DoctorPaul's Guitar Emporium - Sold Guitars

(FOR SALE)

2015 Gibson Les Paul Less+

"Roadkill"

#150051761

 

I first came across this Les Paul model in a video by lovable buffoon Rob Chapman, who was reviewing it for Andertons on YouTube.  Whoa.  I knew THAT feeling.  THAT was how it felt to want a guitar ... A LOT.
 
So, the Gibson Les Paul Less+.  It appealed to me, on a very deep, guttural level.  I have a few other Lesters, including an old Standard (called "Lester" ... it seemed a sensible name when I just had the one) with a full depth body.  That's a 10 1/2 lb guitar.  It's cool.  Heavy is cool.  But my CS Axcess ("Gaffer") is much lighter, and is ... well ... cooler.  Don't get me wrong, I love a big heavy chunk of Les Paul, but there's something very satisfying about playing a very thin, light one like the Axcess.  
 
Of course, almost all of the Les Paul Axcess models have a Floyd Rose trem (mine certainly does), so is a very peculiar animal.  However, a few Axcess Les Paul's were released without Floyds ... they're just normal stop-bar-tailpiece Les Pauls, only thinner and lighter.  But they're rare as rocking-horse shit, and they're routinely very expensive.  They've been high on my want-list for a long time.  Then ... THEN ... I saw the Less+.  This has an even thinner body than the Axcess, AND is weight relieved.  Whoa.
 
 The result is that (as suggested in the review), whereas 'proper' Lesters are a strain on the back and shoulders after a while, the Less+ actually requires the player to HOLD IT DOWN, in case it floats off while you're playing it*.  That's ALL true*.

(*not true)
 
So.  My seething need for one of these went like an itch that I couldn't scratch.  I'd charge up the guitar fund, then something shiny would pop up that would reset the fund to £0.00.  That happened a few times.  It was complicated by the fact that they were offered in three colours. 'Heritage Cherry Sunburst' (THE BEST Les Paul colour, and please don't argue), 'Fireburst' and 'Desert Burst'.  Now, although I could have lived with either the Fireburst or the Desert Burst, both of those finishes came with a 'black-back', where the rear of the guitar and the neck are sprayed in solid black.  I don't like that.  In fact, I dislike it a lot.  Only the Heritage Cherry Sunburst came with a lovely deep red stain on the back, with the grain of the wood visible.  So it HAD to be cherry sunburst, and nothing else would do.  Unfortunately, that colour seemed to sell out pretty quickly, or so I thought.  Game over.  I threw a bid at a used one (in the right colour) but the idiot seller wanted MORE for that than stores were charging for a new one.  I reckon he knew that the cherry sunburst was getting hard to get hold of.
 
THEN it happened.  A very public-spirited forum member (thanks Suzi) posted a link to a blowout sale at ... of all places ... Amazon.  For one day only, and only between 10am and 6pm, they were slashing the shit out of their 2015 Gibson prices, in order to make room for the 2016 line-up (which were released in October 2015).  Seriously ... 40% off their already-discounted prices?  That meant that a lovely, new Gibson Les Paul could be had for £899.  Seriously.
 
So I waited until 10am (precisely) and logged on to Amazon.  There they were.  Three of them.  Gibson Less+ Lesters.  And one was cherry sunburst.  I flew into a kinda excited panic, then realised that ... even at the STUPID sale price of £899 ... I didn't REALLY want to buy a Les Paul without trying it out first.  So I began a furious hunt to see if any dealers would price-match.  And WHAT do you know.  My local store (which I knew had a few of the black-back versions) were receptive to the idea that I could get one for £899 at Amazon, and they seemed to genuinely CARE that they were going to lose a sale unless they price matched.  Haggling went on for a while, with their "absolute best price" slowly coming down towards £899, until BOOM.  Price match!  So I got out the bank card and put down a deposit, on the agreement that I would shoot over there first thing the next morning to try a few of them out.  I'd rather have a black-back that I tried and liked than a cherry sunburst that I'd never even tried before, you know?.  They asked what colour I would prefer, and my heart sank a little (I'd PREFER cherry sunburst).  Then they mentioned that they had a few in stock that weren't on their eBay site.  And one was cherry sunburst.  So I drove there (quickly), tried it, and ABSOLUTELY ADORED it.
 
