Gibson Les Paul Custom AW

La Gibson Les Paul Custom no solo es un instrumento estéticamente bello. Es cómoda de tocar, con una acción estupenda, buena construcción... y, sobre todo, su sonido. Qué sonido!!. Esto es puro rock. Al tocarla te das cuenta de por qué tal o cual canción de tu grupo favorito sonaba como sonaba. Sus pastillas son un cañón, que dispara en la dirección de los sonidos míticos del rock: desde rock clásico a punk, pasando por hard rock o powerpop. Aunque, si lo necesitas, también maneja sonidos limpios con facilidad y potencia.
Tengo muchas guitarras, incluidas dos Gretsch de gama alta (Nashville y SilverJet); son geniales, y cada una se adapta a un estilo. Pero ninguna es como la Gibson Les Paul Custom. Se nota al enchufarla a casi cualquier ampli (la he tocado con Orange, Marshall, Fender, Vox y Mesa Boogie, y con todas es brillante, apenas necesitas toquetear los potenciómetros para lograr un gran tono). Acordes abiertos, con cejilla, solos o palm mute, esta guitarra suena a...lo he dicho antes: puro rock. Excelente.
Como extra, venía con un estuche Gibson de alta calidad. Buen añadido, aunque lógico y esperable, dada la gama y precio de la guitarra.

Una magnifica guitarra, desde su empaquetado con esa garantía de no haber sido abierta la caja, hasta su largo sustain. Sobria terminación, con muy buenos materiales. el lacado blanco parece duro. La he probado en un Carvin V3. la respuesta en limpio es maravillosa, en las tres posiciones del conmutador. Los potenciómetros no están de adorno, es que uno se da cuenta que originalmente se instalaron para que cumplieran su función. En canal Overdrive y distorsión, es impresionante su infinito... rock en estado puro. Para el Blues tiene ese sustaín para estirar la cuerda y conseguir esas dinámicas. Es una gozada de guitarra que no va a dejar a nadie decepcionado y uno se da cuenta porque tienen ese precio, y cuando vuelves a las guitarras de mil quinientos, notas lo que notas. Principalmente buscaba una guitarra que tuviera mucha presencia y nada de esos sonidos delgaditos que cuando tocas un solo se desvaneces al poco de su ataque y no tener que usar pedales de ayuda.

Es gibson, es control de calidad, es ese precio.

Su contra es insalvable, su peso, pero es que su peso es su sonido, una cosa da la otra, es así.
Es una guitarra en la que no tienes que mejorar nada, puedes personalizar, porque eso es tan personal, pero por algo distinto, no por algo mejor.

This is a review of a Les Paul Custom Apline White purchased from Thomann.

Firstly the service from Thomann was excellent. Very helpful communication by phone and email and a 4 day delivery time to the UK. The guitar arrived nicely packaged. I have bought from Thomann on 4 occasions now and have always
had excellent service.

Back to the guitar.

Box/Case/Guitar:
The guitar came in a sealed boxed that I think had not be opened since it left the factory in the USA. Inside was the newer Custom tan case and custom shop certificate passport. I think I prefer the older black cases but that just my opinion. The case doesnt include any candy at all. No lead,stickers,cloth etc. I like this though. Just minimal splendour. I love the Apline White finish with Gold Hardware. It's a fine looking instrument.

Build/Fit/Finish Quality:
Having watched how Gibson builds guitars on YouTube and in particular the Les Paul Custom I was impressed with the build quality and finish. I know that a lot of the build is done by hand. The binding in particualr is a highly skilled process. I also know that the white nitro finish is a demanding process as white shows all airbourne impurities when spraying. I couldn't find any flaws at all in the finish. All the hardware was fitted nicely. There is a sense of "by hand" craftsman ship with this guitar. They will all be slighly different and unique. I like that.

The only one minor "flaw" I noticed is that there must be a tiny piece of dust/wood shaving in the chamber cavity. There's a very slight noise of something moving around in there. It's not too audible and doesnt impact playing at all. I will class this as a personality trait.

Setup/Playing experience.
The out of box set-up was suprisingly perfect to my taste. The action was perfect, the fretword immaculate. It was nice to see fine tooling marks where the binding on the end of the frets had been dressed by hand. The guitar has good intonation and is resonant. The pickups were set up with good balance. This guitar plays like butter.

Sound: Im not going to be able to describe this well. Sound is too subjective. To my ears the the Custom has a wide array of sounds in the 3 pickup positions.
All genres of music could be played on this from Jazz to Metal. The tone pots are very usuable and offer a lot of variation. I have 3 Les Pauls. A 2008 Standard and Les Paul Deluxe and now the Custom. They all sound different but fabulous. I would say the Custom has a more varied musical range of tones.

Richlite v Ebony - the big debate: Initially I was a purist Ebony fan. But common sense took over. I've played a few guitars (mainly acoustics) with Richlite and cannot fault it.

My guitar has a Richlite board (calm down its ok) and I think its a fine material. Yes its not organic or as aesthetically pleasing as Ebony but as functioning material I cant fault it. It looks nice, solid, stable and jet black and plays very smoothly.

Summary:
The Custom is an outstanding instrument. It's a privelege to own and play. I would recommend trying one. Once bitten forever smitten though.