The Gibson Les Paul™ Junior was first introduced in 1954 as an affordable, high-quality solidbody electric guitar designed for students. Compared to the standard Les Paul models of the era, the Les Paul Junior was stripped down to the essentials, omitting the carved maple top, fretboard and body top binding, second pickup and its controls, and the more ornate decorative features of the standard Les Paul, leaving a slab mahogany body and single pickup-equipped model that could be priced more attractively for beginners. Then, in 1955, to create an intermediate-level guitar that sat between the standard Les Paul model and the Les Paul Junior in the product lineup, Gibson released an enhanced version of the Junior, featuring a second pickup, additional controls, and a bound fretboard, and christened it the Les Paul Special. With its unbound, slab mahogany body, the Les Paul Special is closer to the Junior than to standard Les Paul models in some respects, but it adds a second pickup with separate volume and tone controls, a pickup selector switch, and ups the cosmetic appeal a bit with its bound fretboard and mother-of-pearl Gibson headstock inlay. Like the Les Paul Junior, the Les Paul Special’s relatively simple appearance disguises the wide range of tonal options available from the two Soapbar P-90 pickups and the individual volume and tone controls; by adjusting your picking hand position, as well as varying the settings on the knobs, you can coax an impressive range of very cool tones out of a Special.
Now, Gibson is proud to introduce the Les Paul Special Faded, a guitar designed for today’s players that embraces the spirit of those no-nonsense vintage Les Paul Specials. The Les Paul Special Faded features all of the essential elements that have made the Les Paul Special a favorite of students and professionals for 70 years, including a pair of Soapbar P-90 pickups, a single cutaway slab mahogany body, a mahogany neck with a satisfyingly hand-filling 50s Vintage profile, and a bound rosewood fretboard with simple acrylic dot position marker inlays. The headstock is equipped with smooth-turning Vintage Deluxe tuners and a Graph Tech nut, ensuring stable tuning, and is adorned with the Gibson logo inlaid in mother-of-pearl, along with “Les Paul Special” silkscreened in gold. The strings are anchored at the other end with a wraparound bridge that is bolted directly into the mahogany body, delivering the exceptional sustain and rich tone that the Les Paul Special is famous for. The Les Paul Special Faded is finished in satin nitrocellulose lacquer and comes packed in a soft shell case for easy portability. Get yours today and discover just how Special this legendary model really is.
