The series now features ES-335s (in addition to the already wildly popular SGs and Les Paul Standards) in striking new finishes, including Watermelon, Ocean Blue, Blood Moon, and Spearmint. While you can get a pretty good idea of what these finishes look like just from reading the names, take a look for yourself anyway:
Freshly debuted just three years earlier in 1952, the Les Paul electric guitar was still a vision of the future for guitar enthusiasts. And based on how I’m feeling seeing these images in 2025, what Gibson revealed that day must have absolutely blown away NAMM 1955’s attendees, who I envision looking a lot more like the cast of Mad Men than resembling today’s guitars 'n' gear set. - by Nick Stockton- Americansongwriter.
These five Les Pauls, decked out in “five custom metallic nitrocellulose lacquer car finishes–Samoa Beige, Copper Iridescent, Nugget Gold, Platinum, and Viceroy Brown,” symbolically aligned the Gibson Les Paul with the automobile, then as now the ultimate symbol of freedom and the American way of life.
1955 NAMM Show Commemorative Edition Les Paul Platinum
Available for purchase through the Gibson Garage beginning January 22nd, 2025, with product shipping on or before March 31st, 2025
One piece lightweight mahogany body, two piece plain maple cap, one piece mahogany neck with a 1950s Chunky D profile, Indian rosewood fretboard with celluloid trapezoid inlays, Gibson Custom P-90 pickups, rare nitrocellulose lacquer custom colors, Lifton hardshell case.6.599,00 €
And just as car designs looked ever toward the future, with tailfins and other space-age accoutrements a common motif, the new line of Gibson Les Pauls were fitted with the cutting edge in electric guitar technology: no-wire ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic™ bridges and Stop Bar tailpieces. Color-matched Speed knobs. Single-ring Kluson® tuners. Hand-wired P90 pickups.
Flash forward to today: Gibson has recreated these five guitars (70 of each finish for a total of 350) in celebration of their 70-year anniversary. From the one-piece Mahogany body, 1950’s chunky “D”-shaped neck profile, and period-correct headstock logo, these are every bit the Les Pauls that Gibson rolled out that day in 1955.
