2002 Les Paul Special Review

The Les Paul Special appeared in 1955, completing the original quartet of Les Paul models. Today's Special retains the vintage look of soapbar pickups but produces modern humbucking power from its dual P-100s.

Features:	10
Sound:	9
Action:	9
Reliability:	9
Impression:	10
Overall rating:	8.3
Reviewer rating:	9.4
Users rating:	7.1
Votes:	58

overall: 10

Reviewed by: AxlSlash, on november 09, 2012

Price paid: $ 650

Purchased from: Sam Ash Music, Buffalo Grove, IL

Features: 2002, USA made, 22 frets, solid mahogany body and neck, rosewood fretboard, single cut flat-top les paul body style, tune-o-matic bridge, neck pickup: 490R Alnico magnet humbucker. Bridge pickup: 498T Alnico magnet humbucker. Gibson greenkey tuners, gig bag included. Goldtop knobs, 2 tone, 2 volume, 3 way Switch. // 10

Sound: Incredible guitar. Gives a great Creedence-esque feel clean, and can go straight for Fourtunate Son to Crazy Train through distortion. The sound is incredible. Sustain is about 6-7 seconds clean, and about 17 distorted. I use a Marshall MG15CD amp, and a Fender cable. The strings bend easily, and I can get close to 5 half-steps with little effort on bends. The sound is, again, very bright clean, and extremely heavy distorted. Awesome guitar. // 10

Action, Fit & Finish: No flaws what-so-ever. The very finest in USA-made parts. // 10

Reliability & Durability: This guitar seems very solid. The faded finish will not wear, hardwear will last for sure, and I would definetly go into a gig with just this axe and a tuner. Love it to death. I live by this guitar. // 10

Impression: This guitar was the best overall value. A Yamaha would have been comparable in price, but a thicker neck and fogier tone turned me off of it. This is a Gibson. Period. It is built to last, and it sounds amazing. If I had to sell all of my guitars but one, I would keep this one. Absolutely astounding. And for a great deal, too. // 10

Reviewed by: unregistered, on november 09, 2012

Price paid: $ 800

Purchased from: Guitar Center

Features: Body: Mahogany
Neck/Profile: Mahogany/1960 Slim taper
Fingerboard/Inlay: Rosewood 22 frets/Dot
Scale/Nut Width: 243/4"/111/16
Bridge/Tailpiece: Tune-o-matic/Stopbar
Hardware: Chrome
Pickups: P-100 stacked humbuckers(soapbox P-90 Layout). // 10

Sound: Neck P-100 pickup sounds really good and has lots of tone to it. The P-100 in the bridge however is muddy under distoration and lacks the right tone for the mids and highs. Really good sound overall though from the mahogany body and the mahongany neck. It's a Gibson enough said :). // 8

Action, Fit & Finish: Action out of factory was ok but I took mine to a pro guitar repair man after changing my string gauge from .10s to .09s. The guitar is comfortable to play and can get lost playing for hours. The finish is great however I would of prefered to get in a red color the black shows small scratches etc easily. // 8

Reliability & Durability: The guitar is rock solid reliable. You can depend on this guitar, the stock hardware is nice however I slightly modified my guitar after one of the head tuners broke I decided to Switch out the Gibson stock tuners and use some grovers. With the grovers installed I stay in tune much better and it really complements my guitar and its look. I also changed out the stock P-100 bridge pickup and stuck a Rio Grande Jazzbar in the bridge. Now with the Jazzbar in the bridge and P-100 in the neck it sounds and plays like a dream. // 8

Impression: I play music ranging from classic 60-70s rock like hendrix, led zepplin, etc to blues and metal. This guitar with the right pickup combination and amp can play anything you want. This guitar with teh right modifications can play better then 95% of the guitars out there. Throw in some nice P-90 soapbox pickups in it and it will play with bad to the bone tone and sustain. If you find this year or a close year to it with the P-100 special layout NON FADED SERIES on ebay for less then 800 in good condition I recommend BUY IT you wont be disapointed. // 10

Comments

[H, Omitted]

Since it is my duty to de-virginize this comment section, I must say nice reviews for a nice six.

[Guitar Sushi]

This is the ugliest Les Paul ever... but Les Pauls are beautiful

[remix37]

where can i get one of these in st>johns newfoundland? and how did you get it for that price?

[5dilloneastoe]

available in a black finish?

[arian.boss]

[arian.boss]

[cajun_prince]

oh man. gibson cant get more designs.. too bad.. they took SGs design..

[bfs15]

simply an amazing guitar!

[5dilloneastoe]

where can i get one in the uk

[zripper10]

Have one with a mahogany finish for $400 and it is INSANELY BADASS C: