Gibson Les Paul Studio Session review

What is it?

Released in the early eighties as a less flashy alternative to the Les Paul Standard, the Studio looked to sound and play every bit as good as Gibson’s flagship model, just without all the bells and whistles. Now, a little over 40 years later, the beloved guitar has been revised, remodeled, and redesigned in four separate guises – the Studio, Studio Flame Top, Studio Modern, and with the all-new Session model we are looking at today, the line between the fabled Standard and its less expensive stablemate is getting increasingly blurred.

The iconic mahogany body ditches the plain maple of the previous iteration and is now topped with a gorgeous AA-figured cap and is lightened with the aid of Gibson’s Ultra-Modern weight relief. The standardization continues to the slim taper mahogany neck, which now sees the addition of binding – a feature that is available on all four versions in the current Studio line. The neck is adorned with a jet-black ebony fretboard, 22 medium jumbo frets, and acrylic trapezoid inlays, and the whole thing is crowned with the classic Gibson headstock, legendary mother-of-pearl logo, and Grover Rotomatic tuners.

Flip the guitar over, and you’ll be greeted with the Modern Contoured Heel, a design feature that offers players unparalleled upper fret access by eliminating the bulky area where the body meets the neck.