Gibson Wildwood Select Les Paul Standard '60s 2020 - Dark Cherry Burst

2020 Gibson USA Les Paul Standard 60’s

No signs of wear. Case still has plastic around handle. Pickguard was installed by shop (don’t know why). It has been removed to show wood, but is included. The only mark on the guitar is on the back near the edge. I can’t tell what it is but I think it would easily polish out. I have not attempted to polish anything as this guitar is so pristine.

Weight is 9.8 lbs according to my bathroom scale. So that’s somewhere around 9lbs, 12-13 oz. If I am doing the math right.

04/17 ***Uploaded new photos from I phone as lighting made it look really orange on nicer camera. Turns out it is as good looking with a iPhone as it is with wife’s fancy DSL.

Below is information directly from wild wood guitars on what makes this different than a standard 60’s.

The short version is nicer wood (and it’s gorgeous), and the 59 tribute pick ups.

From Wild wood guitars website:
Wildwood and Gibson have a long and storied history of collaboration and friendship. Over the last 35 years, we have partnered with them to produce all kinds of Wildwood-exclusive guitars, and we believe that those instruments are some of the finest in the world thanks to the incredible creativity, passion, and skill of the good people at Gibson. One project on our wish list always eluded us, though: we’ve never done a Wildwood-exclusive run of Gibson USA guitars. That is, until now! Wildwoodians, please meet the newest member of the Wildwood Family: the Wildwood Select Original Collection Les Paul Standard '60s.

The Wildwood Select Les Paul is an attempt to capture some of the magic of our Wildwood Spec Custom Shop instruments in a more affordable package. Since we handpick the tops for our Custom Shop instruments, we asked our friends at the USA factory if we could do the same thing for this run. They were happy to oblige us, and we think you’ll agree that the cuts of maple we chose are absolutely stunning. Be sure to engage your drool shield if you’re planning on scrolling through these guitars!

We also asked them to spray that handpicked wood with a brand-new exclusive finish. With the helpful guidance of the Gibson team, we settled on a glorious dark cherry burst. This finish is a dark and rich maroon near the edges of the burst, and it lightens to more of a sunset orange in the middle with reddish-purple, light red, and golden hues in between. For us, it evokes the color of a sunset over the Rocky Mountains on a summer night, and it looks positively jaw-dropping on top of the lovely maple we picked out.

The Sweet Sound of 1960
Finally, we asked Gibson to wind us an exclusive set of pickups, and they came up with some marvelous humbuckers for us. Here at Wildwood, we love PAFs the way Slash loves top hats, so we asked them to capture the sweet vintage tones of those magical bursts. It was a tall order, to be sure, but the wizards at Gibson delivered. They wound us some Wildwood Spec ’59 Tribute pickups, and I could write a War and Peace-sized treatise about how awesome they are.

But, for the sake of brevity, I’ll keep it to a few hundred words. These boss ‘buckers sound brawny and powerful while maintaining remarkable articulation and clarity. They are also extremely touch-sensitive, which makes for a wonderfully dynamic, expressive playing experience. When you dig in, you are rewarded with glorious snarling tone that makes you want to turn your amplifier all the way up and irritate all your neighbors. When you ease off with your right hand, the tone becomes rounder, warmer, sweeter, and more vocal.

In the bridge position, the low-end is tight and muscular, the midrange punches like Ali, and the highs have just the right amount of sweet, sugary chime. Flip to the neck position and the low-end becomes deep and warm with woody, vintage-style clarity, the mids broaden and become throatier and more open, and the highs sing like Etta James.