A new Les Paul is always big news in the world of electric guitar but not today. Gibson has flipped the script on its most famous model by unveiling an all-new take on the iconic single-cut that reimagines it as a parlour-sized acoustic guitar.
Released a day after the late, great Les Paul’s birthday, the Les Paul Parlor Acoustic is available in Vintage Sunburst and Vintage Cherry Burst and looks… Well, just look at it in the picture at the top of the page, side-by-side with a Les Paul Standard Double Trouble. It is a Les Paul. But it’s acoustic.
From the acrylic trapezoid inlays to the cream pickguard, the Les Paul headstock decal, MOP Gibson logo, the bound rosewood fingerboard, you can see the aesthetic inspiration. And the build follows in a similar fashion, with these small-bodied acoustics comprised of a bookmarked piece of AAA figured maple for the top – buttressed by scalloped X-pattern bracing – with solid mahogany on the back and sides. Classic recipe.
This is not the first time that Gibson has unplugged the Les Paul on the luthier’s table. In 1969, it launched an acoustic Les Paul, but that was a jumbo-sized cutaway, and a little weird. In 2000, it introduced a solidbodied Les Paul acoustic that – admittedly – we have completely memory holed. Who remembers that?
This compact little cutaway acoustic looks like a much more viable proposition. It might be the sort of acoustic that finds its audience and sticks around.
Shape-wise, Gibson describes it as being “reminiscent of a scaled-down SJ-200” and that sounds an apposite way to look at it. It’s built similarly, with the compound dovetail neck joint. Here you have 19 frets, single-ply binding on the top and bottom of the body. The dimensions are on-brand for Gibson, 12” radius fingerboard, 24.75” scale (well, it’s a Les Paul, right?)
We would wager this will have a slightly sweeter voice than its jumbo counterparts, a little more top end and obviously less volume.
But maybe not plugged in. This could be a firecracker. Gibson has fitted this with a very special acoustic guitar pickup and preamp system. It’s the same LR Baggs VTC architecture that you’ll find on much of Bozeman, Montana’s finest work, except that it has an extra +4dB of output.
Hey, maybe you could play Welcome To The Jungle on this after all. You’ll find the controls mounted inside the soundhole.
Other details worth nothing include the Graph Tech Tusq nut, measuring 43.815mm wide, the Grover Rotomatic tuners with kidney-bean style buttons, the rosewood bridge is fashioned in the belly-down style, and the guitar ships in a hard-shell guitar case.
Priced $3,999, it is available now. See Gibson for more details, and hat-tip to the Gibson Gazette for announcing this – it’s always a site worth bookmarking for official Gibson news.
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