There are few guitar combinations more iconic than a Les Paul Goldtop with a pair of P-90s. It's one of those guitars that looks like it should have been hanging on the wall of a recording studio sometime around 1957 — and that's exactly the idea behind the Gibson Les Paul Standard 50s P-90.
This is the Les Paul for players who love the basic Gibson recipe but want something a little more raw and immediate than a pair of humbuckers. Under that gorgeous Goldtop finish is the classic combination of a solid, non-weight-relieved mahogany body and carved maple top, giving the guitar the substantial resonance and sustain that have defined the Les Paul since the 1950s.
The real story, however, is the pickups.
Gibson loaded this Standard with a pair of P-90 single-coils, each using Alnico 5 magnets. P-90s have a completely different personality from a traditional Gibson humbucker. They're punchy, articulate, harmonically rich, and have that wonderful slightly gritty edge when you push an amplifier. There's plenty of midrange authority, but they retain a clarity and immediacy that makes the guitar feel extremely responsive under your fingers.
Turn the amp up, and these P-90s absolutely come alive. They can deliver everything from chunky rhythm tones and bluesy grind to aggressive rock sounds that have considerably more bite than you might expect from a Les Paul. Roll the volume back, and they clean up beautifully, making the guitar surprisingly versatile. The pickups are wired with audio-taper potentiometers and Orange Drop capacitors, so the volume and tone controls are useful tools rather than decorations.
The neck is pure old-school Gibson. The mahogany neck features Gibson's 50s Vintage profile, giving you that rounded, substantial feel associated with the great Les Pauls of the Golden Era. It's paired with a rosewood fingerboard, 12" radius, 22 medium jumbo frets, and classic acrylic trapezoid inlays. There's nothing exotic going on here — and that's precisely the point. This is the familiar Les Paul recipe, executed with the kind of consistency you want from a modern Gibson.
Hardware keeps the vintage theme going. You've got an ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic bridge, an aluminum Stop Bar tailpiece, and Vintage Deluxe tuners with Keystone buttons. The nickel hardware, cream plastics, amber switch tip, and gold Top Hat knobs complete the Goldtop's unmistakably vintage appearance.
And visually, there's just something about a Goldtop with P-90s. It's understated compared with a flashy figured-top Burst, but somehow every bit as cool. Maybe more so.
If you're a Les Paul person who has always had a soft spot for P-90s, this is a combination that needs very little explanation. It's a classic Gibson design with a slightly nastier attitude — fat, punchy, articulate, and wonderfully touch-sensitive.
This one comes complete with a Gibson hardshell case.
