Gibson 2011 Les Paul Traditional Ebony With Bigsby (Pre-Owned)

Crafted to exhibit the best characteristics displayed by the Les Paul Standard over the six decades of its existence, the Les Paul Traditional is a fitting heir to the guitar that Eric Clapton brought into the spotlight in the mid '60s, and which quickly became the weapon of choice for countless top players, including Mike Bloomfield, Jimmy Page, Paul Kossoff and Jeff Beck. To capture an option favored by everyone from Neil Young to Keith Richards, Joe Perry to Carl Perkins and original Son Volt lead guitarist Dave Boquist, Gibson USA now brings you the Les Paul Traditional with Bigsby.

Loaded with an original Bigsby B-70 tailpiece, this instrument gives you all the fat, singing tone that the world's leading single-cutaway guitar is known for, plus the added versatility of a vintage-style vibrato unit for expressive lead work and tremulous rhythm playing. As such, it's a package with an extremely broad appeal, suitable to a wide range of playing styles.

The Les Paul Traditional with Bigsby is crafted with all the classic ingredients that helped make this model a legend, and it sports killer looks thanks to a stunning high-gloss Ebony Black nitrocellulose finish. A carved maple top contributes clarity and sustain, while a mahogany body adds depth and richness. Like all Les Paul Traditionals this guitar uses modern weight relief to enhance resonance and reduce weight. A solid one-piece quarter-sawn mahogany neck is glued in with a traditional mortis & tenon joint and is carved to a "Traditional" profile that measures .838" at the 1st fret and .983" at the 12th. Topped with a Grade-A rosewood fingerboard with 22 medium-jumbo frets, with a 12" radius for each choke-free bending, the neck culminates in a headstock with the preferred 17-degree backward pitch for improved string pressure in the PLEK-cut Corian nut.

To launch all of this tonal goodness into the stratosphere, the Les Paul Traditional with Bigsby carries two of Gibson USA's most popular humbucking pickups, a 57 Classic in the neck position for sweet, warm vocal tones, and a slightly hotter 57 Classic Plus in the bridge for gutsy crunch and soaring lead tones. These acclaimed units are made with genuine Alnico V magnets and wound with 42 AWG wire, just like the legendary PAFs of the late '50s and early '60s, and offer a blend of depth and clarity that few pickups can match today.

One of the most exciting additions to this guitar comes, however, in the tailpiece that helps to give it its name. A genuine Bigsby B-70 tailpiece has been installed by Gibson USA for the subtle, smooth vibrato action that only this original unit can deliver. The Bigsby is partnered with a Schaller roller bridge—a unit based on Gibson's own Tune-o-matic, but with individual roller saddles—for improved return-to-pitch capabilities when the vibrato is used. The hardware is capped off with a set of quality TonePros Kluson-style tuners.