NAMM 2025: In 1955, Gibson launched five custom-colour Les Pauls to exhibit on the show floor at NAMM. These electric guitars were bona-fide vintage unicorns, scarcely seen in the wild since, and were all but lost and forgotten, until Joe Bonamassa got his hands on a Copper Iridescent model.
Epiphone made a superlative replica of this 1955 Les Paul with Joe Bonamassa’s name on it. And maybe its success had Gibson thinking, because the Nashville-based guitar giant has just unveiled a limited edition Custom Shop run of those NAMM ’55 models, each resplendent in their über-rare metallic custom colour finishes, and with the original P-90 pairing.
The 1955 NAMM Show Commemorative Edition Les Paul is offered in Samoa Beige, Platinum, Nugget Gold, Viceroy Brown and the aforementioned Copper Iridescent. Those finishes have been meticulously aged in the Murphy Lab, are vintage spec, and available now direct from the Gibson Garage, shipping before the end of March. And you won’t find many like them.
In the ‘50s, Gibson was not in the business of custom colours. Very few existed. Speaking to Guitarist magazine, Bonamassa described his Copper Iridescent Les Pauls as “unobtanium of the highest order” (he now has three of them).
“I learned a long time ago in the guitar collecting business never to say you own the only one of anything,” said Bonamassa. “I bought the first of these from Gruhn Guitars a long time ago thinking it was the only one…
“Next thing I know, Trevor and Jay Boone (of Emerald City Guitars) go to the Arizona desert and find another Copper Iridescent ’55. So, now there’s two! Fender made very few custom finishes in the ’50s, Gibson made even fewer.
“It’s unobtanium of the highest order. People will argue, ‘Why won’t you just play it?’ But my job is to preserve history until somebody else can be the custodian. It’s only mint once!”
Speaking to the Gibson GazetteGibson’s vice president of products, Mat Koehler, says the finishes were part of an emerging trend in the ‘50s of guitar finishes being inspired by the automobile industry.
“They would have been the hottest car colors of the day, which is kind of funny since there are a lot of beiges and earth tones, but that was just what was in favour at that time,” he says.
Gibson has pulled out all the stops for these. The 1955 NAMM Show Commemorative Edition Les Pauls have Murphy Lab Light Aging treatment.
They have time-machine specs, with a one-piece mahogany body topped with a two-piece plain maple cap, to which we have a glued-in one-piece mahogany neck with a chunky neck profile. Compare and contrast the headstock with today’s Les Paul’s; that is a “low logo” holly headstock veneer.
The bridge, too, is different, vintage, purist approved; there is no wire on this ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic. The Custom Shop P-90s are hooked up to CTS 500K pots.
Quality components abound (Switchcraft jacks and switches, paper-in-oil capacitors), and all the devil is in the details, such as those aged cellulose nitrate trapezoid inlays on the Indian rosewood fingerboard, and the colour-matched speed knobs.
And then you’ve got those finishes… Priced £5,699/$6,499, the 1955 NAMM Show Commemorative Edition Les Pauls are available direct from Gibson Garages.
Seventy of each finish will be made, 350 in total. See Gibson for more specs and details.
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