Epiphone promises "vintage for all" as it launches the most affordable ’59 Les Paul Standard ever

Epiphone ’59 Les Paul Standard
(Image credit: Epiphone)

We’ve heard chatter about the Epiphone ’59 Les Paul Standard, the first-ever collaboration between Epiphone and the Gibson Custom Shop, for months, and now the highly-anticipated electric guitar is a reality.

Announced with the catchphrase “Vintage for All,” the Limited Edition model is Epiphone's stunning – and affordable – recreation of the celebrated LP.

The new guitar sports a maple top with a AAA figured maple veneer on a mahogany body, a mahogany neck with a ’59 Rounded C profile and a long neck tenon, and an Indian laurel fingerboard with medium jumbo frets and trapezoid inlays.

There are also Gibson USA BurstBucker 2 and 3 humbuckers, a Switchcraft selector switch and output jack, CTS pots, ‘50s-era wiring, Mallory capacitors and new Epiphone Deluxe vintage tuners.

Aesthetics-wise, the ’59 sports cream body binding, a non-beveled pickguard and an aged finish.

"Our product development teams from Epiphone and Gibson Custom Shop are proud to have collaborated on these fantastic Les Paul models inspired by our iconic 1959 Les Paul Historic reissues,” says Mat Koehler, Head of Product Development of Gibson Custom Shop.

“As one of many collaborations to come, we were able to incorporate many of the ‘guitar geek’ upgrades and features we celebrate at the Custom Shop and offer that to the Epiphone audience.”

The ’59 is offered in Aged Dark Burst and Aged Dark Cherry Burst, and comes with an Epiphone Limited Edition metal medallion toggle switchplate and a vintage-style brown hard case. Best of all, it’s priced at just $799.

For more information, head to Epiphone.

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Richard Bienstock

Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.