Gibson USA 2018 Les Paul Classic Player Plus: P90-loaded, full-fat guitars

07 Nov 2017 by Jef |

4,0 / 5,0 | Approximate reading time: 2 Minutes

2018 Les Paul Classic Player Plus in Wine Red, Vintage Sunburst and Ocean Blue · Source: Gibson

Previous Next

The new Gibson USA 2018 Les Paul Classic Player Plus has just started to appear online at selected Gibson dealers across the UK. This ‘Plus’ edition comes in three new colours and looks like it could be a lot of fun to play!

Gibson USA 2018 Les Paul Classic Player Plus

The ‘Plus’ element of this range refers to the new AA-grade maple tops in three new colour finishes, namely Wine Red, Ocean Blue and Vintage Sunburst. Each guitar is a non-weight relieved Classic Player instrument. But what sets these apart from the versions I wrote about back in September are the three new finishes.

Each guitar is loaded with a set of P90 pickups and has a traditional four control layout of two Volume and two Tone controls. They are all mahogany bodied, with traditional mahogany necks as well. It looks like they are using Richlite for fretboards on these, instead of rosewood. Just like the regular Classic 2018 models, they have the cryogenically treated frets and rolled fretboard edges.

Best of 2018?

My personal opinion is that these and the ‘regular’ versions of the P90 loaded Classic Les Paul are probably my favourite of the Gibson releases of 2018. For my tastes, I prefer the non-weight relieved bodies and as I am a fan of P90 pickups then I think these are the guitar that I would choose from their new line-up.

In terms of colours, there are three to choose from, each with figured maple tops. These may well appeal to a lot of players. That Ocean Blue finish stands out quite nicely. These new Gibson 2018 Les Paul Classic Player Plus models are just starting to appear at dealers across Europe, but at the time of writing are not showing up on Gibson’s own site.

RRP – GBP 1699