Gibson Les Paul Standard

American Musical Supply is excited to be your stop for Gibson Les Paul Standard guitars! We offer True 0% interest payment plans - applying for our popular 12-pay plan is easy – enjoy a Gibson with just 12 simple monthly payments. Use your own debit or credit card, enjoy fast and free shipping, and add a Gibson Les Paul Standard to your creative setup.

We make buying a Gibson Les Paul Standard quick and easy - in-stock items that are ordered before 5PM will ship out the same day! (see our Shipping Information Page for more details) Do you have questions about Gibson Les Paul Standards and want to know which instrument would be best for you? Give us a call at 800-319-9043 - our experts are standing by.

What does ‘Standard’ get you in the world of the Gibson Les Paul guitar? Far, far more than any other brand’s offerings when they use that term! Visually, it starts with a vibrant hand-picked flame maple top over a mahogany body, crisp binding, and gorgeous finish work that highlights their iconic sunburst color schemes. A Gibson Les Paul Standard has no additional body weight relief – you’ll enjoy substantial stability and structure, while giving you the freedom to comfortably control the balance all the way up and down the neck.

The muscle behind this instrument lies in its pair of Gibson humbuckers with two volume knobs, two tone knobs, and a toggle-switch. During the 1950s, most guitar companies had been moving steadily forward with single-coil pickups in their production instruments. Gibson made the decision to go strong in a different direction with engineer Seth Lover’s groundbreaking ‘PAF’ (Patented Applied For) humbuckers. The Les Paul Standard, launched in 1958, became the main instrument to showcase these new pickups, and well . . . the last fifty-plus years of bands, album releases, and music history driven by the Standard speaks for itself.

Those vintages PAFs have been the inspiration for all of today’s Gibson humbuckers. Headed by the steadfast Burstbucker family of humbuckers, modern Les Paul Standards continue to reign as the gold-standard for clean, complex, and deeply versatile tone – the ‘Les Paul Sound’ is an absolute must-have for any guitar player’s arsenal. The Les Paul Standards made in the Gibson Custom Shop are fitted with an assortment of Custombuckers that go above and beyond to draw out the essence of their vintage counterparts, all while implementing the newest technology for consistency and stability.

American Musical Supply is also home to a wonderful collection of Gibson Goldtop Les Pauls. The ‘Gold Top’ was the very first production Gibson Les Paul guitar to be released back in 1952, and it was the only option you could initially buy until the Les Paul Custom came along a couple of years later. Today, the Gibson Custom Shop makes Goldtop reissues that incorporate the iconic ‘soapbar’ P-90s and touch on specific aesthetics from those specific early years.

When Gibson and Les Paul himself were in the early stages of their collaboration, it ended up taking a couple of years of design tweaks to really settle in. The gold finish was a given, but different tailpieces and bridges had to be mixed and matched until the now common Tune-O-Matic bridge was implemented heading into 1955. Fitted with two P-90 pickups, the Gold Top was all about a bright, pointed single-coil sound that could cut through a crowded ensemble and make itself known. Even though the Goldtop was discontinued in 1958 and replaced by the Les Paul Standard, it remains a huge part of Gibson’s legacy and historic catalog. It should be noted that you will see the Goldtop name used in different ways, so remember - any model referencing pre-1958 specs is going to be based on an original vintage Goldtop instrument, while other models with different configurations are incorporating the gold finish.