Now sporting nickel pickup covers, the Gibson Les Paul Standard '50s Faded is a return to the classic design that has made this solidbody electric guitar relevant, played, and loved for more than six decades — and counting. The Les Paul Standard '50s Faded boasts a resonant body of solid mahogany, which exhibits incredible warmth and sustain, along with a supremely eye-catching AA flamed maple top, which adds snap and bite to your acoustic tone. You'll also appreciate the easy playability of this Les Paul's rosewood-capped Vintage '50s neck. The Les Paul Standard '50s Faded is loaded with BurstBucker Alnico II pickups for legendary PAF-style sustain, crunch, and midrange, and its handwired harness with Orange Drop capacitors ensures spot-on vintage tone. This electric guitar includes a head-turning satin nitrocellulose finish, and it's spec'd with a TUSQ nut, Vintage Deluxe tuning machines, and a hardshell case. Hankering for a vintage-style Les Paul with killer appointments? Look no further than the Les Paul Standard '50s Faded.

BurstBucker pickups deliver vintage PAF tone

When it comes to capturing that vintage '50s Patent Applied For (PAF) humbucker tone, the guitarists here at Music Experience really dig the sound of this Les Paul Standard's BurstBucker pickups. Alnico II magnets capture the subtle variations in true humbucker tone, thanks to the period-correct unmatched windings on the bobbins. Plug into your favorite amp, and experience smooth low-end response, complex midrange crunch, and sweet-sounding highs. These pickups sound great clean, or they can be used to push your amp into overdrive for the legendary fat, snarling tone you can only get with a humbucker. Under the hood, the control assembly is handwired with matched potentiometers and Orange Drop capacitors, ensuring that you'll hear the mellifluous voice of your Les Paul Standard '50s Faded in all its glory, even when you back down your volume.

Vintage '50s neck and Plek'd frets for optimized playability

Comfort and playability were two of Gibson's primary concerns when they were designing the Les Paul Standard '50s Faded. You'll be delighted by how this guitar's vintage '50s neck profile comfortably fills your hand in just the right way. For your playing pleasure, the rosewood fingerboard is buffed to silky smoothness and bound with rolled edges so that no fret ends impede your dexterity. The frets are dressed to perfection using a Plek Pro machine for optimized playability. Typically reserved for top-dollar custom guitars, this process levels the frets with pinpoint precision, providing you with the most playable fretboard you're likely to own.

Nitro finish for the look and feel of a classic

Gibson gave the Les Paul Standard '50s Faded a gorgeous satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish. Nitro finishes — standard back in the day — are significantly thinner than today's polyurethane finishes, allowing the guitar to “breathe.” Nitro finishes not only look amazing, but they also enhance the instrument's tonal qualities. The Les Paul Standard '50s Faded has the look and feel of a lovingly cared-for classic — one that will only improve with age.

What Gibson Says...

The Les Paul™ Standard 50s Faded returns to the classic design that made it relevant, played, and loved – shaping sound across generations and genres of music. It pays tribute to Gibson's Golden Era of innovation and brings authenticity back to life. The Les Paul Standard 50s features a satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish that gives it the look and feel of a long-treasured musical companion. It has a solid mahogany body with no weight relief, as is traditional for Les Paul models, and an AA figured carved maple cap that adds a bit of bite and brightness to the warm tone of the mahogany body, and let's face it–figured maple just looks fantastic. The mahogany neck has a 50s Vintage-style profile with a bit of meat to it and is satisfyingly full in your hands when you play it without being too beefy, and the satin finish helps to keep the playing feel smooth and fast. The neck is capped with a rosewood fretboard that is fitted with 22 smooth-playing medium jumbo frets and adorned with acrylic trapezoid inlays. The 12" fretboard radius makes first position chording and upper fret string bends equally comfortable. The Les Paul Standard 50s Faded is equipped with an ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic™ bridge, an aluminum Stop Bar tailpiece, a Graph Tech® nut, and Vintage Deluxe tuners with Keystone buttons, all of which help contribute to its renown sustain and help to keep the tuning stability rock solid. Both of the pickups have individual volume and tone controls, with gold Top Hat knobs with dial pointers, so you'll always know exactly how you have the control settings dialed up. The Gibson Burstbucker™ 1 (neck) and Burstbucker 2 (bridge) pickups feature nickel covers and are hand-wired to audio taper potentiometers and Orange Drop® capacitors. A hardshell case is included to keep the Les Paul Standard 50s Faded safe and secure when you're not playing it and when you're traveling to and from your next show.