2019 Gibson “The Paul” 40th Anniversary Reissue

Nov 3

2019 Gibson “The Paul” 40th Anniversary Reissue

It’s a happy day as Gibson has finally reissued one of the best budget models of all time in 2019 – The Paul!

This was essentially the first Les Paul Studio model first released in 1978 and they are a fantastic value for the money. $1,000 will usually get you a clean, all-original example. However, Gibson has decided to reissue these awesome instruments!

The Reissues are still the same all walnut construction (Multi-Piece Slab Body + Neck) but there are a few notable changes. Instead of the original ebony fretboard, Gibson has reissued these with a rosewood board. This isn’t too much of a surprise since ebony is in short supply for them. They also opted to omit the first fret dot inlay as well as leaving off the pickup selector’s poker chip. The comfort carves have also been exaggerated a little bit more.

You can’t expect them to go back in time to be able to outfit these with vintage ttops, so Gibson has opted for their traditional 490R + 498T pickup combination. These are great pickups for rock and blues. I personally would’ve gotten more excited about a 57 Classic in the neck and a 57 Classic + in the bridge for this model though.

Besides that, this is a fairly accurate recreation of The Paul model! They even left the volute, The Paul truss rod cover, natural headstock face and Grover tuners in place! These might confuse someone shopping for new guitars in a store who have never heard of the originals, but to a vintage buff like me – they look fantastic!

Fun Fact! This is not the first time The Paul series has been reissued. In 1996-1998, Gibson released a The Paul II that had a thinner body and made of mahogany with a rosewood fretboard. That series was more of a continuation of the series and was later renamed the Les Paul SL before being discontinued.

This time we got a proper reissue! With a street price of $1,399, you could also opt for a mint condition original one, but with these being limited run, I bet these will hold their value pretty well as well as potentially increase the value of the vintage ones due to more people learning about them with this release!