Gibson Les Paul Studio
Encyclopedia
Background
The Gibson Les Paul Swamp Ash Studio was introduced in 2003 alongside the Les PaulGibson Les Paul
The Gibson Les Paul was the result of a design collaboration between Gibson Guitar Corporation and the late jazz guitarist and electronics inventor Les Paul. In 1950, with the introduction of the Fender Telecaster to the musical market, electric guitars became a public craze. In reaction, Gibson...
Voodoo. These two instruments were essentially identical except for the Voodoo's dark finish, "Goth
Goth subculture
The goth subculture is a contemporary subculture found in many countries. It began in England during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post-punk genre. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify...
" aesthetic and different pickups.
Construction
All Gibson Les Paul Swamp Ash Studio guitars are built in Nashville, TennesseeNashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, USA.
The body of the Swamp Ash Les Paul
Gibson Les Paul
The Gibson Les Paul was the result of a design collaboration between Gibson Guitar Corporation and the late jazz guitarist and electronics inventor Les Paul. In 1950, with the introduction of the Fender Telecaster to the musical market, electric guitars became a public craze. In reaction, Gibson...
consists of a carved swamp ash
Ash tree
Fraxinus is a genus flowering plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae. It contains 45-65 species of usually medium to large trees, mostly deciduous though a few subtropical species are evergreen. The tree's common English name, ash, goes back to the Old English æsc, while the generic name...
top over a multi-piece swamp ash back. The neck is made from mahogany
Mahogany
The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored hardwood. It is a native American word originally used for the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany....
and is "set"
Set-in neck
Set-in neck is a method of guitar construction that involves joining guitar neck and body with a tightly fitted mortise-and-tenon or dovetail joint, secured using some sort of adhesive...
into the body, as is the standard neck construction for all Les Paul guitars. The fretboard may be either ebony or rosewood, depending on production year.
Variations
Early Swamp Ash Studio guitars (approx. 2003 - 2004 model years) were produced with ebony fingerboards. These models are significant in that they lack any fingerboard markers.Current models feature a rosewood fingerboard with dot inlaid fingerboard markers.
Certification
All of the swamp ash used in the Les Paul Swamp Ash Studio is certified environmentally "responsible" by the Rainforest AllianceRainforest Alliance
The Rainforest Alliance is a non-governmental organization with the published aims of working to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior. It is based in New York City, and has offices throughout the...
via their SmartWood program. The Rainforest Alliance is accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council
Forest Stewardship Council
The Forest Stewardship Council is an international not-for-profit, multi-stakeholder organization established in 1993 to promote responsible management of the world’s forests. Its main tools for achieving this are standard setting, independent certification and labeling of forest products...
(FSC). Gibson is independently audited on an annual basis by the Rainforest Alliance to ensure that only FSC-certified swamp ash is used in the construction of the Swamp Ash Studio and Gibson's SmartWood line of instruments.
Production figures
As of 2006, Gibson only released production numbers for limited-run models with production set at the time of announcement. According to GibsonGibson Guitar Corporation
The Gibson Guitar Corporation, formerly of Kalamazoo, Michigan and currently of Nashville, Tennessee, manufactures guitars and other instruments which sell under a variety of brand names...
, the Les Paul Swamp Ash Studio is a "limited edition" model. Despite this, exact production numbers are currently unavailable.
Total production for Gibson's swamp ash guitars will depend on the availability of environmentally certified wood.
Gem Series
P-90
The P-90 is a single coil electric guitar pickup produced by Gibson since 1946. Having a more complex architecture and larger dimensions than Fender's single coils, it is occasionally mistaken for a humbucker.- History :...
pickups and special finishes in "gemstone" colors: Amethyst
Amethyst
Amethyst is a violet variety of quartz often used in jewelry. The name comes from the Ancient Greek ἀ a- and μέθυστος methustos , a reference to the belief that the stone protected its owner from drunkenness; the ancient Greeks and Romans wore amethyst and made drinking vessels of it in the belief...
