The Gibson Les Paul Custom: A Short History

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As I outline in the video, Les Paul Customs have been throughout my history as a listener and honestly always felt well beyond even my dreams of ownership. So it was fun to go down the history of these top of the line instruments and review some of my favorite players that have used them. From KISS to Rabea Massadd, I keep coming across folks making GREAT sounds on a Custom.
Hope you like it.
Keith

[@WhiskeyDale]

I've said it before and I'll say it again , 5 Watt world should be a show on the Discovery Channel . This material is highly informative and very entertaining . Great stuff here sir.

[@blakeweaver9697]

My grandfather gave me his, just learning to play it now. It’s been a long time since he passed but I need to learn how to play it. I’ve been taking lessons and just now became curious about my instrument. Great to learn about what he left me and how great it is. Love u papa chuck

[@mickeydt17]

Thank you for including Mick Ronson, a much overlooked talent in the music world, and the reason I gave up trumpet for guitar! 😎

[@al271987]

Steve Jones played a white 74 custom while in the Pistols, and he was the main reason I ever wanted a Les Paul styled guitar.

[@samaitcheson7057]

Robert Fripp's Black Beauty burned the Les Paul - Marshall combination into my consciousness, both when saturated to ignition point and when innocently sweet and thick.

[@gtr1952]

When I was 23, in the mid-70's, I got a hold of an Artisan in a couple trades. I was playing an ES-325 and a Tele at the time. The Artisan seemed like a Custom, Custom, and weighed almost 11lbs!! I played it for 3/4 of 1 gig, and went back to my beloved 325! It was really easy to sell, I got 3X what I had in it, and it paid the rent for 2 months!! I also got a '71 Thin line Tele in the deal to boot!! Ahh, the old days..... LOL --gary

[@HashiAkitaPuppy]

You can keep your flamed sunburst Les Pauls, the Black Custom will always be the most beautiful electric guitar ever made IMHO. I have quite a collection of them and will never part with any of them.

[@arturoestrada9441]

I love the fact that the Les Paul Custom design looks good on pretty much any guitar player, I fell in love with the black beauty model watching metal bands playing them, Trivium, Sylosis, Dissection, etc. However, it looks just as cool on John Fogerty's hands, many jazz and country guys, even made the Jonas Brothers look like rockstars playing cowboy chords on them. Coolest looking guitar ever.

[@spencerludman3915]

I always think of Lindsey Buckingham’s white custom

[@Factory_Muff]

Me and my buddies rented a jam studio on the Lower East Side when I was 16 in around 1996. We brought our own instruments except for drums because they had drums, but little did we know , they had guitars for anyone to use. There was a beautiful white 70’s custom there that I had to really control myself not to walk out of there with.

[@afterbirth04]

Worth mentioning: Robert Fripp, who used a Custom on all the Crimson Stuff up through the 80's, and Wata, from Boris, who still uses her '86 Custom as her main guitar (I saw it in person this past September)...

[@garymajchrzak6793]

Randy Rhodes recorded the fantastic "After Hours" session with Ozzy using his LP Custom in Rochester, NY (1981).

[@jimfinlaw4537]

My mother bought me my first Gibson Les Paul for my 25th birthday and it was a 1988 Custom Black Beauty. That guitar was heavy, 10 pounds 2 ounces, but it played like a dream and it had a skinny neck with an ebony fretboard that fit my left hand perfectly. The maple top was glued up in three pieces instead of the normal two. Was this common back then? I wish I kept that guitar, but unfortunately life got in the way and I was forced to sell it. I went to the Guitar Center two years ago to see about ordering another Custom Black Beauty and they told me Gibson stopped making them, only to find out they were lying so I decided I will take my business elsewhere from now on and never look back. Can't believe what a new one costs these days. Holy cow! Think my mom only paid $1000.00 for the one she bought me back in 1988 when it was brand new. They are really great guitars.

[@henriqueantunes845]

I missed the mention of Steve Jones. The style of his white Custom influenced my the choice of my favourite guitar as much as Randy and Lindsey did. Outstanding job, as always! Thank you

[@continentalaquatics2725]

The Edge from U2 plays two Gibson Les Paul Customs from the 70’s. The guitars are nearly identical save for one having black knobs and the other, gold knobs. Both have Tarback pickups, but one guitar has the pickups covered and the other, uncovered. I can’t say I hear much of a difference, but The Edge has actually used a Les Paul Custom on more U2 songs than any other guitar in his considerable collection.

[@deanroddey2881]

I was around thirtheenish when KISS hit and had their posters plastered all over my bedroom walls, and dressed up as for Halloween and such, to probably the horror of my parents. But, a couple years later, I got a guitar for Xmas, after it became apparent to them that I was serious about something for the first time. It was a black LP Custom. It had the three gold PAFs, which I shortly thereafter swapped for white open coil DiMarzios of course. My dad almost had a fit when he came in and saw I had this new guitar (which for them would have been a big sacrifice to buy) opened up and was in there was a soldering iron.

[@littlewill0984]

The beard looks great!! Here are some short history ideas: Peavey, Yamaha Broadbass, Ibanez Lawsuits, Fender Rhodes, Alembic, Guitars of Kurt Cobain, Guild Electrics and Acoustics, FGN, Gear and Guitars of Carlos Santana, and Gibson-EBs

[@frankcarter6427]

STEVE JONES!!!!

[@jessefillmore]

I remember as a kid watching Steve Clark of Def Leppard playing that white Gibson Les Paul custom . This was just before Slash made the standards cool again . In my young mind I was wondering why Steve and Slash weren't playing super strats like 99% of their guitar playing peers LOL . I know why now . I also remember back in the 90's , David Grohl playing what seemed to be a white , 3 pickup custom Gibson SG . Great video as always , Keith !

[@popeye089]

People often don't realize that the 3 pickup 50's era had different pot values as well as cap values. Tone pots were 250k and the caps weren't the Grey tigers or BBs but the "phone book" caps. Also, the sound was different with the quacky OOP sound of the 3 pups