Even Gibson themselves think it’s absurd that the original Les Paul was sufficiently unappreciated that it should be discontinued.

But, discontinued it was.  After 1960, Gibson would stop making Les Pauls.  Well, for a bit anyway.

Weird to think about that now, isn’t it?

To celebrate the (rather odd when you consider it) anniversary of the Les Paul being pulled from Gibson’s line-up in 1960, The Big G has released this: The 50th Anniversary 1960 Les Paul Standard.

There are three variants of this beauty.

Version one will be finished in Heritage Cherry or a Heritage Dark Burst and comes with a ’59 handful neck shape.  The early 1960’s models had similar specs to the ’59 so this makes good sense.  This one comes with top-hat control knobs.

Version two has a thinner, elliptical neck profile; the middle step to the slim ’60s neck.  This version comes with ‘faded’ sunbursts – a Light Iced Tea and a Sunset Tea burst.

Version three has that slim-taper ’60s neck.  It’s finished in a colour-fast Cherry burst and comes with double-line tuners and gold top-hat knobs.

All the guitars share period-correct features that you’d expect.  Nitrocellulose lacquer finishes, 17-degree headstocks, nickel plated hardware and aluminium strap buttons.  Pickus are BurstBuckers and their lovely noise is controlled by proper CTS pots and bumblebee tone capacitors.  Nice.

These are a Custom Shop limited run of just 500 instruments.  Recommended pricing is US $8,504.

Pricey but nicey.

More at Gibson.