Gibson 2018 Les Paul Standard HP Cobalt Fade (Pre-Owned) #180045187

What we say:

This second edition of the Les Paul Standard High Performance keeps lots of the great features from the first HP models and upgrades others for 2018. These beautiful guitars are designed to give guitarists a wonderful playing experience, an exemplary sounding guitar and a talking point looks-wise. Let’s check it out!

First off, you’ll have noticed the top: that is triple A+ Flamed Maple! This is on top of a Mahogany body that has been sculpted and contoured for player comfort. This sculpting continues on the neck which has an asymmetrical profile to suit how your hand sits on any given section of it’s length. Richlite adorns the fingerboard, just like the Les Paul Custom. Bright white binding surround this and the body for a clean look. The chrome hardware (including control knobs and surround-less pickups) contributes to this clean look too and separates the range from more traditional Les Pauls like the Traditional models.

Speaking of pickups, these are specially designed units - a Lead Pro+ in the bridge & a Rhythm Pro in the neck - which have the same DIP switch technology connected to them from previous HP Les Paul. These switches, located at the back in the control cavity, allow a huge number of tonal variations via a series of frequency cancelling filters. Between these and the push/pull knobs on the front, you have a Les Paul with well over a hundred combinations to try.

Also changed is the controversial G-Force technology in favour of locking tuners, something that no guitarist can argue with!

This HPII Les Paul is a move into the future for Gibson: in many ways it is a perfectly traditional example of a beautiful flame topped Les Paul but in other ways it is quite for removed. Set up a certain way, you can achieve some defiantly non-Les Paul tones! For the session guitarist or those who play in cover bands, this Les Paul could be a great idea.

This guitar is finished in Cobalt Fade.