Is The Gibson Adam Jones Les Paul Standard an actual signature guitar?

DISCLAIMER: This is not a sponsored video. The guitar was given to me by its owner for a review. This is an honest review and represents my personal opinion.
I would say that there are two ways of looking at this 2022 Gibson Adam Jones Les Paul Standard. First as a Adam Jones and Tool signature, second as a cool and unique Les Paul Standard. Whichever way you look at it I think it is a great value for the money.
0:00 Intro
2:23 Adam Jones
6:51 The Specs
8:50 The Pickups
11:32 Bridge & Tailpiece
12:20 Body & Neck
16:57 Back & Electronics
19:28The Case
21:49 The Weight
22:02 Tone Demo
26:43 My Thoughts
Facebook: / georgevguitars
Instagram: / georgevarbanov
Gear used to record this video:
Amp: Diezel VH-4 120W Head
Cab: Diezel 2x12 Vintage 30 Rear Loaded
Mic: Shure SM57, Audio-Technica AT2035
Interface: M-Audio 192/4
Camera: Sony A6400 with Sigma 30mm F1.4 and Iphone 13 Pro Max
Stands: Athletic stand for cab microphone
#guitar #adamjones #tool

[@KevinNolin]

Just snagged one of these used. Changed the truss rod cover and installed black hardware. It's a killer standard in my opinion.

[@johnmccully3885]

Volume and tone settings please.

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

Good choice

[@MarcoMastra]

This channel is great! Thanks man for the review 👏🏻👍🏻

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

Thanks for watching!

[@rendyandrian7149]

I'm a simple man. I see silverburst, I smash like button. Now I continue watching the rest of the video.

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

Same same

[@ericlopez9640]

That's a gorgeous guitar. I prefer the look of the back of the neck and body on your personal though. Both just beautiful. Great review

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

Yeah if the Standard had the back as well, the Custom would have been in trouble

[@jacef5739]

Im not an Adam Jones or Tool die hard, but these specs on a standard sold me. Fantastic bridge pup, changed truss rod cover to a Standard one.

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

Yeah it is a pretty sweet Standard!

[@johnmccully3885]

Volume and tone settings please.

[@GuitarsAndSynths]

Love this and the Slash LP guitar as well as the Greeney reissue

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

@@GuitarsAndSynths Got to get my hands on a Greeny soon 👀

[@VN9001]

Excellent review George, very thorough. I have a few Les Pauls and I bought this one based on the specs of the ebony fretboard, neck profile and the pickups. Adam Jones is fine but I'm not a diehard Tool fan so it didn't play into my decision. My only disappointment is the tuners (as George stated in his review). I have no binding flaws/tooling marks on mine and note that it is one of Gibsons (rare) finer efforts for quality control. Mine is just under 9 lbs. which I'm totally happy with. My particular instrument as a whole plays so nicely, is put together well, and the paint/finish is very good. IMO, you don't have to be an Adam Jones/Tool fan to be happy with this guitar. Mostly though (and this is big), it's not $10,000.00. 🙂

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

Thank you. Yeah I love the fingerboard, neck profile and pickups on this one. The owner swapped the tuners for tulips and are much better now. It is a great guitar, you made a good choice.

[@nickfarrow4788]

The neck is more on the slim taper side or closer to a 50's? Many thanks

[@johnmccully3885]

Volume and tone settings please.

[@kennethcbailey27]

Why does it have to be a replica of his vintage guitar to be considered a signature? That's never been a requirement of other people's new signature guitars that I can remember. It's definitely an Adam Jones signature guitar, it's just a brand new model made just for him and not a replica of an old existing guitar. Just like the Billy Joe Junior with a slimmer neck is still a signature guitar even though it's not a replica of his vintage original. It's just a new signature model designed and prototyped with the artist. A replica is a signature, but not all signatures are replicas. Some are something new. Adam has played Les Paul standards before, especially for songs in alternate tunings. He's also got flying Vs and other models. A guitar designed in collaboration with the artist themselves to make a guitar exactly the way they'd want to be able to buy it off the shelf sounds like the textbook definition of a signature model. Sometimes it's something they've always wanted but it didn't exist and they're playing it for the first time, and the production version is still definitely considered a signature model.

