The Gibson Les Paul Studio Session builds on the legacy of its no-frills predecessor with a well-thought-out selection of cosmetic, performance, and electronic updates. To start, the Les Paul Studio Session’s weight-relieved mahogany body is crowned with an eye-grabbing flame maple top. This solidbody electric guitar’s mahogany neck brandishes Gibson’s crowd-pleasing SlimTaper neck profile, which is bolstered by a modern contoured heel for easier playability and an upgraded bound ebony fingerboard. A set of ’57 Classic pickups provides you with supercharged PAF-flavored tones, which are reinforced by four push-pull knobs for easy access to coil tap, out-of-phase, and pure bypass options. You also get Grover Rotomatic tuners with Keystone buttons, head-turning acrylic trapezoid fingerboard inlays, a “Les Paul Model” headstock overlay, and a Gibson logo headstock inlay for authentic Les Paul aesthetics. The Gibson Les Paul Studio Session offers discerning players an appointment-laden real-deal Gibson at an accessible price that’s impossible to pass up.

A well-chosen selection of updates   

The Les Paul Studio is typically regarded as a stripped-down, no-frills version of the Les Paul. That said, the Les Paul Studio Session sets itself apart from the base Studio model with a generous cache of player-preferred updates. For starters, the Les Paul Studio Session’s AA flame maple top gives it a spotlight-stealing look that far outshines its price tag. A bound ebony fingerboard elevates the Les Paul Studio Session into LP Custom territory; meanwhile, a modern contoured heel gives this solidbody electric guitar a level of playability suitable for styles that lean more toward the technical side. The Les Paul Studio Session houses ’57 Classic humbuckers, and its four push-pull knobs give rise to coil tap, out-of-phase, and pure bypass options. You also get upgraded Grover Rotomatic tuning machines with Keystone buttons. At this price point — and with these features — the Les Paul Studio Session enables players of all stripes to get their hands on a well-appointed, authentic Gibson Les Paul.

'57 Classic: supercharged PAF power   

It would be a big mistake to assume that all humbuckers sound alike. The truth is that there are a number of Gibson humbucking pickups available, and each one has its own distinctive personality. With its “Patent Applied For” decal on the faceplate, the ’57 Classic is a near-perfect re-creation of a late-1950s humbucker, delivering a warm, even tone with full, even response. From clean to crunchy, the ’57 Classic delivers the kind of richness once thought possible only from an original 1950s humbucker. Used in the neck position, the ’57 Classic is the perfect complement to the slightly overwound ’57 Classic Plus in the bridge position. It features special Alnico II magnets, vintage enamel-coated wire, nickel-plated pole pieces, nickel slugs, maple spacers, and braided wiring. Thanks to modern production techniques, each ’57 Classic delivers all the tone you’d expect from a vintage Gibson humbucker.

Your conduit to effortless playability 

Players who find vintage Les Pauls heavy and unwieldy (but who love them anyway) will be pleasantly surprised when they pick up the Gibson Les Paul Studio Session. Its Ultra-Modern weight-relieved construction shaves down the guitar’s total weight without affecting the natural acoustic tone of its maple-over-mahogany body. Its SlimTaper neck profile and modern contoured heel provide outstanding hand-cradling comfort. Finally, the Les Paul Studio Session’s bound ebony fingerboard ensures a smooth feel that’s guaranteed to yield hours upon hours of inspired playing. Simply put, the Les Paul Studio Session was tailor-made for marathon-length gigs; it’s a Les Paul you can play for as long as you want without repeated trips to the chiropractor.

What Gibson Says...

When a guitar is “the one,” you know it. It feels just right in your hands; it delivers the sounds you hear in your head. It’s your faithful companion, musical soulmate, and muse, the tool that lets you express your artistic vision. We designed the Les Paul™ Studio Session to be that ideal musical companion, the guitar you won’t be able to put down. The one guitar you’ll be able to rely on every time and will find yourself reaching for again and again. For years, the Les Paul Studio has been the choice of countless guitarists who appreciate the combination of the essential Les Paul features–humbucking pickups, a glued-in, set neck, and a mahogany body with a maple cap. Now, the Les Paul Studio family has a new member - the Les Paul Studio Session, an updated and enhanced version of the classic Les Paul Studio with upgraded features and refinements based on customer feedback and player requests. A step up from previous Les Paul Studio models, it features an Ultra Modern weight-relieved mahogany body, making it lighter and more comfortable to play, no matter how long the gig or jam session runs. The carved, AA figured maple cap not only looks great but also adds brightness and definition to the overall tone and combines perfectly with the warmth and midrange punch from the mahogany body for that legendary Les Paul sound that has been featured on countless hit recordings and on concert stages worldwide. The glued-in mahogany neck provides rock-solid coupling between the neck and body for increased resonance and sustain. The neck features a Modern Contoured Heel for unmatched access to the upper frets and a fast-playing SlimTaper™ profile, and it is capped with a bound ebony fretboard that is equipped with acrylic trapezoid inlays and 22 medium jumbo frets. The 12” fretboard radius is equally comfortable for both rhythm chord playing and lead string bends, and you’re going to love how this instrument feels in your hands. The high-quality Grover® Rotomatic® tuners with Keystone buttons add to the guitar’s classic visual appeal, and together with the fully adjustable aluminum Nashville Tune-O-Matic™ bridge, aluminum Stop Bar tailpiece, and Graph Tech® nut, help to keep the tuning stability nice and solid so you can spend more time playing and less time tuning. The Les Paul Studio Session doesn’t lack anything in the electronics department, either. It comes equipped with a ’57 Classic™ pickup in the neck position and a ’57 Classic + in the bridge position, wired to a three-way pickup selector switch that allows you to use either pickup individually or run them together. Each of the two pickups is wired to its own volume control, so you can blend the sound from the pickups together in any amount you choose. Each volume control is equipped with a push/pull switch for coil tapping, giving you two different sounds from each pickup, and each pickup also has its own individual tone control for even more sonic options. The tone controls are also outfitted with push/pull potentiometers for phase switching when both pickups are used together, as well as Pure Bypass switching that routes the bridge pickup straight to the output jack and bypasses the controls completely for the shortest, purest signal path possible. The endless tonal possibilities, exceptional sustain, resonance, and comfortable playability make the Les Paul Studio Session the one guitar you can rely on for any musical genre or scenario. This is the ultimate Les Paul Studio model, refined and updated for today’s players who want more than just another guitar–they want their guitar. The one. Here it is.