Gibson Les Paul Standard 50s HCS Reviews

A real tribute to a 59 Les Paul without the price tag

If you cannot stretch your budget to a custom shop then this guitar is the best thing . I own a custom 59 reissue Les Paul and this guitar for half the price gives my 59 custom a run for its money. I cannot recommend enough.

good quality athought price is not cheap..

Gibson like it should be.

This after years a high quality guitar.

Pros:

Pubs are good but output is sometimes low. But you can expect that from Alnico II.

Paint without any fault wow.

Playability is very good.

Cons:

My guitar is heavy. More than 4 kg,like the 90s guitar.

For a long gig this could give some problems.

Thanks Gibson. You are on the good track again.

Cheers

Great instrument

My first Gibson beside my two CS strats. I have to play on it more to get more feelings, but it is generally a great guitar.

Build quality is without any serious defect, binding is ok, wood, frets, knobs as well.

Maybe I will change the pups in future for something more PAFish. Just my personal opinion: I am not 100% satisfied with the sound of the neck pickup. It is muddy and flat. but that can be easily fixed.

Perfect! Just don't forget to change the PU's

I should start by saying that I am an LP purist. I believe that this guitar has had its pinnacle in 1959 and we should don't deviate from the perfection handed to us by the Gods of the years passed.

So I was really excited when Gibson announced the new series without push-pull knobs, split coils, weight relief, and other satanic creations.

I own some seriously expensive & vintage guitars, but this one proved that it can punch above its weight.

Almost everything is perfect - color, wood, frets, binding, knobs, etc.

Where did they mess up? The pickups. The PU's are almost on par with Epiphone (not in a good way). Cleans sound flat, drive sounds over the top. Basically this here is the bottle neck that strangles the guitar & doesn't allow it to fulfil its potential.

Thankfully, in a way Gibson did us a favour - there are so many really good PAF clones on the market & this provides a wonderful opportunity to something that will be perfect for this guitar.

Personally, I went for the Bareknuckle Mules - the perfect LP PAFs IMHO.

To sum it up:

- Perfect build quality

- True 50s Les Paul, just the way it should be

- Looks gorgeous & plays incredible (thanks for the PLEK, Gibson)

- Will last you a lifetime & never disappoint

- Just change these burst buckers & invest into some quality PAF's that will do this guitar justice

Gibson Returned, but not in workmanship or build quality!

Today I got Gibson Les Paul Standard 50's HCS.

And the workmanhip is not good. Sadly, quality issues is continues. Near the headstock is a little gap between the fingerboard and the neck, it also feels when touched.

Sound is awesome!

Playability is perfect!

Action a little to low for my taste, but it can be fixed quickly.

And other thing is packaging. By that I mean the guitar package is unsealed. I ordered new guitar and guitar package is unsealed! When I buy a new guitar, I expecting sealed packaging.

And the final, and very important thing is the inscription: Made in USA. That inscription not very bright. And that raises a lot of questions overall!

So, this Gibson will return.

Delivered.

First time to buy without trying but the feedback from other users on this guitar gave me confidence which was well placed. Only fault was a volume knob sat at an angle but removing and putting back on sorted that. Early days but it could be my favorite.

Impressive instrument with amazing tone.

Practically no quality issues with very nice finish and a smell of...heaven !

Good playability, strings setup very low, the string buzzing is very limited though. Pickup covers were very dirty, coming out of the box.

The hard-shell case is lacking quality - could be better for such a premium instrument

Great piece of a legendary Les Paul guitar from Gibson. It has to be said that from 2018 the Gibson guitars returned to their standarts - no weight relief, great materials. It looks that they are really trying to turn their fortunes for better after years of struggling with these new model lines. Top notch sound, great built. The finishing is absolutely astonishing. If you are looking for a great sounding Gibson Les Paul guitar, this is the one to choose.

It's a proper Gibson Les Paul

I am a bedroom player and for years have dreamt of having a Gibson Les Paul. The day has finally come, after almost 10 years!

It plays good, it sounds good and it looks good also.

But the cons are: for this price I was disappointed to see that there are tooling marks on the freatboard past the 16th, on the lower strings side. Also the pickup selector switch came loose.

Apart from that I am very happy with my purchase!

Rock essense instrument

I am senior guitar player and my first Gibson LP Deluxe I bought 40 years ago. I still keep and play on good amount of electric guitars and have about 8 of them " Pleked". My first impression about that particular LP Standard: heavy and thick body, small frets (1mm x 2,3 mm), fingerboard harsh like todays rosewood. Overnight soaking fingerboard by linseed oil, strings change for my gage and first judgement: perfect intonation, easy to make my action 1,5E1, 2,0 E6, endless soustain (acoustic sound), perfect frets settings, tuners and overall job. Playability superb. Pug in: Super Reverb - fantasic sound, Marshall JTM - absolute ROCK ESSENSE. And now I know why I bought that Wonder - to have and play the best blues-rock guitar ever made. That it is fantastic that Gibson decided to make back Les Paul Standard 50s. To underline importance of this guitar first song I played was "Hideway" note-for-note EC and Bluesbreakers version from 1964 !

Beautiful guitar

Finally decided to take the plunge after watching & reading MANY reviews! I?m not disappointed! It sounds amazing & is much easier to play than I thought it would be.

I?m glad I decided on this model over the others, I love the 50?s neck feel & the whole guitar just looks stunning. Great quality case with a nice hidden compartment with some goodies & even a photo of the guitar at the factory. Also, the whole thing smells SO good!

We have friends staying with us at the moment but I?m not seeing too much of them as I can?t put the LP down!!

I?m looking forward to many years playing this guitar.

Great work Gibson.