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

Mmm, good point but still not sure

[@godface81]

Great review, You measured tthe pickups. I wish you would have measured the pots. Every les paul I have came with 300k pots on the tones i believe. I always put new bourns or cts pots in with old school wiring diagram and take that metal plate out. If they are finally putting 500k im happy though. cheers

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

Yeah i have heard of a couple of examples where the LP Custom pots were around 300k, and were not working properly. The 2019 LP Custom Evony that Inreviewed was such a case. The volume pots were not functioning properly at all.

[@godface81]

300k tone pots in a standard paul is pardon the pun "standard" I believe. In custom shop or R8 ect they all come with 500k pots on all 4. Its just common for me to take out the metal base plate and put in all new 500k pots. 300k tone pots compared to 500k is very apparent in sound, 300k just does not let humbuckers breathe imo. anyways was thinking of getting a adam jones model even one of the higher end ones as i am lifelong tool fan. but honestly there is something dis ingenious about a 10k or 20k guitar for adam imho. anyways cheers again thanks for reply @@GeorgeVGuitars

[@jarthur1369]

yea i am thrilled to finally have a naked lp without 2 !@# holes in my guitar. pickups can be changed... filling a hole is much harder :)

[@rendyandrian7149]

This is the best video for this guitar. I always wonder why the color sometimes is greenish and sometimes a bit silverish. Turn out the color slightly changes depending on where we look at it. I agree with your opinion this guitar is more like a tribute to AJ signature since Adam only uses LPC silverburst. Another thing, this guitar is like a replacement for ESP standards Eclipse silverburst which ESP no longer makes. If ESP were to make that color, I would choose that instead. To my taste, the real silverburst is always an LPC. Everything else is just a tribute. As a side note, on tone demo section, I can't take my eyes off your LPC in the background. I hope you don't mind me staring at your guitar ;) Anyway, I can get a bit emotional about silverburst because it is my numero uno color for les paul. 😉😉

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

That sounded dirty 🤣 Its ok to stare 👀

[@Zoso981]

You have good taste. I think the Sliverburst is the best-looking Les Paul Custom ever made.

[@jhonguerrero9295]

Hey I'm a guitar noob, I'm not really a Tool fan but i love the design of the guitar. So I've been debating if I should get this adam Jones standard over a 50 or 60s standard but the bridge pickup on the aj guitar is stopping me from buying it since i don't know much about pickups. Would you say this aj guitar is versatile enough to play multiple music genres or as versatile as a normal gibson standard. i mostly play classic rock though, gnr, nirvana, ac/dc, journey, led zeppelin, rolling stones, queen, mcr, def Leppard etc etc. And I usually play in standard tuning

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

It is versatile enough and the bridge pickup truly impressed me. I am thinking about putting one of these in one of my Gibson LP Customs

[@Aleksandr_Gor]

George, do you plan to review Epiphone's Adam Jones LP Custom? They have Seymur Duncan distortion pickup in bridge that gives other sound than Gibson.

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

Yes, I am waiting for the Epi Adam Jones to arrive soon, hopefully

[@ninevoltromeo]

I have an AJ standard, and it's one of my all time favorite guitars.

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

It is a good guitar!

[@johnmccully3885]

Volume and tone settings please.

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

I think Max. Trough the VH4 Diezel@@johnmccully3885

[@philcasogonzo14]

@@johnmccully3885tf are you asking this on everyone’s comment?

[@FloydofOz]

This video was so helpful. Any thoughts a year later?

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

Still a great guitar and I would still buy one

[@PuttinOnTheRiffs]

I’d love to have one. I think the current used prices are what this guitar is worth. 3k is kind of crazy given the bridge pickup is proprietary, the burst is only on the front of the body, and there’s no binding around the back of the body.

[@Nate-lp2cu]

Same as every other Les Paul standard. Binding on back is a custom shop thing.

