58 by Gianluca Della Porta

Fifty Years of the Les Paul Standard, Flying V, Explorer, and ES-335

2008 ‘58 EXPLORER

2008 ‘58 FLYING V

In 1958 Gibson introduced no fewer than four new electric guitars that were so fresh, so radical, and so forward-looking that not only would it be years before they were fully appreciated by more adventurous players, but seen today amidst all that the industry has to oﬀer they are still inﬂuential and inspiring, even downright revolutionary by any standards.

Body & Hardware: Solid korina body Antique Natural ﬁnish Gold hardware ABR-1 Bridge, lightweight aluminum stop-bar tailpiece

Body & Hardware: 2 piece korina body Antique Natural ﬁnish Gold hardware ABR-1 Bridge, string-through body

Neck & Headstock: 1-piece korina neck 22 fret rosewood ﬁngerboard Pearloid dot inlays Rounded neck proﬁle 24 3⁄4” scale length, 1 11/16” nut width Holly headstock veneer Vintage tulip tuners

Neck & Headstock: 1-piece korina neck 22 fret rosewood ﬁngerboard Pearloid dot inlays Rounded neck proﬁle 24 3⁄4” scale length, 1 11/16” nut width Vintage tulip tuners

The Les Paul Standard, Flying V, Explorer, and ES-335, all introduced in 1958, together represented a quantum leap forward in this fledgling instrumental format known as the electric guitar. The latter two were so downright radical—so far beyond rock in an age when rock and roll itself was barely yet a household world—that no guitar in the intervening 50 years has managed to surpass the wonderment and awe that these space-aged designs inspired. As for the Les Paul, in marrying all the best elements of its brief six-year development with a stunning Cherry Sunburst finish and Gibson’s revolutionary new PAF humbucking pickups, this guitar has become the most highly prized electric on the face of the planet, despite virtually leaving the guitar world behind upon its introduction. The only guitar of the bunch to garner some immediate acceptance, the ES-335 was a bold and unprecedented marriage of traditional acoustic archtop esthetics and solidbody technology. As much as has been written about the Les Paul Standard it’s difficult to fathom, with 50 years of hindsight, that this guitar wasn’t an instant classic upon its launch in 1958. The mere concept of a solidbodied guitar had been laughed off stage just eight years before when the first production examples landed in an industry that seemed stuck in the horse-and-buggy age. When Gibson showed the world how smoothly traditional guitar craftsmanship could be applied to this bold new template with the first incarnation of the Les Paul—the Goldtop with P-90s and an unusual trapeze tailpiece (later a wraparound tailpiece) of 1952—the results inspired equal measures of applause and mystification. The guitar won some converts, but was no runaway success. A quick succession of advances in the design— namely the addition of a tune-o-matic bridge in 1955, humbucking pickups in 1957—culminated in the most sublime of cosmetic features, the Cherry Sunburst finish applied to a carved maple top, officially added for the first time as a standard production feature in 1958. The guitar forever after known as the Les Paul Standard was born. Then in the blink of an eye, just two years and less than 2,000 units later, it was gone. Capable of producing broad, expressive tones with ringing sustain and an unprecedented playability, it nevertheless caught the guitar world largely unprepared for its potential—until a new generation of British and American blues-rockers partnered it with powerful new amplifiers, cranked the knobs to 10, and roared with a voice previously unheard in rock and roll. The Les Paul Standard had already been with us for half a decade, but by the mid ’60s it was finally here, and there was no looking back. Like sleek, space-aged probes sent from a galaxy far, far away to test the tonal waters of planet earth, the Flying V and Explorer landed to reactions that ranged from total awe to out and out bafflement. While the Les Paul at least represented a post-modern interpretation of a recognizable blueprint, these two radical members of the Modernistic line were barely perceivable as guitars at all. Their solid korina wood bodies and necks were carved into super-angular shapes with no discernible bouts, wastes, or traditional cutaways of any sort. The Flying V was even verging on impossible to play sitting down —but who could sit for long while playing an instrument like this anyway? These were guitars made for strutting, swaggering, wailing rock—it just seems no one quite realized it at the time. Even more than the groundbreaking Les Paul Standard, the Flying V, and Explorer were guitars aimed at a music that had yet to be born. In the late 1960s and ’70s when heavy rock would rule stadium stages the world over, these bold guitars became the ultimate incarnations of the music. From the time of their birth, however, until their deletion in 1960 less than 200 units of both models were made, with a couple dozen more assembled in the early ’60s from leftover parts. With its arched top and f-holes, the ES-335 bore recognizable links to its lineage, but a quick check inside its double-cutaway thinline body with solid center block revealed it as a brave new design. More subtle in its advancement of the template, it was in many ways no less revolutionary, and also more acceptable to players who were hesitant to strut too far ahead of the pack. The new ES-335 had the advantage of possessing some of the familiar ES features, and in particular was only a few steps away from thinline hollowbody models like the Byrdland and ES-350T of 1955, but that chunk of maple that ran down its middle to render it a semi-acoustic made a world of difference to its performance. The solid wood meant the ES-335 could carry a tune-o-matic bridge and stopbar tailpiece, all of which worked together to produce a quick response, great note definition, and the kind of sustain that couldn’t be had from any fully hollow archtop on the market, thinline or full bodied. To top it all off, plugging up the center of that body achieved impressive resistance to feedback, a major pest to archtop players of the day. Taken up quickly by adventurous jazz and country players who recognized its advantages, the ES-335 rapidly proved itself equally at home in the hands of blues, pop, and rock players too. One of the most versatile electric guitars ever produced, it has been a Gibson mainstay ever since. The Les Paul Standard, Flying V, Explorer, and ES-335 are four very different guitars, yet they are definitely close siblings too, related in voice as well as in origin. Despite their clear differences, they have in common a surprising versatility and solid, full-throaty, hum-free and feedback-free performance. Each offers a detailed response, buttery playing feel and, most of all, superlative sound that ranges from fat, warm, and vocal on the neck pickup to stinging and cutting on the bridge pickup, with a broad range of brews in between. Over the course of 50 years these guitars have set the standards for every form of amplified guitar music on the planet, and adventurous players are using them to explore new horizons even today. 1958. Remember it as a time of revolution.

