Gibson Les Paul Standard 50s P90

Positively surprised with the QA. Very minor "defects".
Needed a slight set up, after that plays great.
For a first Gibson, I'd say slightly underwhelming experience (idk, I expected sth magical based on the Les Paul aura I guess).
Not sure, if it's worth the money. I'm tempted to check out epiphones next time. (Maybe I just need to get better)
But it sounds great, makes me smile every time I look at it and it is something I've always wanted.

For several years I played a Telecaster, and I was always missing some body and character in the clean tone. A friend recommended trying P90s. But I wasn’t really a fan of Les Paul guitars, which I associated with stadium rock, so I was leaning more toward an ES-330 or a more affordable Epiphone Casino.

However, when I heard this Les Paul live, I instantly forgot all my preconceptions and bought it on the spot. This is the best guitar I’ve ever played, and I’ve played many. It’s an incredibly versatile instrument that can handle almost anything.

The neck pickup gives a warm, punchy sound — perfect for clean jazz tones or blues with a slight overdrive. The middle position can deliver old-school James Brown–style funk: a percussive, cutting tone that isn’t as harsh on the ears as a Fender. And the bridge pickup is pure rock ’n’ roll.

I’m very happy with the purchase. I bought this guitar directly in the Thomann store. It was a Saturday, the end of the workweek, and I happened to make the last purchase of the day. The whole staff applauded (I suspect they were celebrating the end of the week rather than my purchase, but it felt very pleasant and symbolic nonetheless).

Use:
Home and band rehearsal use, through Fender amps with some low-gain overdrive

This is a great sounding, looking and playing guitar. The P90 pickups are much hotter than a more traditional single coil, and are very responsive to picking input. The volume and tone controls are also very responsive, you can find many different sounds by rolling them back a little. With a driven amp or overdrive pedal vol. 7 will be just starting to break up a little, vol. 10 gives beautiful rich overdrive.

The neck feels great, not too chunky, but a nice handful. The frets seems a little bit lower and narrower than some other Gibsons I have played, but it doesn't make the guitar any more or less playable to me.

The fit, finish and quality is a marked improvement over a new 2017 Gibson I purchased recently. The case candy includes the usual documentation, baby photo, manual etc, but also a faux-leather strap, polishing cloth and a nice Gibson multi-tool.

My one single criticism is that in my opinion, the nut was not cut as well as it could be. Particularly the G string slot was too high, meaning fretted notes on the first few frets were sharp. This is easily resolved with a trip to your guitar tech, or by yourself if you have quality nut files.

Overall this is a fantastic guitar, It's as close to original early 50's spec as Gibson have made outside Custom and limited run stuff, and its reasonable priced.

This guitar is truly one of a kind, the P90's offer contrasting dynamics for a variety of different styles. There is such a full sound on the bridge pickup and it cuts through a mix really well, the middle position offers a mixture of the warmth of the neck pickup and bite of the bridge pickup. The clean sounds a very good, the neck pickup has a higher out put than the bridge when it comes to clean sounds but a boost pedal can really help this. The finish is glorious and instantly makes you want to pick it up and play for hours. I play through a VOX AC30 TB 1993 and its honestly the best sound I have ever gotten out of a les Paul, for me I wanted to start a collection of Les Pauls from 50's 60's 70's and now that Gibson have released all the models I will definitely be completing my collection in the near future. I would highly recommend getting the guitar set up, after I changed the strings I noticed intonation issues and tuning issues but that's to be expected. All in all this guitar is amazing in every sense and I would highly recommend it to anyone.