Gibson has teamed up with veteran guitarist Sergio Vallín of Mexican band Maná for a signature Custom Shop ’55 Les Paul Goldtop, reports Billboard. The musician is already famous for his use of a 1955 Les Paul Goldtop and the collaboration marks his first-ever signature Gibson.
The first thing to notice is the company’s special Murphy Lab aging treatment on its finish and hardware. It’s also equipped with a Bigsby B7 vibrato tailpiece, a regular ABR-1 bridge, and vintage-oriented Kluson tuning machines.
What makes the instrument particularly interesting is the pickup combination. In the bridge position, we have a Custombucker humbucker with a nickel cover. It’s accompanied by a Custom Soapbar P-90 in the neck position, giving it a more unique sonic flavor in the middle position. Other than that, the guitar has your regular 3-way position switch, as well as a 4-knob control layout, two for tone and two for volume.
What needs to be added here is that all of these are 500k audio taper pots. The instrument is also equipped with paper in oil capacitors.
Other than that, we have a classic Gibson configuration. There’s a ’59 profile mahogany neck and a rosewood fingerboard with trapezoid inlays, bearing 22 vintage-style narrow-tail frets. The fingerboard radius is 12 inches. The body is your regular lightweight mahogany along with a 2-piece maple top.
The accent is, obviously, on its appearance. The Murphy Lab aging makes it look like it was made back in the 1950s. Even the back of the neck comes with a worn-out look. Gibson also paid attention to all the details, including the pickguard, switch washer, control covers, and other parts.
Gibson also shared the official recommended price which is $7,999. The price, of course, is subject to change. For instance, Thomann lists it at 8.998€ in Germany. You can check out more details at Gibson’s website here. There’s also the official demo by Gibson and Sergio Vallín which you can check out in the embedded player below.
Photo: Gibson official website
