Original Black Beauty Les Pauls

[KennyY]

Anyone out there have or tried the original 50's Les Paul "Black Beauty" Customs and compared it against the reissues? I need some info on the Gibson Custom Shop reissues. Is it a faithful reproduction of the original? I know Gibson is making their 1959 Standards closer and closer to the originals....almost historically correct. I want to know if the same is with the Black Beauty reissues. There's alot of information regarding the 'bursts, but not so much on the Customs.

Thanks,

Ken

 

[hank]

Black Beauties

I've compared my Y2K '57 RI Black Beauty, 3 pups, to an original and found the new guitar to be very compatible with the original. My guitar had a slightly larger neck, which I like, but everything seemed to be in order.

hank

 

[EdA]

I believe the reissues are very close in construction to the originals. Same neck tenon and most importantly, all mahogany with the same routes for the control cavities and wiring. The only difference as far as I know is that the reissue is a mahogany cap put over a mahogany body whereas the originals were one solid piece of mahogany.

 

[Roe Bow]

The only difference that sticks out

for me(that hasn't been covered in the preceeding posts on this thread) would be the tuners. It would seem that the days of 9 and 10/4 Honduras are long since passed.

 

[Lance Keltner]

Weight

I had a custom shop reissue, and got very lucky with the weight. I had one that weighed probably about like the average 59'. I did notice however that most of the Black Beauty's were VERY heavy guitars. 11 pounds on a couple of them.

 

[John Catto]

Bit odd that considering that overall the 50's BB Customs are among the lightest 50's carved top LP's I've seen.

 

[Lance Keltner]

Clarification

I got lucky with a RE-Issue historic. Perhaps I wasn't clear. I chose the one that I did out of several, and they were all like boat anchors.

 

[Jato]

I have played a '56 Custom LP...Alnico neck and p90 bridge. No trem. Light as a feather(under 7#) and sounded/played great.
Frets are too small, however. I had a '57 reissue BB...9 pounds of fury and tonality. Hope to get another next year. As has been mentioned, I have heard that some of the reissue Customs are way over 9#.
Steve

 

[GuitarG]

My '57 Reissue BB 3-PU weighs in at 9.4#. I have picked up a couple that were much heavier.

 

[1959burst]

i love black beauties!

i have a few p90' customs and a couple triple humbucker customs from the fifties along with a 70's and 89 35 anniversary custom with 3 'buckers and have played dozens of reissues............real close but the original pickup ones tell the story.