitar pickup voicings compare, with each of them based around an Alnico 2 magnet.
Gibson has given given both Double Trouble Les Paul Standards a lick of high-gloss nitrocellulose, which of course is on brand for the model, but here the Vintage Tobacco Sunburst and Vintage Cherry Sunburst finishes have a slightly aged, muted tonality to them.
It looks good. They’re not actually aged a la the Murphy Lab. The hardware here is nickel, pristine. Gibson has gone with the ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic bridge and aluminium stop-bar tailpiece for both, but switches up the tuners and the dials to help differentiate between the ‘50s and ‘60s varietals.
You’ll find Vintage Deluxe tuners with ‘50s model, while the ‘60s model has a set of Grover Rotomatics with metal kidney bean-style buttons. Other tell-tale differences include the control knobs. You’ll find gold “Top Hat” knobs with silver reflectors and dial pointers on the ‘60s Double Trouble and gold “Top Hat” knobs with no inserts on the ‘50s.
Pick ‘em up and play and you’ll feel the difference. The ‘60s model has that SlimTaper neck shape, with the ‘50s model more of a palm-filling vintage profile.
Elsewhere, they’re two peas in a pod. That means solid mahogany bodies – no weight relief here, thanks – paired with carved AA figured maple tops. Necks are mahogany, glued to the bodies. The fingerboards are 12” radius rosewood with acrylic trapezoid inlays. Cream pickguards come as standard – but maybe with this whole uncovered vibe you’ll be of a mind to remove the pickguard.
Just remember to keep it in the accompanying hard-shell guitar case. ‘Guards have a reputation for going missing. Just ask the vintage collectors. Maybe one day these will be as sought after as their Golden Era counterparts.
With only 500 available of each, get them while they’re hot. Priced £2,499/$2,799, the Les Paul Standard Double Trouble is available now. See Gibson for more details.
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