Gibson.com: Gibson Les Paul Studio Silverburst Exclusive

Les Paul Studio Silverburst

Built with smoldering good looks and Gibson's most durable woods, the new Les Paul Studio Silverburst will withstand the demanding lifestyle of any performing guitarist. Constructed of a mahogany body and neck, maple top and baked maple fingerboard, the new Les Paul Studio Silverburst is available only at Guitar Center and comes in the highly popular Silverburst finish. This guitar is equipped with 490R and 498T pickups for that vintage humbucking sound you demand. Exquisite details, like trapezoid fingerboard inlays and classic volume and tone knobs, complete this package.

Body

	Species Each Les Paul Studio Silverburst gets its stunning three-dimensional look courtesy of its "bookmatched" maple top. The guitar's tight-grained top fits snugly atop a two-piece mahogany body, and top and body are bonded together with ultra-strong Franklin Titebond 50 glue. This wood combination yields a specific yet versatile tone that many guitarists have come to demand.
	Grade This Les Paul Studio Silverburst's maple top and mahogany body are both Grade C.
	Design To achieve the Les Paul Studio Silverburst's desirable “bookmatched” top, a Gibson luthier gathers two pieces of the finest maple and carefully lines them up. Beyond the façade, the guitar’s interior is chambered to offer weight relief and enhanced tone.
	Average Weight The average weight of a Les Paul Studio Silverburst body is 5.81 lbs.
	Tonal Characteristics The mahogany body of the Les Paul Studio Silverburst cranks out tone that is somewhat soft, but extremely well-balanced, with good grind and bite. It has the potential for good depth, with full (though not super-tight) lows, velvety highs and a slightly compressed response. Its maple cap adds snap, sizzle and sustain. And like a number of Gibsons, the Les Paul Studio Silverburst's interior is chambered, which gives you a guitar that is louder acoustically and features increased sustain and resonance.

Finish

	Color The Les Paul Studio Silverburst comes in one of Gibson’s most popular modern finishes — the Silverburst. This high-gloss lacquer is designed to give you a lifetime of sheen, while also protecting your guitar.
	Surface Texture The 90-sheen lacquer finish gives the Les Paul Studio Silverburst a sleek surface that’s smooth to the touch.
	Process The Les Paul Studio Silverburst is finished by hand in a process that demands several coats and many hours. Unlike a lot of other manufacturers, who settle for a polyurethane finish, Gibson opts for a nitrocellulose finish that will encourage the natural vibration of the instrument for a purer tone. In addition, a nitro finish is very porous and actually gets thinner over time. That way your guitar’s wood can breathe and age beautifully.

Neck and Headstock

	Species The neck of the Les Paul Studio Silverburst is constructed from a solid piece of Grade-C mahogany, the hands-down best choice for guitarists who demand a strong but lightweight neck. Before becoming “putty” in the hands of Gibson’s skilled craftsmen, the mahogany is milled and cut to a highly desirable “quarter sawn” wood grain orientation and then kiln dried until it has reached optimum moisture levels.
	Truss Rod Gibson’s traditional truss rod, found in most all of our guitars, is highly responsive to the individual adjustments you’ll want to make to personalize and optimize string action and sustain.
	Grade C-grade
	Profile This Les Paul Studio Silverburst is fitted with Gibson’s classic ’60s neck profile, which is the more modern, slim-tapered neck most commonly associated with the Les Paul and SG models of the early 1960s.
	Joint Angle 5.0°
	Headstock Angle The Les Paul Studio Silverburst headstock is carefully angled at a tried-and-true 17 degrees, which increases pressure on the strings and helps them stay in the nut slots. An increase in string pressure also means there is no loss of string vibration between the nut and the tuners, which equals better sustain.
	Headstock Logo The Gibson logo — one of the most globally recognized logos of all time — is silkscreened in silver onto the headstock of the Les Paul Studio Silverburst.
	Tonal Characteristics The angled, classical-style peg head offers enhanced sustain.
	Average Weight The average weight of the neck on a Les Paul Studio Silverburst is .95 lbs.

Neck Fit

	Joint Gibson uses what is known as the Mortise & Tenon joint to bind neck to body so that the two pieces form one solid unit. This time-tested joint style has been used in all the great woodworking arts — from shipbuilding to cabinetry — and has been proven to yield a stronger neck and body than if the instrument was made from a single piece of wood.
	Adhesive The adhesive used to join neck and body on the Les Paul Studio Silverburst is Franklin Titebond 50, one of the strongest glues on the market today.
	Tolerance When fitting the neck and body together, we take advantage of our precise measuring equipment so that all angles, pitches and alignments maintain a tolerance within .005 of an inch. Not only does this help to keep your guitar in tune but it also maintains proper string alignment relative to the fingerboard.
	Joint Angle Tolerance 0.0° (+/- 15 seconds)

Fingerboard

	Species Each Silverburst comes with a baked maple fingerboard. Baked maple’s tonal characteristics include good sustain with plenty of bite. It really shouts with bright highs and strong upper midrange tone. Plus, with a semi-polished sheen and a smooth surface, it looks great and feels good to the touch.
	Radius The 12-inch radius of the Les Paul Studio Silverburst fingerboard provides smooth note bending capabilities and eliminates “dead” or “choked out” notes, common occurrences on fingerboards with lesser radiuses.
	Frets The Les Paul Studio Silverburst sports 22 frets.
	Inlays The acrylic trapezoid inlays that decorate the fingerboard of this Les Paul are made of Figured Acrylic, giving these classic inlays the mother-of-pearl look you lust for.
	Tonal Characteristics Baked maple is both hardwearing and sonically superlative, adding sweetness and depth to the guitar's overall sound.

