Description
Gibson has a history of innovation that is unmatched in the guitar world, and the first Les Pauls of the 1950s were the most versatile guitars ever created. It’s only natural that Gibson USA would continue to push the envelope for power, tone, and performance flexibility, and the Les Paul Studio makes the perfect platform to play it forward into the 21st century. Welcome the Les Paul Studio Limited, a guitar born out of the great tradition of the original Les Paul Standard, equipped with the latest incarnations of Robot Guitar tuning capabilities, Chameleon Tone Technology, and the massive connectivity potential of Gibson’s latest “Blue Dot” Robot Interface Pack (RIP), included. All this, and the Les Paul Studio Limited is still a descendant of the timeless classic in every regard, with traditional Les Paul tonewoods, specs and playability, two of Gibson’s most revered magnetic pickups, plus a piezo-loaded bridge for acoustic tones, and the great look of its Fireburst Finish in hand-sprayed, high-gloss nitrocellulose lacquer.
Even if you never make use of the guitar’s cutting-edge tonal capabilities (but believe us, you will!) the Les Paul Studio Limited is still a great Les Paul in the traditional sense, with a bundle of thoughtful upgrades that improve its performance without taking it the least bit out of the realm of its iconic predecessors. The Les Paul Studio Limited is made with the time-tested tonewood pairing of an unbound carved Grade-A maple top and mahogany body, the latter chambered to reduce weight and enhance resonance. Its glued-in neck is made from solid mahogany, carved to a slim, fast early ’60s profile that measures .800” at the 1st fret and .875” at the 12th. Its unbound fingerboard is made from a single piece of rich, brown Granadillo, a prized Central American hardwood that’s non-porous, straight grained, very dense, and has a ringing warm tap-tone that is well balanced. This gorgeous wood provides a durable and sultry feeling bed for the 22 medium-jumbo frets, while maintaining a traditional look and playing experience. The Les Paul Studio Limited’s 24 ¾” scale length, 12” fingerboard radius, and 1 11/16” width at the nut retain all the familiar and superbly playable characteristics of the traditional Les Paul that have proven themselves through more than six decades of great music.
In the hardware department the Les Paul Studio Limited truly excels. A set of Gibson’s revolutionary, upgraded Robot Tuners™ as first introduced on the Robot Guitar, offers unprecedented automated tuning capabilities via the guitar’s Master Control Knob (MCK). You can now access any preset tuning in just one second, which means you can realistically change tunings in the middle of a song, if needed. What’s more, the tuners are now automatically engaged to operate both electronically or individually by hand. A PLEK-cut black Tefzel™ nut keeps the strings hitch free, while a Robot stopbar bridge at the body end locks it all down tight for maximum sustain. The guitar’s Tune-o-matic style bridge offers a nod to Gibson tradition and innovation of years past, while hiding a major secret weapon in the form of its piezo-pickup saddles. Routed to the controls via a blendable rotary potentiometer is the three-way Toggle-Pot switch with its own onboard studio-quality active LP-Z preamplifier that allows for a stronger and more natural acoustic guitar sound, the piezo signal yields a realistic acoustic-guitar sound that can be used on its own or blended in any desired proportion with the guitar’s traditional magnetic pickup tone.
Of course the pickups and electronics set is where the Les Paul Studio Limited really takes off into the stratosphere. A hot-wound, noise-free P-90H in the neck position and a hot BurstBucker 3 in the bridge offer the full range of tones available from Gibson’s most popular pickups of all time, providing the warmth and clarity of vintage P-90 and PAF humbucker pickups, with added grind and sustain for contemporary lead tones when required. Routed through the three-way Toggle-Pot switch, independent volumes, and a master tone control, these two great electro-magnetic pickups offer entirely traditional Les Paul tones as desired, but with the further control of the MCK they can be warped, tweaked and twisted through Gibson’s radical Chameleon Tone Technology into every conceivable modded, hot-rodded, and upgraded electric guitar tone imaginable. Use the MCK to split either or both pickups coils for brighter single-coil tones, link them out of phase for funky sounds, or combine elements of any individual configurations to craft your own tones—any of which, don’t forget, can be blended in whatever proportion you desire with the piezo bridge’s acoustic sound.
All of these unprecedented tonal possibilities exit the Les Paul Studio Limited through a multi-function output that expands the guitar’s capabilities exponentially. The 1/4” stereo jack can be used with a standard mono guitar cord to send individual or blended magnetic and piezo pickup signals to your amp of choice, according to the player’s control selections. Used with a stereo (TRS) cord and the included “Blue Dot” RIP, you can split the piezo and magnetic signals to individual amps or PA or recording channels, or route them directly via FireWire to your Mac or PC to access sound-shaping or recording software. The Les Paul Studio Limited comes bundled with Guitar Rig™ and Ableton Live Lite™ software, or use the guitar with your DAW of choice. Also included are a charging dock with both an AC adaptor plug and Euro adaptor for charging the battery that powers the guitar’s onboard electronics, as well as a spare battery so you’re ready to go in an instant when the pre-installed battery needs to be swapped out.
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ABOUT GIBSON:
Orville Gibson founded the company in 1902 as “The Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co., Ltd.” in Kalamazoo, Michigan to make mandolin-family instruments. Gibson invented archtop guitars by constructing the same type of carved, arched tops used on violins. By the 1930s, the company was also making flattop acoustic guitars, as well as one of the first commercially available hollow-body electric guitars, used and popularized by Charlie Christian. www.gibson.com
