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1959 Gibson Les Paul Special Doublecut
Cherry

Art.Nr. Gi59LPSPCH910620

The first version of the 1959 Gibson Les Paul Special! The Les Paul Special Doublecut was introduced in 1959, following the Junior model with the new design. The first models had a special knob/toggle layout that was changed in mid-59 to a more practical placement. A little later the neck pickup was moved towards the bridge pickup to give the super fragile construction a bit more stability. And this is the weak point of those guitars: the neck pickup was placed directly on the end of the fretboard. Although the neck tenon goes all the way under the pickguard, the neck pickup cavity leaves only a small piece of wood which makes the whole construction very weak. Almost all example of these fine guitars have heel repairs. This one does have s repair too BUT. Its not your typical heel crack. There is just a small re-glued chip on the neck heel – clearly visible in our pics. We carefully inspected the guitar and we came to the conclusion that the neck joint was a bit loose due to an incident and was re-glued. The neck was not off or broken. They also added a little piece of wood in the cavity for stability. Long story short: its a minor thing and that Special is in great shape!
Talking about the first incarnation: since we had all of them we need to admit that the placement of that neck pickup is just right. They sound a lot warmer and smoother than the later – relatively weird looking – versions. You can’t beat the sound of that P90 of an early Les Paul Special. The neck is wide and fat, they all have those big beefy 59 necks. It’s a wonderful guitar with a lot more tones than a Junior. Beautiful strong Cherry finish -still a lot of red color! The jackplate is a replacement, otherwise its original. Comes incl. 70s case.