1958 and 1959 Gibson Les Paul guitars - review and history

This is the best information on the Les Pauls of this era that I have ever seen!!!
Thank you so much for this.
Would you consider doing another quick video with overdriven valve amps, to hear that magical tone? You both can play very well!!!! I'd love to hear the tone and overdrive keep going up and up, to feel the tone changing.

Had I the money, I'd feel pretty confident to buy a 1959/60 Lemonburst like that and have a good chance of knowing a fake from a real one.
Brilliant!

...and yet a 3rd viewing and wanted to mention Bob's playing in the intro.
Well, I really dug the tone and technique which brought to my mind Mick Taylor's
plunking for John Mayall's Brrreakers.
(me all time favorite bit of 'Burst' manipulation)

Ramone , you were sounding like Johnny Winter at the end there!
Bob, you’re a scary bugger too with your playing!
Magic listening to those gems being played well!

Well done, gentlemen!
👏

Marvellous chaps! love Bob's enthusiasm for these instruments

The flow is good with these two gents. At about 10 or so, they get into that Spanish edge of the seaside sound. Very fluid sound from these gents and the les pauls.

Who are the people speaking I’m the background? Neighbors or something?

The STRADIVARIUS of electric guitars!💪

In your opinion the 59 is the ultimate over them all?!

Who knew Roger Stone was a vintage guitar snob :)

both lovely instruments. I have to admit Im more than happy with my late 90s R8 and wouldnt part with it at all. It does everything I want a LP to do, I did however change pots , caps etc but it works.

is old better than new wood. !! Really ?

I have played a lot of Gibson Les Pauls throughout the years and owned many. I am down to one left. They all are great don't get me wrong but there is nothing to an original and I was lucky enough to play an original gold top 54'. Yes, fat neck and I don't have big hands, to say the least. That fat neck though was made for my hands for some reason and it had the original P-90's in them. Fatness for days IMO. I used to own an R8 years ago and I was quite sad to sell her. I never had a Les Paul as good since. Yes, it wasn't an original but it had all the classic tones you would expect and it delivered. Now that I have only one left 2017, I put her up for sale and I would love to replace it with a 58' or 59' custom shop. They are better than modern standards IMO.
The search continues, the next one I will keep for sure. In your video, both guitars sound amazing and it seems that I like the 58' better. I'm not saying anything bad about the 59' though. The only way I will know is in the playing plus you both have different styles, different hands, and different equipment. You both play wonderfully.

Beautiful guitars. Cali-Girl cases are the narrow wasted brown cases though…just for the record..

would have been cool to talk about the differences in the PAF's of these guitars as we know they were all over the place...

Great video.. 58 sounds killer in middle position! I have played a lot of old LPs.. I think the thing that is the "magic" is the old wood.. just has more sustain and the fact that it was made in the 50s. Just listen to old Martin acoustics, same thing

Played a 1960 Les Paul which the guy said was n spec w/59... WHO KNOWS WHO CARES, all i know is i had NEVER played such a fab guitar thru a HP amp on the USS America in 1979 somewhere in the Mediterranean sea..over out ........................n that w/VERY bad rusted strings! :)

The title says 58' and 59 ' comparison....WRONG !

58 ftw

great players!

What was that Peter Greene 😳 song ? Cover at the end?

About 2minutes into it I caught myself thinking "how white can these guys sound?"...

Tell her in the background to belt the fuck up!!

Very kind of you guys to share all this!

This video was the carrot at the end of the stick for me to finish my work, and by golly it was worth the wait!!! Beautiful guitars, beautiful playing!

Holy crap the first guy talking sounds just like George Harrison.

Simply amazing.

