Gibson Les Paul Future Tribute 2013 Custom Electric Guitar Review

Gibson Les Paul Future Tribute 2013 Custom Electric Guitar Review

Who is Gibson Guitars?

According to Wikipedia…

“Gibson Brands, Inc. (formerly Gibson Guitar Corporation) is an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and professional audio equipment from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and now based in Nashville, Tennessee. The company was formerly known as Gibson Guitar Corporation and renamed Gibson Brands, Inc. on June 11, 2013.”

Where was this guitar made?

According to this Gibson guitar serial number lookup tool.

Serial number: 110031510

Production year: April 10, 2013 (Batch:1 Product nr.: 10)

(Manufactured in Nashville)

What is “Custom” about this Les Paul Future?

It may be easier to let the guy I got this guitar from tell you about it. Here is the ad that he posted to sell the guitar.

“Up for sale is my 2013 Gibson Les Paul Studio. This guitar started its life as a 2013 Les Paul Future Tribute. I bought it to mod and make a player’s guitar out of it, which I did. I took out all of the electronics, did a 50’s wiring harness w/ CTS pots and upgraded to a Switchcraft USA selector switch. I replaced the stock pups with a set of Seymour Duncan Seth Lovers. I added the pickguard and replaced the knobs with black top hats. To round it out I put a flashy truss rod cover on the headstock. The guitar is modern weight relief and falls in the 8lb range. It’s a two-piece body and has a slim taper neck. There’s a hole on the back where I mounted a strap button. I like having the strap button in that location. It’s more comfortable to me than using the one on top. This is a player’s guitar. If you’re looking for a wall hanger, then you need to keep scrolling. I’ve played this guitar for the last 6yrs, and I built it to play out live. The guitar sounds great and I can provide sound bites if needed, just PM me. Frets are in very good shape, I leveled them a couple of years back. Plenty of character in this guitar, it’s a proven warhorse. It’s set up with 11’s and a medium action, rings like a bell acoustically. The Steinberger tuners are fantastic, and although they look a little funky, these are the best tuners I’ve had. For a gigging musician, they’re fantastic, broken strings can be replaced super-fast between sets or on the fly. This is a great sounding guitar to gig or record with, it’s light and comfortable also.”

Upgraded parts list

Links included so you can check prices or get the upgrades for your axe.

How does the Gibson Les Paul Future play?

I am very much a novice guitar player just learning the instrument. However, this Les Paul is the most expensive guitar I own. As such I have higher expectations. As I am actively learning to play the guitar and trying new things I often find myself struggling with new techniques. I’ve found that when I’m struggling to play something I often reach for the LP and seem to have an easier time. I’ve owned about 15 or 17 guitars as of the time of this writing, and this 2013 Les Paul Future Tribute is the easiest to play of any of them. I think that the wider nut and string spacing just fits my hands better. For example, I just picked up a Squier Affinity Strat for next to nothing and am finding that the narrow nut and string spacing makes the fretboard feel rather cramped.

I’m sure Gibson won’t be thrilled to hear this, but I just snagged a used Epiphone Les Paul Special Vintage Edition for almost nothing from a Craigslist. It is NOT the equal of the Future Tribute. BUT, the Epi sells for $250 and the Gibson sells for $1000+. The Gibson is not 4x the guitar, IMHO. The Epiphone LP VE is just a screaming deal on a budget axe that punches well above its weight class.

Some things I like about playing the Les Paul

• The Nitro finish on the neck has been worn to pretty much bare wood, which is pretty slick enough to move around the neck easily without the grabbiness of a thick lacquer or poly.
• The custom asymmetrical neck profile of the Future model feels really good in my hand. Not too round, not too flat.
• The Steinberger Gearless Tuners are AMAZING! I don’t understand why EVERY guitar doesn’t have these. They are easy to adjust, stable, quick for string changes. I haven’t yet found any negatives for them. However, I talked to Eric over at Guitarsenal and he said he has tried them a couple of times and never had good luck with them.
• The frets are very nice. However, I can’t speak to how much of this was from the factory vs later work.
• I can’t stand “aged” instruments. Damaging a new guitar to make it look like it has been played a lot is silly, at best. I LOVE that this guitar has real wear on it. It has battle scars, not faked damage.
• The guitar is incredibly well-balanced. The neck dive of my Gibson SG is not present at all
• Of my haram of guitars the ONLY one that is more naturally resonant is the Alvarez Acoustic.
• And of course… it sounds pretty damned good! I really wish I could hear what it sounded like before the mods.

What I don’t like

• The guitar was set up for 11s. I haven’t yet taken the time to change them to 9s or 10s… but I’d like to.
• Body contours that make some of my other guitars so comfortable are completely missing on the Les Paul. I’m not a huge fan of how it digs into my side a bit when playing while seated.
• At 7.8 Lbs this isn’t the heaviest guitar I own, but it is a bit heavy for playing while standing. On a positive note, it is lighter than my new brand new Firefly FFLP Elite, which is a whopping 9.4 Lbs.

How did I get this Gibson Les Paul Future guitar?

