The Gibson Les Paul Personal model, a collaboration between Gibson engineers and Les Paul himself, was seen as something of a step forward in guitar design, even if the model itself was not particularly popular at all. Angled low impedance pickups provided a much more clear, high-fidelity sound which would be favored by Les Paul and jazz guitarists of the day.

The Les Paul Personal had a few other new design elements, starting with a wider body than the traditional Les Paul shape. From there, they added phase switching, an 11-position "Decade" switch, and an onboard microphone input on the upper bout of the guitar -- designed for a gooseneck mic -- with its own output and level control. Only 370 of these guitars were produced from 1969 - 1973 before being discontinued.