Gibson

Les Paul

Standard

Gibson made about 1,500 sunburst Les Pauls, decided nobody wanted them, and stopped. Then the British blues boom happened.

Kalamazoo, early 1950s. A radio repairman out in California is selling solidbody electrics as fast as he can build them, and the grand old archtop company in Michigan can’t let that stand. Gibson needs a solidbody. It needs a name. It gets both, and it takes the world about fifteen years to notice.

Introduced: 1952
Type: Solidbody electric
Class: Production

Read the story · 4 min

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2006 Gibson Les Paul Standard (SN 000660573). Photo by wetwebwork. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.Owner photograph of a 2006 USA Standard leaning on an amp — not an isolated factory still, not a 1958–60 Burst, and not the current Original Collection 50s/60s SKU.

The short version

1952
The Goldtop
The Les Paul Model arrives, finished in gold, with two P-90 pickups.
1957
Humbuckers
The goldtop gets PAF humbuckers and a Tune-O-Matic bridge. The recipe is done.
1958
Sunburst
Gibson swaps the gold for cherry sunburst over a maple top. This is “the Burst.”
1961
Gone
The single-cut is dropped. The new, thinner double-cut is sold as the Les Paul.
1964
Ed Sullivan
Keith Richards plays a ’59 Burst with a Bigsby on the Stones’ Sullivan debut.
1966
The Beano album
Clapton plays a Burst on Blues Breakers. That summer it’s stolen. It has never turned up.
1968
Back by demand
Gibson brings the single-cut back. Players had been hunting the old ones for years.
1969
Number One
Jimmy Page buys a Burst from Joe Walsh and plays it with Led Zeppelin for the rest of the band’s life.

Side A

Gibson blinks

Companies like to think they decide which guitars become classics. They don’t. Players do, usually years later, usually with a guitar the company already gave up on. Take the Les Paul.

In the early 1950s, Gibson was the serious guitar company. Big carved archtops, beautiful acoustics, made in Kalamazoo by people who’d been doing it forever. Then Leo Fender started selling a plank of ash with a neck screwed onto it, and people bought it.

Ted McCarty, who ran Gibson, said it straight: they built a solidbody because Fender already had one, and Gibson didn’t want to leave that field open. McCarty’s people worked on it for about a year. Then he went to the biggest guitar star in America, Les Paul, who was at the top of the charts with his wife, Mary Ford, and offered him his name on the headstock.

Plenty of people assume Les Paul designed it. McCarty was clear about that:

He never saw it before I took it down there.

Les asked for a different tailpiece. That was about it. The homemade “Log” Les built in the early ’40s is a great story too, but it isn’t this guitar.

Gold, then sunburst

The first one, in 1952, was the Les Paul Model, finished in gold, with two P-90 single-coils. In 1957 Gibson gave it the new humbucking pickups, stamped “Patent Applied For,” which is why everybody calls them PAFs, and a Tune-O-Matic bridge. Now it had the sound.

It still wasn’t selling. Gibson shipped 2,245 goldtops in 1953. By 1957 it was down to 598. So in 1958 they tried something else: cherry sunburst over a carved maple top, the maple grain showing through. On some guitars the grain was plain. On some it was flamed like tiger stripes. Gibson didn’t pick the flashy ones on purpose. You got what you got.

The red dye they used faded in sunlight. Over the years a lot of those cherry sunbursts turned lemon, honey, or tobacco. Lift the pickguard on an original and the red is often still hiding underneath. No two Bursts look alike now, and that’s a big part of why people lose their minds over them.

Gibson built about 1,500 of the most desired electric guitars ever made, and then decided the design was a dud.

Gibson gives up

The sunburst Standard didn’t save it. Late in 1960 Gibson dropped the single-cut body. The new thin, double-cut guitar kept the Les Paul name until about the end of 1963. After that, it was just the SG. The Les Paul, the heavy carved single-cut, was done.

That’s the whole run. Three years, only one of them a full year, and about 1,400 to 1,700 guitars depending on who’s counting. Gibson never published a list.

Flip the record · By the numbers

2,245
Goldtops Gibson shipped in 1953. By 1957, it was down to 598.
~1,500
Sunburst Standards from 1958–60. Estimates run from about 1,400 to 1,700.
3
Years of Burst production. Only 1959 was a full year.
$265
The 1958 list price. The case was $47.50 extra.

Side B

The Beano album

What brought it back wasn’t Gibson. It was a bunch of British kids who’d been listening to American blues.

Keith Richards had a ’59 Burst with a Bigsby on the Stones’ Ed Sullivan debut in October 1964. Then in 1966 Eric Clapton recorded Blues Breakers with John Mayall on a sunburst Les Paul cranked through a Marshall, and every guitar player in England heard it. The album cover shows Clapton reading a Beano comic, so the guitar became the Beano Burst. That summer it was stolen from a church hall in north-west London during Cream rehearsals. It’s never been found.

Billy Gibbons saw that album cover and went looking for his own. In 1968 he found “Pearly Gates,” paid for by selling a 1936 Packard, and he says it’s on every ZZ Top studio record since.

Everybody wants one

By the late ’60s, a used Burst was the guitar. Mike Bloomfield traded his ’54 Goldtop for a ’59 and debuted it at Monterey Pop in 1967, and a lot of people give him credit for starting the whole vintage-guitar craze. Peter Green played a 1959 with a weird, hollow, out-of-phase sound in the middle position. Some say the factory put a pickup in backwards; some say somebody flipped a magnet later. It went to Gary Moore, and eventually to Kirk Hammett.

