Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul Standard 1960 John Shanks Collectors Choice #7

Item: GBLP60CC7FCNH1

With fewer than 2,000 Les Pauls made between 1958 and 1960—the years of the legendary ’Bursts—any of these hallowed instruments is extremely rare and valuable, but a handful of transitional guitars that blend the ever-evolving specs are even more prized. As the chunky, rounded neck profile of the ’59 segued into the slimmer, faster profile of the ’60 Les Paul Standard, a mere handful of fatter ’50s-necked examples slipped into the new model year, and of these, the Les Paul owned by legendary music producer and songwriter John Shanks is known to be as good as it gets. Gibson Custom is proud to announce the release of the Collector’s Choice™ #7 1960 Les Paul, an exacting recreation of John Shanks’s beloved Les Paul, serial number 0-0289. In addition to having produced more than 40 number one singles, won a Grammy for Producer of the Year in 2005, and sold more than 60 million records to date, John has long been an avid collector of rare and vintage guitars, and he now joins an elite group of passionate vintage-Gibson owners who have opened their collections and collaborated in the replication of one of their personal favorites. As with each guitar in the Collector’s Choice™ series, John has generously allowed the Gibson Custom team intimate access to his prized Les Paul, so that every minute detail necessary to recreate the look, feel, and tone of the original has been captured. The result is a truly unique Les Paul, the closest you will come to owning the real thing, and no more than 300 will be produced.

The foundation of the Collector’s Choice™ #7 1960 Les Paul, as with all Collector’s Choice™ guitars, is in the premium woods selected for the build. This guitar begins with a one-piece back of solid, lightweight mahogany, which is capped with a carved maple top to closely match the look of the exquisite top on John Shanks’s original Les Paul. The result is an impressive reproduction of the incredible tonal balance and sensitivity of this unique ’Burst, sonic characteristics that put the difference between punchy depth and aggressive growl at the fingertips of the player. The Shanks Les Paul has retained much of the original red of the sunburst finish applied in Kalamazoo in 1960, with a deep-cherry edge fading ever so slightly to washed-cherry toward the center of the body, and Gibson Custom has reproduced this in exacting detail, using a custom sunburst for this guitar’s top, with genuine Aniline Dye for the back, sides, and the back of the neck. With hand aging done to match the slight playing wear, subtle checking, and minor finish dings of the original, every finished Collector’s Choice™ #7 1960 Les Paul makes a breathtaking impression when you first lift the case lid.

To complete the sonic accuracy of Collector’s Choice™ #7 1960 Les Paul, Gibson Custom carefully measured the pickups in John Shanks’s original guitar, and recreated a set of Custom Buckers wound to precisely the same specs. Details include Alnico III magnets and 42 AWG enamel-coated wiregently aged nickel-plated covers, with uneven turns of wire around each coil to help recreate that distinctive PAF tone.

Serial#  003

Weight 8lbs. 120z.

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