Les Paul Special Tribute DC
This DC is a marvel...
Like the other two guitars here, the Les Paul Special Tribute DC is based on a classic from Gibson’s illustrious back catalogue. The Special was originally launched in 1955 as a single-cut budget guitar for novices and the skint. By 1958, it was rebooted as a double-cutaway with a slab mahogany body and a pair of P-90 single-coil pickups.
Our 2019 Special is based around those late 1950s guitars. The wraparound bridge/tailpiece is pure vintage cool, as are the white button vintage tuners. The body is true to type, cut from a slab of mahogany. Original Specials and the various vintage reissues currently offered by Gibson have mahogany necks. Our Tribute however, is packing a length of maple topped with a 305mm (12") radius rosewood ’board. In common with the other guitars here, the quality of finish on the fingerboard and frets is
excellent. Someone gave this guy a great start in life.
Weight-wise, the Tribute DC comes in at 3.4kg (7.5lb), slap bang between the SG Standard and the Les Paul Tribute. It practically defies gravity on a strap and won’t cause you shoulder fatigue at gigs or during any long rehearsal sessions.
The pickups are classic Gibson P-90 single-coils. Now, as any tone aficionado will love to tell you, something magical happens when you combine P-90s with a mahogany body and a Gibson scale length. As proven by our Tribute DC, you get oodles of sustain, a warm, woody tone on clean settings, and a blast of rock ’n’ roll attitude when you kick on some overdrive. It’s kind of like a fat Telecaster thing. If you haven’t plugged a Special into a cranked amp and whacked an open A chord and revelled in its majesty, well, you know the rest.
Considering its £869 asking price, the DC offers a lot of cool for your money. We like the robust Worn Cherry finish that shows the grain of the mahogany body. Hell, we’re even smitten by the three-ply scratchplate. Most of all we love the fact that you can get a real US Gibson for well under a grand that doesn’t feel like a compromise. It feels, well, Special…
you get a warm, woody tone on clean settings, and a blast of rock ’n’ roll attitude with some overdrive