The Les Paul Special also added a second pickup and additional controls for it, along with a pickup selector switch, binding for the fretboard, and a fancier mother-of-pearl headstock logo. While a bit more ornate and feature-rich, it retained the Les Paul Junior’s simple wraparound bridge and tailpiece and no-nonsense attitude while expanding its wide tonal range even further. It was quickly embraced not only by students but also by numerous professional musicians. In 1958, the Les Paul Special transitioned to a double-cutaway body, offering improved access to the upper frets. The model really hit its stride in 1960 when Gibson repositioned the neck pickup slightly further from the neck, allowing for a more stable neck-to-body joint, and a new SlimTaper™ neck profile made it faster and easier to play than ever before.

Now, Gibson is proud to bring the Les Paul Special Double Cut back to the core Gibson product lineup. It returns to the classic design that made it relevant, played, and loved—shaping sound across generations and genres of music. It features a double-cutaway mahogany body with exceptional balance when worn on a strap and easy access to the entire length of the fretboard. The mahogany neck features a comfortable SlimTaper profile and is capped with a bound rosewood fretboard, adorned with acrylic dot inlays, and outfitted with 22 medium jumbo frets. You’ll find smooth turning and precise Gibson Vintage Deluxe tuners with white buttons on the headstock, which also includes the Gibson logo inlaid in mother-of-pearl. The tuners, along with the Graph Tech® nut, ensure solid tuning stability. The other ends of the strings pass over and anchor to a simple wraparound bridge/tailpiece that is fitted with two intonation adjustment screws and bolted directly into the mahogany body, contributing to the excellent tone and sustain that the Les Paul Special Double Cut is famous for.

A pair of Gibson’s acclaimed P-90 Soapbar pickups, each hand-wired to individual volume and tone controls, power the Les Paul Special Double Cut. The tone circuits use high-quality Orange Drop® capacitors.

  Features

• Solid mahogany body
• Mahogany neck with a SlimTaper profile
• Bound rosewood fretboard with 22 medium jumbo frets and acrylic dot inlays
• Soapbar P-90 pickups
• Hand-wired controls with Orange Drop tone capacitors

 Technical Features

Body

Binding  :  Single-ply fretboard

Body Finish  :  Gloss nitrocellulose lacquer

Body Material  :  Mahogany

Body Shape  :  Les Paul Double Cut

Fingerboard MaterialRosewood

Fingerboard Radius304.8mm / 12.0in

Neck

Fret Count  :  22

Inlays  :  Acrylic dot

Joint  :  Glued in, set neck

Neck Material  :  Mahogany

Nut Material  :  Graph tech

Nut Width  :  43.05mm / 1.69in

Profile  :  SlimTaper

Scale Length  :  628.65mm / 24.75in

Electronics

Bridge Pickup  :  Soapbar P-90

Controls  :  2 volume, 2 tone

Neck Pickup  :  Soapbar P-90

Output Jack  :  1/4"

Pickup Selector  :  3-way toggle

Hardware

Bridge  :  Wraparound

Control Covers  :  Black

Control Knobs  :  Black Top Hat

finish  :  Nickel

Plastic Parts  :  Black

Truss Rod  :  Adjustable

Tuning Machines  :  Gibson Deluxe with white button