Gibson Custom 1959 Les Paul Standard Torrefied AAA Top | John's Brew - VOS

The Gibson Custom Shop do some pretty special stuff, whether it’s reissues of our favourite guitars from years gone by, or turning dream builds into reality, they really can do it all! This particular Les Paul is a really interesting one, and not something you come across every day.

Last year, Peach Guitars director, John Priest headed out to Nashville, TN to meet with Gibson’s senior leadership team, and to spec out some unique Custom Shop instruments. When visiting the Custom Shop, John will often sort through hundreds of pieces of raw maple to find the best possible tops for our ’59 Les Paul reissues. John has a great eye for this sort of thing, so we always end up with our finished builds looking incredible. On this trip however, Gibson showed John an exclusive batch of 3A torrefied maple, which isn’t something that’s been available to order for a little while. These pieces of torrefied maple are much darker in colour even before staining, which gives a real depth to the overall look of the guitar. The torrefaction process also really helps to dry out the wood and crystallizes any moisture within, which greatly increases the strength and stability, while also increasing the resonance and tone!

As this is a ’59 Les Paul re-issue, the body is crafted from both mahogany and figured maple. This tonewood partnership really is something special, it gives you warmth, sustain, and great clarity. All of the timber used on this build was personally chosen by John for its beauty, and lightweight nature. So, if you’re looking for a lightweight instrument with a killer tone, then you should 100% check this out! The stain we choose for this limited run of guitars is heavily inspired by Tom Murphy’s legendary "Tom’s Tea" stain, which is a gorgeous sunburst finish which is slightly faded around the edge. This finish works well with the darker maple tops and has resulted in a seriously cool looking guitar. We spec’d these to feature no pickguard, but there is a pickguard included in the case with this guitar.

The mahogany neck is incredibly comfortable and really easy to play. The V1 carmelita neck profile is a real fan favourite and is one we like to include on our custom builds due to it comfortable feel and size. The rosewood fingerboard is dark in colour and works really well with the John's Brew stain. It features cream neck binding, medium jumbo frets, a 24.75" scale length, a traditional fingerboard radius, and aged trapezoid cellulose inlays.

With a set of Custombucker pickups, this Les Paul Custom easily delivers that iconic Les Paul tone we all know and love. The Custombucker is a really interesting pickup set. They're designed to replicate the feel and response of the legendary P.A.F. pickup, and they certainly do a great job. They're dynamic, really responsive, and sound great both clean and distorted. This guitar is finished off with Kluson deluxe  tuners and a traditional tune-o-matic bridge and tailpiece.