1956 Gibson Les Paul Standard Goldtop Vintage Guitar w/ Case

Up for sale, a 1956 Gibson Les Paul Standard, heavily played and extremely original, retaining all of its original electronics and hardware. From the one year where the Les Paul Standard gained an ABR-1 bridge before the advent of humbuckers in '57, this Goldtop has a woody, resonant natural acoustic tone with the breadth and liveliness indicative of a guitar that’s seen decades of use.Lightweight at 8lbs 11oz, the original P-90 pair channels the potent tonewood pairing of a carved maple cap, Honduran mahogany body, and a one-piece Honduran mahogany neck capped with a bound Brazilian rosewood fingerboard. The bridge pickup has no shortage of bark and authority, with a glassy treble-centric bite and tight bass register punch. There’s a bounce and sweetness across all strings that adds a bit of mellowness to the note attack. Trebles have a harmonic density and sparkle in every pickup position, and toggling towards the neck yields remarkable thickness and sonic density. The neck position’s coil wind and proximity to the strings means it can overdrive easily with open chords, and single notes are fat and focused. Highly dynamically responsive to player inputs, complex chording is achievable with great clarity as well, offering fatness and additional midrange push when favoring the neck pickup. Simply put, every pickup position is very distinct, and this Les Paul is malleable to a broad range of genres. We've had this Gibson professionally setup here at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar with fresh 10-46 strings, low action and accurate intonation.The one-piece Hondurdan mahogany neck has a substantial C-shaped profile carve with ample shoulder. The practically jet black Brazilian rosewood fretboard retains its stock very slender "banjo" fretwire. The frets have been leveled and crowned in the guitar’s lifetime, yet they're not on the deck, and still retain as much meat and crown as banjo frets can muster. The frets currently show moderate wear beneath all strings on frets 1-5, with fainter wear extending beneath the plain strings until fret 8. There is finger wear into the rosewood from frets 1-10, predominantly on the treble side of the board and largely relegated to the lower frets. The guitar plays cleanly up the 24 3/4" scale and the neck is straight with a responsive, optimally adjusted truss rod. The original nylon nut is intact, and the headstock face retains its stock truss rod cover, with clean Gibson inlay and gold Les Paul script text. The headstock is fitted with an original set of Kluson Deluxe "no line" tuning machines with original keystone buttons.All of the electronics work as they should, and both original P-90 pickups retain their stock windings, metering at 7.85k ohms in the bridge position and 7.45k at the neck. The solder joints are untouched on the harness, with Bumblebee capacitors and CentraLab pots that date to the 22nd week of 1956. Hardware includes an original no-wire ABR-1 bridge and matching lightweight aluminum stopbar. Plastics include the ambered speed knobs, P-90 covers which show some modest upward cupping, and switch surround with amber tip. A different jack plate was at one time installed, with a couple additional filled holes beyond the footprint of the original plate. A genuine vintage jack plate has once again been fitted.Few '50s Gibsons have survived as soulfully worn and original as this Goldtop, and the original nitro lacquer finish and dark brown back show heavy lacquer checking and honest wear, with a large portion of the top finish worn through to the bare maple from contact with the forearm. There are “tan lines” on top from both the pickguard (no longer present) and a Bigsby B7 vibrato (the two forward mounting screws for the Bigsby remain), with wear through the gloss on much of the perimeter on the back body edge, and various signs of honest use on the instrument as a whole. Lacquer checking on the neck profile has largely been worn smooth and is imperceptible to the palm, with additional wear through the gloss mostly on the bass side of the neck carve.A vintage black tolex Gibson hardshell case with gold plush interior is included.