Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Gibson Les Paul 25th Anniversary




My dad bought this guitar for me many years ago. It's the only guitar I've kept for all these years. Most of my guitars are bought and then sold again, but not this one.

The Gibson Les Paul 25th Anniversary model was made to celebrate Gibson's 25 year association with Les Paul and Les Paul's 50 years in the industry. It features deluxe appointments and very hot pickups which are coil-tapped to change phase.

When I got this guitar, I told my dad that one day this one will be a collector's item. About 3000 of these were made which seems like a lot, but it really isn't. Gibson makes a LOT of Les Paul guitars every year, but a run of 3000 is considered limited to them.

It's not the greatest sounding Les Paul by any means. In fact, I had a Les Paul Deluxe (no longer with me) that sounded and played better. But this guitar has more sentimental meaning to me than any other guitar I have ever owned because it was one that my dad bought me as an investment.

Before my dad passed away, he asked me if I still had this guitar. I told him I did. What I didn't tell him is that I will always have this guitar. It's never going to be sold. That's because it connects me to my dad and everytime I look at it, I think of him.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

yes I remember that guitar - I saw it at Guitar Center and I remember thinking it was so beautiful. You kept it stock which is awesome.

I see the phase switch on it - would you say those pickups are too hot so they don't give the warm, smooth, humbucker tone?

Mine is a 20th anniversary, and I don't know the production figures with it. That bridge is really cool- it looks like it has micro tuners on it or something.

russlowe said...

The humbuckers on this guitar are actually TOO warm. They are extremely powerful, but because of it, it makes the sound a little too dark compared to other humbuckers.

As for the tailpiece, yes, there are individual "micro-tuners" on there. You do your best to tune as normal with the tuners on the headstock and then you can "fine-tune" with the ones on the tailpiece. If you do tuning with harmonics, referencing one string to the next, it's really fast to dial it right in with these fine tuners.

Thanks for visiting my blog to check out the guitar.

Russ