Gibson has had quite the week. On Tuesday, it was showing off the prowess of its Bozeman, Montana acoustic guitar Custom Shop with the launch of the Brian May SJ-200 12-Stringand now it’s the Murphy Lab in Nashville’s turn to show off with a meticulous Murphy Lab replica of one of the most hallowed electric guitars in Eric Clapton history – his 1958 Les Paul Custom.
This Les Paul Custom bore the serial number 8 6320, was bought during Cream’s inaugural tour of the USA, and was used throughout the recording sessions for Disraeli Gears, before it was gifted to Albert Lee in 1979.
Clapton took it on tour with Delaney & Bonnie, appeared with it on a number of occasions during the late ‘60s and throughout the ‘70s, before giving it to Albert Lee in 1979.
And now, if you can stump up the asking price of £17,499/$19,999 and find one of just limited edition beauties, you can own it, too. Note: they’re only making 150 of ‘em.
Both Clapton and Lee were consulted on the build. The guitar arrives out of its custom Duck Brothers hard-shell guitar case bearing all the finish checking of the original, with hardware aged to match.
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Judging from some archive pictures, Clapton had removed the pickguard and the pickup coverings, but these had been reinstated over the years and this comes setup in its original configuration.
It has a one-piece body carved from “ultra-light weight” mahogany – it will be interesting to put one of these on the scales. The multi-ply binding has been applied to the top of the body and even with that aged finish there is something special about a Custom’s Ebony paint job and binding, inlays and gold hardware – they make it look like the guitar is wearing a tuxedo.
The neck is mahogany, described as a Medium C and matched to the original. It joins the body with a long neck tenon joint set with hide glue. The frets are Historic medium-jumbo, the nut nylon – the whole vibe is that this sounds and plays like the original (Clapton and Lee’s chops are not included sadly).
That means, of course, we have three humbuckers at our disposal. The artists and Gibson have gone for Custombuckers to replicate the original’s PAF tone, which is par for the course for the Custom Shop’s Historic Reissue models – they have an Alnico III magnet, are unpotted and sound incredible – and they’re not cheap.
The Gibson Pickup Shop sells a pair for £529. That middle pickup is mounted with the screws orientated towards the neck as per the original, and all of them are hooked up to a hand-wired control loom featuring CTS 500K pots and paper-in-oil capacitors
There are Grover Milk Bottle tuners on the headstock. There’s and ABR-1 bridge and lightweight aluminium tailpiece.
Inside the case there’s a certificate of authenticity booklet, a guitar strap, a Gibson Custom switch plate medallion, and best of all a second pickguard signed by both Eric Clapton and Albert Lee.
You can check out more pictures and details over at Gibson.
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