Gibson Custom Shop Murphy Lab 1959 Les Paul Standard Reissue Ultra Light Aged — Sunrise Teaburst

This is the closest you'll get to a genuine 1959 burst without raiding a museum. Gibson's Custom Shop set out to clone the priceless originals — laser-scanned dimensions, chemically recreated plastics, period-correct sunburst recipes — and then handed the finished guitars over to the Murphy Lab for an Ultra Light Aged treatment that gives this Les Paul the quiet patina of an instrument that's been gigged gently for sixty-odd years rather than slung over a shoulder yesterday.

Murphy Lab Ultra Light Aged Finish

The Murphy Lab artisans take a brand-new guitar and walk it back through time. The Sunrise Teaburst nitrocellulose finish is gently checked and softly worn at the edges, while the nickel hardware is lightly aged so nothing reads as fresh-from-the-box. It's the most subtle tier in the Murphy Lab range — relaxed, broken-in, and quietly authentic rather than full-blown relic.

Authentic '59 Tonewoods

Beneath the finish is a one-piece lightweight mahogany back capped with a two-piece figured maple top, joined the way Kalamazoo did it in the 50s — with hide glue, not modern aliphatic resins. The same hide glue is used at the neck-to-body joint and under the Indian rosewood fingerboard, so vibration travels through the instrument as freely as it did on the originals. The result is that recognisable warm midrange bloom, a touch of woody compression, and a singing top end.

Authentic 1959 Medium C Neck

The neck is carved to an Authentic '59 Medium C profile — a hand-filling shape that stops short of clubby, paired with a 24.75" scale, 12" fingerboard radius, and 22 historic medium-jumbo frets. A long tenon joint locks the neck deep into the body for sustain and tuning stability, and the cellulose nitrate trapezoid inlays match a Golden Era board down to the colour shift you only get from real period plastic.

Custombucker Alnico 3 Pickups

Voicing this guitar is a pair of unpotted Custombucker Alnico 3 humbuckers — Gibson's faithful recreation of the original PAFs. The Alnico 3 magnets keep things open and airy on top, with a touchy dynamic response and the slightly loose low end that makes a real burst sing under a cranked amp. Because the coils are left unpotted, you'll get the controlled microphonic feedback bloom that classic-rock players have chased for decades.

Period-Correct Hardware

Every piece of metalwork has been chosen against a 1959 spec sheet rather than a modern one: ABR-1 bridge with nickel-plated brass saddles, lightweight aluminium stop bar, Kluson single-line single-ring tuners, M69 mounting rings, and authentic-profile nickel-silver pickup covers. The plastics — pickguard, switch washer, jack plate, control knobs, switch tip — are reproduced in correct-era cellulose acetate butyrate and amber Catalin, right down to the gold top hat knobs and stepped two-ply truss rod cover.

What's in the Case

The guitar ships in its hardshell case with a Certificate of Authenticity, a mounted Custom Shop switch plate medallion, and a reissue switch backplate. Set up in-store by Guitar World Australia's techs before it ships to you.

Specifications