I got lucky that this guitar was for sale locally in Nashville, Tennessee, but the seller was currently working a contract gig about an hour East of Gear Report HQ in central North Carolina. When I asked about shipping the guitar he offered to pick it up the next weekend when he went back to Nashville. So, I was able to meet him at the interstate about 5 minutes from my house and put my hands on the guitar before purchasing it. I did have a touch of pause when I got to see it up close, as it has some significant wear from playing. The bridge is also a bit gross with an accumulation of grime and green metal corrosion down in the grooves. Overall, I’m amazed that this guitar was played so much that the goldtop paint completely wore through on one side, but there is no real evidence of the guitar ever having been seriously damaged. I’m so clumsy that I would have put a lot more dents and dings in a guitar if I had played it THAT much.

The other benefit of buying it in person was that I got to chat with Mark Scott, the seller, and better understand what he was looking for when he set out to upgrade the guitar. I still chat with Mark every now and then when I have guitar questions. He is acting a bit like a mentor to me in my journey to learning to be a competent guitar player.
And there I was thinking I was just buying some dude’s old guitar. LoL

Gibson Les Paul Future Electric Guitar specs

Here is how Gibson described the 2013 Les Paul Future Tribute on their website…

“Les Paul Future Tribute

Gibson USA is celebrating 2013 as the Year of Les Paul, and is blowing it up big with a new series of decade-dedicated Tribute Les Pauls, each of which honors the artistry and innovation of inventor and guitarist Les Paul by capturing the essence of a great Les Paul guitar from one of four different eras. All embody the full magic of this legendary guitar design, but are stripped down for improved value and no-nonsense performance. The Les Paul Future Tribute captures the look, feel, and tone of the guitar world’s most legendary single-cutaway solidbody, and equips it for the player of the future—making it available today. Primed for optimum playability and versatility, the Les Paul Future Tribute carries a pair of “zebra-coil” ’57 Classic™ humbucking pickups for a blend of vintage warmth and contemporary articulation, along with a superbly comfortable custom asymmetrical neck profile. Gibson’s acclaimed bridge and tailpiece team up with futuristic Steinberger™ gearless tuners to ensure smooth playability and precise tuning and intonation. And, like all Les Paul and SG 2013 Tribute Series guitars, the Les Paul Future Tribute is available upgraded with Min-ETune™ automated “Robot” tuners for a nominal upcharge. The Les Paul Future Tribute looks great in your choice of Vintage Sunburst, Wine Red, Ebony Black, or Goldtop finish, all in Vintage Gloss nitro-cellulose lacquer.

The Les Paul Future Tribute takes the classic platform of the original Les Paul Standards forward into the 21st century by starting with the timeless tonewood combination of a mahogany body with solid carved maple top. When paired, these woods offer a tonal depth and complexity unmatched by any single-wood construction, with warmth and richness from the mahogany, and superb clarity and “snap” from the maple, all of which translates to surprising breadth and articulation within the guitar’s amplified voice. The mahogany back is strategically weight relieved using modern weight relief methods to both lighten your load and improve resonance. A solid mahogany neck is glued into the body in Gibson’s time-tested tradition, and carved to an ergonomic and superbly comfortable new asymmetrical profile that fits the natural shape of the human hand, with depths of .800” at the 1st fret and .875” at the 12th, making this one of the most playable Les Pauls yet created. It is topped with a genuine rosewood fingerboard that carries 22 medium-jumbo frets and traditional trapezoid inlays. In keeping with the stripped-down ethos of this powerful performer, both body and ’board remain unbound, and there’s no pickguard to obscure the finish. A PLEK-cut nut made from black Corian™ subtly complements the knurled chrome knobs and black pickup rings, while enhancing resonance and sustain. The headstock is silkscreened with a gold Gibson logo and Les Paul Model.

The Les Paul Future Tribute ensures its sonic versatility and hot looks with a pair of zebra-coil ’57 Classic humbucking pickups, consisting of a standard-wound humbucker in the neck position and a slightly over-wound ’57 Classic Plus for hotter lead tones in the bridge position. The ’57 Classics begin in the image of Gibson’s esteemed PAF humbuckers, with genuine Alnico 2 magnets and 42-AWG enamel-coated wire, but are enhanced with evenly matched coils for a smooth, singing tone, and wax potting to combat microphonic squeal at high volume levels. The result is a pickup that is thick, rich, and warm, yet clear and articulate—perfect for the broad demands of today’s music. The traditional wiring complement of an independent volume and tone control per pickup plus a three-way toggle selector switch allows a broad range of sonic variations. To anchor it all down, Gibson USA loads in a classic Tune-o-Matic bridge and Stopbar tailpiece, then rams it all into the future with a set of super-efficient Steinberger™ gearless tuners, a hardware set that partners up for solid sustain and precision tuning. Put it all together, and the Les Paul Future Tribute presents the perfect way to celebrate the Les Paul in the 21st century, wrapping it all into a great guitar that brings the look, feel, and sound of a classic Les Paul to the hands of the demanding players of today.

Product features

• • Mahogany body with solid carved maple top
  • Mahogany neck with new Asymmetrical profile
  • Rosewood fingerboard with trapezoid inlays
  • Zebra-coil ’57 Classic humbucking pickups in the neck and bridge
  • Steinberger™ gearless tuners or Min-ETune™ automated tuners”

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Gibson Les Paul Future Electric Guitar pictures

*Click any picture to see a bigger, clearer image.

via Gear Report at https://gear-report.com