The Story:

2005 Gibson Les Paul Classic “1960” in Cherry Sunburst. This example has a lovely vintage-style, non-flamed burst top with beautifully plain-grained maple and a gorgeous cherry burst that the photos cannot do justice to.

A very nice example of this sought after model, with 2005 being a favoured year. With all the ‘right’ spec, unchambered Mahogany body, ’60’s profile neck, ABR bridge, Kluson vintage style tuners and aged trapezoid inlays on a rosewood fingerboard. 490R+500T pickups sound nice and crisp with a nice vintage bite. In excellent condition for its age, a few small marks, mainly some worming buckle-rash that is not through the finish and hard to capture and a minor indent lower down the back of the neck that does not affect playing comfort or playability (see photos).

These are now becoming collectable and known as rather well built Les Pauls and which were the closest thing to a ‘60s reissue that Gibson did before the Custom Shop started doing them properly. This model was also effectively the Les Paul Standard of the time, before Gibson also sorted all that out latterly with their re-shaping of the collections into Historic and Modern Collections in 2019.

Make no mistake, this is a world away above the modern Les Paul Classics of today and is the closest thing to a ‘60s reissue outside of the Custom Shop.

With original Gibson Hard Case with the blanket cover, a really high quality OHSC.

The Specs:

Body Shape: Les Paul
Body Material: Mahogany
Top: Maple
Finish: Gloss Nitrocellulose Lacquer
Neck Material: Mahogany
Profile: SlimTaper
Scale Length: 24.75″ / 628.65mm
Fingerboard Material: Rosewood
Fingerboard Radius: 12″
Number Of Frets: 22
Frets: Medium Jumbo
Nut Material: Graph Tech
Nut Width: 1.69″ / 43.05mm
Hardware Finish: Nickel
Bridge: ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic
Tailpiece: Aluminum Stopbar
Tuning Machines: Kluson Vintage Style
Pickguard: Cream w/ “1960” Engraving
Control Knobs: Gold Top Hats with Silver Reflector
Switch Tip: Cream
Switchwasher: Cream
Jack Plate Cover: Nickel
Neck Pickup: 490R
Bridge Pickup: 500T
Controls: Two Volumes, Two Tones, Toggle Switch
Case: High-quality Gibson Hard Shell Case