What is it?
The Studio, which was released back in 1983, has always been the gateway Les Paul: good enough until you can afford the pukka Les Paul Standard, Custom or historic reissue. Over those decades there have been plenty of different flavours but the Studio is typically stripped down without, for the most part, any refinements like fingerboard or body binding.
Although Gibson missed the Studio’s 40th Anniversary, it's making up for it this year having already launched the Studio Modern, this standard Studio, and, a third Studio as we lurch into 2025 with the Les Paul Studio Session. Let’s have a taste…
Specs
Price: $1,599/£1,599/€1,799
Made: USA
Type: Single-cutaway, solidbody electric
Body: Two-piece mahogany with carved maple top and Ultra-Modern weight relief
Neck: One-piece mahogany, SlimTaper profile, glued-in
Fingerboard: Cream bound Indian rosewood, acrylic trapezoid inlays, 305mm (12”) radius
Scale length: 24.75”/629mm
Nut/width: Graph Tech/43.3mm
Frets: 22, medium jumbo
Hardware: Nashville tune-o-matic bridge, aluminium stopbar tailpiece, Vintage Deluxe tuners w/ keystone buttons – chrome/nickel plated
String spacing at bridge: 51.5mm
Electrics: Covered Gibson Burstbucker Pro humbuckers (neck and bridge), 3-way toggle pickup selector switch, volume and tone for each pickup each with pull-switches on volume controls for ‘coil-tap’
Weight (lb/kg): 8.16/3.71
Options: Les Paul Modern Lite (£1,499), Les Paul Modern Studio (£1,899), Les Paul Studio Session (£TBA), Les Paul Classic (£2,399)
Left-handed options: Not this model
Finish options: Cherry Sunburst (as reviewed), Wine Red, Blueberry Burst, Ebony – gloss nitro-cellulose
Case: Gibson soft case
Contact: Gibson
Build quality
Build quality rating: ★★★★½
There is a bit of ‘another month, another Les Paul’ about this one until I pull it from its very gig-able soft case. This is no boat anchor Les Paul of old and on the scales it weighs in at 8.16lb - a combination of good wood selection and the Ultra-Modern weight relief. Before I’d played a note, it’s definitely game on.
While the weight is attractive the gloss finish is crisp and you can see the well-jointed two-piece mahogany back through the cherry red back while the classic sunburst face covers a centre-joined plain maple top. Overall it’s slightly thinner in depth than the Standard or Classic.
Now, while there’s still no body edge binding this new Studio features a cream-bound Indian rosewood fingerboard and both looks, and feels, like a more upmarket ‘Paul. Yes, you can feel a slight ledge where the colour has been scrapped away but it doesn’t ruin the fun.
This Studio’s slightly more upmarket appearance is matched with the standard Gibson USA Nashville tune-o-matic and lightweight stopbar, plus the covered humbuckers are Burstbucker Pros.
Like the modern strand of the Les Paul line-up, if you remove the rear cover you’ll see a very tidy PCB-mounted control circuit which features pull-switches on each volume to engage what Gibson calls a ‘coil tap’.
It’s not a coil split where one coil is dumped: instead the screw coil is filtered through a capacitor. The Modern Studio has the same feature but also pull-switches on the tone controls for out-of-phase and direct out (bridge pickup only).
Playability
Playability rating: ★★★★★
While Gibson’s neck shapes can vary this is perfectly good with its relatively full-shouldered, shallow ‘C’ profile
It’s worth reminding ourselves that this is the lowest-cost maple-topped, gloss-finished Les Paul, only slightly more expensive than the all-mahogany, satin-finished and thinner bodied, Les Paul Modern Lite. In comparison it feels much more upmarket and with zero issues in the set-up department.
The standard medium-sized frets (the binding forms the fret ends in classic Gibson style) are well fettled, like the nut, and for once we’re not struggling with tuning issues.
As a Les Paul Classic player, the SlimTaper profile here feels like home to me and while Gibson’s neck shapes can vary, this is perfectly good with its relatively full-shouldered, shallow ‘C’ profile.
Sounds
Sounds rating: ★★★★½
The feeling that the Studio is punching above its price-point isn’t dissipated when I plug in.
There’s an immediate liveliness and depth that is typical of the recipe and before you check out the more obvious classic and modern rock riffage spend a little time with a clean amp and you’re reminded what a superb jazz guitar a good Les Paul is not to mention a huge jangle monster with depth and clarity.
The ‘coil taps’ don’t exactly sound like single coil splits but especially at bridge give a pretty useable lighter and clear option
Winding up the wick, those thicker and creamier voices are effortless, they don’t sound over hot and with measured DCR’s of 8.07k ohms (bridge) and 7.68k (neck) and with Alnico V magnets the Burstbucker Pros sit nicely in the classic camp.
They’re also wax-potted so with heavier gains you shouldn’t have any issues with microphonic side effects.
The ‘coil taps’ don’t exactly sound like single coil splits but, especially at bridge, give a pretty useable lighter and clear option. The neck’s coil tap, I found a little less useful but to be honest the overall sound compensates: simply a very good sounding Les Paul irrelevant of its name or price.
Verdict
A player’s guitar and a good one at that.
MusicRadar verdict: What started out as an, “Oh no not another Les Paul to review”, turned into something rather different. It’s not just the obvious quality for the cost, but the excellent set-up, solid tuning and classic Les Paul voice means it’s not only very fit for purpose and gig-ready but makes some of the ‘proper’ new Les Pauls really look rather expensive by comparison. A player’s guitar and a good one at that.
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