Electronics & Strings: BurstBucker 1 (R) and BurstBucker 2 (T) pickups 2 volume, 1 tone, 3-way switch Vintage .010 strings

2008 ‘58 LES PAUL

2008 ‘58 ES-335

Body & Hardware: Carved figured maple top Solid mahogany back Washed cherry finish Murphy aged finish Single-ply cream binding on top Nickel hardware ABR-1 Bridge, lightweight aluminum stop-bar tailpiece

Body & Hardware: Laminated maple top, back, and rims Single-ply cream binding on top and back Nickel hardware ABR-1 bridge, stop-bar tailpiece

Neck & Headstock: 1-piece mahogany neck w/long neck tenon 22 fret rosewood ﬁngerboard Trapezoid inlays Single-ply cream binding ‘50s rounded neck proﬁle 24 3⁄4” scale length, 1 11/16” nut width Holly headstock veneer Vintage tulip tuners Electronics & Strings: BurstBucker 1 (R) and 2 (T) pickups CTS pots and bumble bee capacitors 2 volume, 2 tone, 3-way selector switch Vintage .010 strings

Neck & Headstock: 1-piece mahogany neck 22 fret rosewood ﬁngerboard Pearloid dot inlays Single-ply cream binding 1959 rounded neck proﬁle 24 3⁄4” scale length, 1 11/16” nut width Grover kidney tuners Electronics & Strings: ’57 Classic humbucking pickups 2 volume, 2 tone, 3-way selector switch Vintage .010 strings

Includes Custom Shop case, certiﬁcate of authenticity, extra 50th Anniversary trussrod cover in case