The last release from Gibson is a little bit surprising because, although it’s a Les Paul, it’s a very different guitar, well the features are very similar but when you look at it it seems very different from other models. The model is called Gibson Les Paul Axcess Standard Guitar and comes from the Gibson Custom brand where the engineers said that all the improvements for this models have been made to improve playability on stage (they seem to say that the Standard Les Paul is not comfortable enough for stage, but I’m sure they didn’t want people to take it this way) especially with contoured parts of the guitar, so let’s see what are these improved features.
The features of the Gibson Les Paul Axcess Standard Guitar are mahogany contoured (belly scarf) body with carved maple top, 1-piece mahogany contoured neck (for easy access to higher notes), rounded profile, rosewood fingerboard, 22 frets, 24.75″ scale length, Floyd Rose tremolo tailpiece (and locking nut), BurstBucker 1 and 2 humbucker pickups, 3-way pickup switch and 2 volume and 2 tone (one of the with coil split push/pull) controls.
The look of this guitar is strange but it really rocks on both finishes, iced tea burst or gun metal gray, and I’d really like to play this axe. The Gibson Les Paul Axcess Standard Guitar is now available and its price is $3,500.
It seems really nice except for the Floyd Rose, I really dislike those. A Bigsby or an Angus Young-like bridge would have been better options in my opinion.
Both of my on-stage guitars have a Floyd Rose system, and one of them is a very high dollar custom built axe. I personally like the Floyd Rose. I can use a very light tremelo that sounds very fine or I can fram on it as much as I want and it never goes out of tune…unless of course I happen to shred a string right off the thing, and then, like a good pro should, I just grab the other one. It does what it is supposed to and allows me to keep right on playing from one song to the next without having to stop in between and re-tune. Wish I could say the same for somne other players.
I used to be a stuck-up LP user. No whammy bar for my Les Paul but I do miss the whammy like on my strat. So as I get older I’m re-thinking my attitude and after seeing the Neal Schonn model I e-mailed Gibson and they told me about this model. The more I look at it the more I like it. With today’s economy it’s out of my league right now…but someday…