So, it's a beautiful cherry sunburst, and it's a PROPER old school teardrop-shaped clown-burst too ... none of this "perimeter-burst" bullshit. The back and sides are lovely deep transparent cherry too ... SO much better than a black-back finish.

The top is quite plain, just how I like 'em, but with lots of grain running across the top, against the direction of the flamed finish on a flame-top.  Interestingly, Gibson refer to the top as "B+ grade"!  How VERY rude!  They also say that it has a "Classic" top carve, not the "slight" carve found on some.

The appointments that are curious to 2015 (and appear to have been dumped for the 2016 line) include a cryogenically treated brass nut (with a zero-fret) that is height-adjustable with an allen-key (handy!).  I think that this is a great touch.  Also, it has proper mother-of-pearl board inlays (as opposed to the plastic ones used previously ... these look LOVELY!), and the G-Force 'robot' tuning system.  To work the tuners, you press the 'on' button, strum once and all hell breaks loose with the tuners spinning and twitching, with the internal servo-motors whining and clicking like R2D2 ... awesome ... the out-of-tune strings are shown in red, they flash through yellow, magenta, blue (God knows what all THAT shit is) until they get to green.  Once they're all green, the system shuts down and you're in tune.  Like ... PERFECTLY in tune.  In 30-odd years, I don't think I've ever been in tune like this!

It also has the 2015 upgraded Tune-o-Matic bridge with titanium saddles, a thicker-than-normal rosewood board, and spends longer on the PLEK machine.  Whatever the PLEK does, it is certainly a damn sight more effective than it has been previosuly ... the fret finish is PERFECT on this, and the fret ends are EXCELLENT.  Top marks.  I have lots of luthier-biult giutars with frets that aren't as good as these.  The neck and fingerboard are wider than normal, so you get a few millimetres of extra board at either side ... that sounds SHIT but is actually a really great idea.  The feeling is compounded by the fact that the frets are now installed OVER the neck binding.  You heard me.  Decades of Gibson snipping the frets short and covering the fret-ends with binding 'nibs' come crashing to an end.  Personally, I object to that ... but the proof is in the playing experience, and it feels GREAT.  What else.  The fingerboard is apparently sanded smoother than in previous years (that's a tangibel improvement ... it's glassy smooth).  It also has an "improved contact output jack" and "more robust cables".  Whatever.  Oh ... and the scratch-plate is a clip-on affair, which means that you don't get holes on the body when you take the plate off.  That's fine, as the plate clicks in really firmly ... it's actually really well designed and executed, so I'm not gonna complain about it.

Visually, apart from the wider neck and the brass nut, the most obvious change is the "Les Paul 100th birthday signature" script (scrawl?) on the headstock face, where the elegant "Les Paul Model" script would normally be.  I'm not sure about it.  Apparently its a "facsimile of his actual signature taken from a pickguard autographed by Les", and ... well ... the guy IS a legend and all, but it doesn't LOOK great.  And then there's the hologram of Les saluting like Chairman Mao.  Odd.

Ok.  So, despite some of the odd aspects of this guitar, it PLAYS beautifully.  Unplugged, it is resonant and zingy, and when plugged in the pickups (a 57 Plus at he bridge and a 57 Classic at the neck ... both with Alnico 2 magnets).  The three controls (one is lost and replaced by a coil-split swith that works on both pickups) are volume, volume and master tone.  So, you get the usual Lester thick meat, AND stratty jangle.  All of which is good.

What a bloody LOVELY guitar.