Nut

	Material The nut on the Les Paul Studio Silverburst is made from Corian, which is mainly composed of acrylic polymer. It’s a very durable material, delivers enhanced sustain, and holds the tolerances of the precision cuts made by Gibson’s PLEK machine. It is installed into the top surface of the neck, butting up to the end of the fingerboard to ensure proper tone and sustain transfer.
	Width The width of the nut on the Les Paul Studio Silverburst is approximately 1.695”.

Pickups

	Neck and Bridge In the neck position, the 490R uses Alnico II magnets and features pole-piece spacing suitable to the string spread at the neck position. In the bridge position is Gibson’s 498T “Hot Alnico” pickup, which uses a punchy Alnico V magnet and modified coil windings to provide more oomph for rock lead work.
	Coil Tapping The bridge and neck pickups can each be split via their own push/pull switch on the volume knob to achieve a single-coil tone. This coil-tapping function allows you to instantly achieve brighter, snappier tones from this humbucker-loaded guitar, to replicate the sounds of other classic guitars equipped with single-coil pickups, and to return to the Les Paul Studio Silverburst's thick, warm, powerful, full-humbucking tone at the push of a knob.
	Wire Material The wire used in both the neck and bridge pickup is made of copper.
	Coil Material The coil of each pickup is made from ABS plastic, which is hard and durable and can withstand a broad range of temperatures.
	Pole Piece Material The pole pieces inside each pickup are made from either nickel or gold.
	Pole Piece Position From Nut In the neck pickup, the pole pieces are positioned 18.63” from the nut, while the pole pieces in the bridge pickup are positioned 23.44” from the nut.
	Magnet Position From Nut The Alnico II magnet in the 490R is positioned 19” from the nut, while the magnet in the 498T is positioned 23.18” from the nut.
	Tonal Characteristics This combination of pickups gives you the warmth, depth and clarity you’ve come to expect from Gibson’s humbuckers, first introduced in the 1950s.

Electronics

	Volume Control The Les Paul Studio Silverburst features two Black Top Hat volume controls with chrome inserts and potentiometers made by CTS. The pots (short for potentiometer) have an ohm reading of 500k, which allows for a smooth variation from soft to loud.
	Tone Control The Les Paul Studio Silverburst features two Black Top Hat tone control knobs with chrome inserts and a potentiometer made by CTS. The pot has an ohm reading of 500k, which is the highest value for a panel pot, and provides a very smooth transition between highs and lows.
	Toggle Switch The Les Paul Studio Silverburst features one three-way toggle switch made of stainless steel and adorned with a black cap and a black washer. This switch acts as the instrument’s pickup selector. In the down position, only the bridge pickup is active. In the middle position, both pickups are active. In the up position, only the neck pickup is active.
	Output Jack The Les Paul Studio Silverburst features a 1⁄4” output jack made by Switchcraft. Its super heavy duty construction holds your guitar cable securely in place. The jack is offset by a black jack plate.

Hardware

	Tuning Keys The headstock of the Les Paul Studio Silverburst is equipped with Grover Kidney tuning keys. With a gear ratio of 14:1, these tuners deliver precision tuning in a durable housing that provides maximum protection for the gear and string post. All moving parts are cut for exact meshing, eliminating the possibility of slippage, with a special lubricant inside the gear box for smooth and accurate tuning stability.
	Bridge In 1954, Gibson rocked the world when it debuted the tune-o-matic bridge, setting a standard for simplicity and functionality that has never been bettered. Included on the Les Paul Studio Silverburst, the tune-o-matic provides a firm seating for the strings, allowing the player to adjust and fine-tune the intonation and string height in a matter of minutes. It also yields a great union between the strings and body, which results in excellent tone and sustain. The bridge on this Les Paul is made from Zamak then plated with Chrome, and each one weighs approximately .11 lbs.
	Tailpiece Every Tune-o-matic bridge is combined with a separate “stopbar” tailpiece, which is essentially a modified version of the earlier wraparound bridge that’s designed to further enhance the connection between the strings and the body. The stopbar tailpiece on this Les Paul is made from Zamak then plated with Chrome, and each one weighs approximately .24lbs.
	Strap Buttons The Les Paul Studio Silverburst's aluminum strap buttons are the same style and design that Gibson has used since the early 1950s.

Plastics

	Truss Rod Cover As with most Gibson guitars, the truss rod cover on the Les Paul Studio Silverburst is made from vinyl plastic, and is shaped like an antique bell. The truss rod on this guitar is hot stamped with the word ‘Studio.’
	Control Knobs The control knobs on the Les Paul Studio Silverburst are Gibson’s Black Top Hat knobs, found on many vintage and modern Gibson guitars.
	Pickup Trim Rings The pickup trim rings on the Les Paul Studio Silverburst are made of black ABS plastic.

Strings

Gauge
The Les Paul Studio Silverburst is fitted with genuine Gibson strings, sizes .010 - .046.

Accessories

Hardshell Case
Your Les Paul Studio Silverburst comes protected in one of Gibson’s durable hardshell cases with the Gibson logo silk-screened across the front in white lettering.

Les Paul Studio Silverburst

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