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

Well yeah but if you look at it as a Gibson Standard and an artist model on top of that it all makes sense.

[@kevinstarofficial]

does the case still smelled like vanilla on this modell? or is the gibson smell gone?

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

Still smells

[@rickrevoir1683]

Great review i just subscribed .i wish i had the cash to buy the guitar. Oh well.

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

Thank you. Keep at it, if you want it storng enough - you will get ot. If not - its just a guitar, don't worry about it. ;)

[@650thunderbird5]

👍🏻👍🏻

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

🤘🏻

[@Bhatt_Hole]

I don't know much about these things, so maybe someone can offer an opinion. With the (starting) prices being what they are at the moment for an actual late-70's/early-80's Silverburst custom, why would anyone want to purchase an Adam Jones custom model? There are always a few of the original models on Reverb, which often start around or just over 6 grand, and once in a while a bit below. Wouldn't those be far more desirable in every conceivable way?

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

It is a collector's item and sort of an investment.

[@jameslanclos568]

First of all I just subscribed to your channel, which was recommended by The Trogly's Guitar Show. I haven't subscribed to his channel yet, but unlike the Trogly Show, you can actually play the guitar and I'm not so much impressed by Trogly's playing !!! Let's keep this our little secret, because I don't want to hurt his feelings. In the beginning of this video, I'm curious as to how you are getting this sound? Is it the inverted neck pickup or your effects pedals or both? It sounds great and I'm thinking of doing that on one of my Les Paul's neck pickup.

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

Thank you, I like Trogly too! I am not that good of a player but I do my best. The sound is just the Gibson, straight into Channel 3 of the Diezel VH4 (the same amp Adam uses).

[@jameslanclos568]

@@GeorgeVGuitars Cool! On that guitar, is the magnet reversed for out of phase or is it just turned around?

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

@@jameslanclos568 I think it is just the pickup reversed.

[@jameslanclos568]

@@GeorgeVGuitars That's what I thought. I just wanted to be sure. It sounds cool, can't wait to flip the pickup on my Les Paul and try it out for myself. Thanks.

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

@@jameslanclos568 Let me know how it is 👀

[@Zoso981]

The Epiphone version is a MUCH better spec'd Adam Jones Signature model. At less than half the price. It's pretty epic.

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

Yeah so far my first impressions are good

[@Zoso981]

@@GeorgeVGuitars I'm looking forward to your review

[@juanvaldez5422]

Jump forward several months , everybody who bought says they are turds and the marketplace is flooded with used ones

[@Zoso981]

@@juanvaldez5422 yeah....ok

[@kkrsnn5632]

That Custom looks better and the burst is nicer

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

As expected

[@Moby604]

what do you mean its made by Gibson not Epiphone?

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

Different manufacturers, different factories, different materials.

[@wrcz]

lmao @ the automatic subtitles 10:45 "Gibson lesbo custom"

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

🤣🤣🤣

[@vedrankosoric4857]

Unsure about pickups 😅

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

The bridge pickup is still one of my fav pickups on a Gibson

[@andrewrobert109]

Mine came with everything except the baby photo. Wonder why….

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

They stopped putting those in at some point after 2021

[@mdhmsmith]

I just bought one and the setup sucked. I love the guitar and sound but irritated you don’t get a setup for 3k.

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

Yeah, this happens a lot with Gibson USA... even with Gibson Custom Shop... just get it set up and you are gonna like it

[@mdhmsmith]

@@GeorgeVGuitars yeah, like I said, I love the guitar but it needs fret work out of the box. I fixed everything else.

[@jeanpaulmare6468]

Richlite is a big no go for me. Breat video. Thanks. I've made my mind up after seeing your review and it's going to be a NO thank you from me.

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

Welcome. The AJ Standard has Ebony board tho, why no deal?

[@maxmonaco]

Special thanks for Metallica 🤘🏻

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻

[@thegoodguy44]

It’s Adam not Alan

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

Uhm, okay 😳 i guess it's time you upgrade your speakers ;)

[@chrisdaviesguitar]

ever heard of muting?

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

Nah, way too easy 😳