, Sapphire
Sapphire
Sapphire is a gemstone variety of the mineral corundum, an aluminium oxide , when it is a color other than red or dark pink; in which case the gem would instead be called a ruby, considered to be a different gemstone. Trace amounts of other elements such as iron, titanium, or chromium can give...
, Topaz
Topaz
Topaz is a silicate mineral of aluminium and fluorine with the chemical formula Al2SiO42. Topaz crystallizes in the orthorhombic system and its crystals are mostly prismatic terminated by pyramidal and other faces.-Color and varieties:...
, Emerald
Emerald
Emerald is a variety of the mineral beryl colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium. Beryl has a hardness of 7.5–8 on the 10 point Mohs scale of mineral hardness...
, and Ruby
Ruby
A ruby is a pink to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum . The red color is caused mainly by the presence of the element chromium. Its name comes from ruber, Latin for red. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapphires...
. The series was discontinued in 1998.
Gibson produced a small number of Les Paul Studio guitars using the leftover paint from the Gem Series. However, these are not to be considered original Gems, as they did not include the special P-90 pickups.
Studio Custom
The Studio Custom was produced during 84-85. It was introduced before the design of the Studio was finalized, and mostly had the features of a Standard with a variety of features mixed in from other models. It had a mahogany neck and mahogany body with a maple top, single-ply binding around the neck and three-ply binding around the body, and gold hardware with black pickup rings and pick guard. The 1984 models had two-piece tops, while '85 models had three-piece tops. The fingerboard was made from rosewood on some models, ebony on others, and had Mother of Pearl dots for inlays, instead of the usual trapezoids. The neck profile was slim-tapered, like a Standard, and the frets were low, like a "Fretless Wonder" Custom. According to limited information from guitar forums, some of these had the sought-after Tim Shaw pickups.Studio Standard
The Studio Standard was produced during 1984-86, and was very similar to the Studio Custom, including the "dot" inlays, but had a single-ply binding around the body, chrome hardware, and white pickup rings and pick guard. It was also available in different colors, such as Cherry Sunburst and Ferrari Red.Studio Lite
In the mid 1990s Gibson produced the Studio Lite and Studio Lite M-III. The Lite models were produced with balsa wood (referred to as "chromyte" in advertisements) portions of the body to reduce the guitar's weight, responding to some players' complaints about the heaviness of a standard Les Paul after several hours of playing. The Studio Lite M-III was produced with a new pickup configuration: two humbuckers with a single coil in the middle. The pickup selector switch gave five single-coil options in the "up" position, and four humbucker combinations in the "down" position, plus an "off" position.The name M-III refers to the Gibson M-III model, which was a Superstrat-style guitar, for which these electronics were originally developed.
1950s and 1960s Tribute
In 2010 Gibson had a limited production of the "1950s Tribute". It looked basically like a 1955-57 Les Paul and featured a selection of "faded" colors, with P-90P-90
The P-90 is a single coil electric guitar pickup produced by Gibson since 1946. Having a more complex architecture and larger dimensions than Fender's single coils, it is occasionally mistaken for a humbucker.- History :...
soap bar pickups, a stop tailpiece
Stoptail bridge
A stoptail bridge used on a solid body electric guitar or archtop guitar is a specialized kind of fixed hard-tail bridge...
, and a Tune-o-matic
Tune-o-matic
Tune-o-matic is a name of fixed bridge design for electric guitars. It was designed by Ted McCarty and introduced in the Gibson Les Paul Custom guitar in 1954. In 1955, it was used on the Gibson Les Paul Gold Top...
bridge. It lacks binding on the body and neck. The "Gibson" logo is silkscreened instead of inlaid and the fret markers are acrylic (Gibson had recently switched to acrylic fret markers on most Les Paul models). In 2011 produced a limited run of the "1960s Tribute", which was the same except that it had the 1960s-style "slim taper" neck instead of the more rounded 1950s-style neck.