Bloomfield’s Les Paul Tone is out of this world. If you listen ‘Wine’ live with Electric Flag you can hear a Rainbow. And... you’re right, there are different ‘Burst’ sounds, Burst + Marshall and Burst + Fender. Bloomfield’s, Knopfler’s Tone when playing Bursts is a colorful, dark, creamy, mellow ‘sweet’ Tone to die for, when a Burst is plugged into a Crank’d Marshall you got the hungry, ferocious ‘Bam’ tone. As I said in another comment, Gary Moore is my favourite Guitarist and LP player of all Time. In the Montreux 1995 concert he played a ‘back to the basic’ Concert (different from the maybe excessive high gain soldano era from the firsts Still Got The Blues gigs), he played Greeny and Stripe in a vintage super Bass and in a Fender super reverb. Given that the two astonishing guitars are both great but very different from each other, Greeny is brighter and fuller of harmonics in the middle/higher range but still remaining ‘full’, Stripe is darker, creamier and crispier, you can clearly notice the difference between the two guitars when plugged in the different amps. Check ‘Key to love’, ‘The stumble’, ‘The Sky is Crying’, ‘Jumping at shadows’ (1995 Montreux), same magic but very distinctive ‘colors’

There’s nothing like sitting down with a cup of tea and a biscuit and watching the guitar show, especially such good episodes as this!!! I literally look forward to this every day thanks so much bob and ramone 🙏😂

What two amps were you guys using? Was one a egnater if so what model?

The best sound I ever got out of a Les Paul of any kind was through a mid 60's Blackface Fender Deluxe ( non reverb) Vol.10, Treble 10, Bass 0. And then I ran it through a 4x12 Marshall bottom. At the time, it just wasn't loud enough and I needed more headroom. But the cranked 1x12 Deluxe was it. It roared.

What do you think of reissue quality and sound?

Very cool great guitars great players 👍👍

Really cool!!

Would be interesting if in one video you mentioned what is known about left-handed versions of original bursts - how many were made, where they are now, how many are missing in action. Not a whole video but a segment as part of a video.

Paf magnets wee charged in blocks and this method causes the magnets to not recieve a full charge and it causes a single magnet to recieve an uneven charge so that the gauss readings will differ at differemt areas of the magnet. Its much less so a matter of the magnets losing charge .another big reasom why even the best boutique pafs are still missing a little something is the metal componets and their alloy content modern metal components are quite different and not produced the same way and use different production methods with different alloy content amd mixtures. The alloy comtent of the slugs and srews play a major role in pickup tone and clarity. Modern plain enamel wire is very different as well and pe wire made like the vintage pe is onlu being produced by one maufacturer and is very expensive .there are several aspects of vintage pafs in terms of the productuom of the componensts which just cannot be created anymore the formulas for the different alnico grades are also very different in modern magnets.having magnets made with the old techniques and formulas is super expensive and have to be ordered in large quantities . Its less effecient and more expensive for manufacturers and make all the variuos components using the old techniques which is why they were abandoned. Its all the same reasons why modern celestion speakers dont sound the same as the old ones. The only winder that goes to the trouble and expense of having pickup components wire and magnets made the old ways with vintage formulations is throbak pickups which is why his pickups soound closest to the originals and also why they are more expensive then any other winder. Its also important to consider that when you place real vintage pafs on a custom shop les paul they dont sound as good as they do in a vintage guitar . Which shows that the guitar played just as big a role as the pafs in creating that great sound . Page has used gibson t tops and duncan pickups in his 59 and the characteristics of the 59 les paul tone still stay constant the voicing has changed but it still soumds pure 59 les paul which proves the 59 les paul brings out the best a whatever pickups reside in them . Even 59 les pauls with dimarzio super distortions still sounded like 59 despite the substsntial change in voicing.

I see a coupla men with nice looking Lespers in a thumbnail, I switch on my Fender hotrod, get my beloved Les Paul from the rack...and, once the tubes are good n warm, I click off the standby, and I sit down and click.

😊 Always good time, chatting and bonding over our common love of the greatest electric guitar, the great Gibson Les Paul.

P.s. These guys sound great. Gnarly and filthy, yet totally precise. Great chops, great tones, good job!👏

I only hope mine fades to this color.

Unbelievable! Thanks for sharing this!

I finally know why vintage dealers blur out part of the serial number. Interesting.

Enjoying geeking out with you guys! I think an aspect of the magic is subjective. That’s not bad, I think subjectivity is a valid way of determining value. Unless the beauty can be measured, it remains magical.

Aged Chappers & The Captain.

What amp is that with ramon ? Any pedals attached?

Two lucky fellas Jim here hope you guys are doing well 🙏 God bless 😇

Awesome playing!

How heavy are the guitars? Are the reissues anywhere close to these? If not then why do you think that is? Thank you!