With a rich, rubbed appearance, this instrument is a true beauty.

Body
For the 1958 Standard Plaintop, Gibson decided to arrange the maple top in two "bookmatched" pieces glued together at the center seam, giving each guitar its very own distinct look and marking the beginning of the guitar world's fascination with figured maple tops, even though the majority of the tops used in 1958 were considered "plain" when compared to the tops used one year later and beyond.

Gibson's legendary Burstbucker pickups and Tune-o-matic bridge.

22-fret rosewood fingerboard outfitted with acrylic trapezoid inlays matching the size of color of the originals.

Finish
Legendary Gibson president Ted McCarty and his staff partly blamed the guitar's Goldtop finish as the main culprit for the sales slump and decided to forego the finish in favor of new, brighter finish dubbed Cherry Sunburst, which allowed the natural beauty of the maple top to be showcased--something that had previously been concealed by the Goldtop finish.

Additionally, Cherry Sunburst was the only color other than Gold that was used to finish the new Les Paul Standards in 1958, even though clear differences in the color of vintage examples would suggest otherwise. These variations were due mainly to the inconsistency of the red pigment used by Gibson to paint the sunburst finish, a problem that wasn't corrected until the early 1960s and which caused many of the guitars to fade to some degree of amber, honey or yellow hue. This "problem" inadvertently led to the creation of many of the finishes used today on numerous Gibson guitars, including Honey Burst, Tobacco Burst, Light Burst, Iced Tea Burst, Lemon Burst, Vintage Sun Burst and, of course, the original Heritage Cherry Sun Burst.

Near-perfect Recreation
The 1958 Les Paul Standard reissue produced today by Gibson Custom is true to all of the original instrument's features and characteristics, including Gibson's traditional hand-carved "plain" maple top and solid, non-weight relieved mahogany body. The headstock is made from Holly head veneer, as opposed to fiber, just like it was in 1958, and the vintage-style tulip tuners are mounted in a straight line, also as they were on the original. The 24 3/4-inch scale length neck is made from one solid piece of mahogany, and attached to the body using a long neck tenon--one of the Les Paul's more distinguishing characteristics of the 1950s. The neck is topped by a 22-fret rosewood fingerboard outfitted with acrylic trapezoid inlays matching the size and color of the originals. Of course, two of Gibson's legendary Burstbucker pickups deliver all the subtle variations of true, classic humbucker tone by using historically "unmat