In 1969 Jimmy Page bought a Burst from Joe Walsh. That’s “Number One.” According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was at every Led Zeppelin performance and on every recording from 1969 to the 2007 reunion. In September 1970 Duane Allman, after a show in Daytona, traded his 1957 Goldtop for a 1959 Burst and moved his old pickups into the new guitar.

Gibson had noticed. In 1968 they brought the single-cut Les Paul back, at first as a goldtop with P-90s, like the ’50s version. It wasn’t a Burst reissue, but it was a start.

Not a Burst

Walk into a shop today and you can buy a new Les Paul Standard made in Nashville. Solid mahogany, carved maple top, two humbuckers, and a choice of ’50s or ’60s neck. It’s a great guitar. Gibson’s Custom Shop will sell you a laser-scanned copy of a ’59 with aged plastic and a color-matched finish, which is closer.

But neither one is a Burst. A Burst is one of those 1,500 or so guitars from 1958 to 1960 that Gibson didn’t think anyone wanted. Most of the famous ones have names. A couple are still missing.

Gibson made the Les Paul. It took a handful of kids in London and Chicago, playing secondhand guitars through loud amps, to make it matter. Nobody at the factory voted for the Burst. The players did, one record at a time, and the company followed them.

Put this on

You’ve read about it. Now hear it. Here’s what this guitar sounds like, and what to listen for.

John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton · 1966
Hideaway
From the “Beano” album, the Burst cranked through a loud amp. This is the sound that sent a generation looking for old sunburst Les Pauls. The guitar was stolen that summer and never found.
Find it on YouTube (opens in a new tab)
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers (Peter Green) · 1967
The Supernatural
Peter Green on “Greeny,” from A Hard Road. This is the guitar with the strange out-of-phase middle sound that nobody can fully explain. Listen to how vocal and restrained Green plays it.
Find it on YouTube (opens in a new tab)
ZZ Top · 1973
La Grange
Billy Gibbons says “Pearly Gates,” the ’59 he bought by selling a 1936 Packard, is on every ZZ Top studio album.
Find it on YouTube (opens in a new tab)
Led Zeppelin · 1969
Led Zeppelin II
The record Jimmy Page made after buying “Number One” from Joe Walsh. The whole album, not one song.
Find it on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

The cast

The people, and the specific guitars, that made the legend.

1966
Eric Clapton
The “Beano” Burst
On Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton. Stolen from a church hall that summer during Cream rehearsals. Never found.
1967
Mike Bloomfield
1959 Standard
Traded his ’54 Goldtop for it and debuted it at Monterey Pop. Vanished in the mid-’70s.
1966
Peter Green
“Greeny”
A 1959 with a strange out-of-phase sound nobody can fully explain. Later owned by Gary Moore, then Kirk Hammett.
1968
Billy Gibbons
“Pearly Gates”
Named after a 1936 Packard whose sale paid for it. On every ZZ Top studio album, he says.
1969
Jimmy Page
“Number One”
Bought from Joe Walsh. The Met says Page played it at every Zeppelin show and on every record from 1969 to the 2007 reunion.
1970
Duane Allman
1959 Cherry Sunburst
Traded his ’57 Goldtop for it after a show in Daytona, and moved the old pickups into it.

Liner notes

Specs, construction, rarity, value, and every source we used.

The current USA Standard is a non-weight-relieved mahogany/maple single-cut with Burstbuckers — a working guitar that sits next to the Burst market, not in it.

Body: Single-cut; non-weight-relieved mahogany with carved maple cap (figured on Heritage Cherry Sunburst 50s). Single-ply binding on top and fretboard. No weight relief.
Neck: Set mahogany; 50s Vintage profile.
Fingerboard: Bound Indian rosewood; 22 medium jumbo frets; acrylic trapezoids; 12.0 in (304.8 mm) radius. End-of-board 57.4 mm / 2.26 in.
Scale: 24.75 in / 628.65 mm
Pickups: Burstbucker 1 (neck) / Burstbucker 2 (bridge); Alnico 2; nickel covers
Hardware: ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic; aluminum Stop Bar; nickel. Vintage Deluxe tuners with Keystone buttons. Cream pickguard. Gold Top Hat knobs with dial pointers.
Electronics: 2 volume, 2 tone; 3-way toggle; 1/4 in jack. Hand-wired audio-taper pots and Orange Drop capacitors.
Finish: Gloss nitrocellulose lacquer (Heritage Cherry Sunburst, Goldtop, Tobacco Burst, etc.). Faded 50s is satin nitro.
Nut: Graph Tech, 43.05 mm / 1.69 in

Open the full research fileConstruction details, the complete player record, production numbers, dated value estimates, and sources

Current USA Original Collection Standard 50s. The 60s keeps the same body and wiring; it swaps SlimTaper, Grover Rotomatic kidneys, and a 60s Burstbucker pair (Alnico 5). Neither is a 1958–60 Burst, and neither is a Custom Shop Historic reissue.

Construction

The Standard did not start as a sunburst humbucker guitar. 1952: Les Paul Model, gold, two P-90s, trapeze, developed with Les Paul in Kalamazoo. 1954 adds the Custom (“Black Beauty”) and the Junior. 1955: Special. The layout most people mean by “Standard” lands in 1957, when the goldtop gets PAF humbuckers and a Tune-O-Matic.

Sunburst Standards from 1958–60 are the Burst. Vintage only. See the sidebar. Do not shop a current USA Standard, or a Historic reissue, as if it were one.

Late 1960 / 1961 Gibson dropped the single-cut. The double-cut “SG” body shipped as a Les Paul until about the end of 1963. That guitar is not a current SKU.

The single-cut came back in 1968 as a Goldtop “Standard” with P-90s and Tune-O-Matic — ’55–’57 style — plus a two-humbucker Custom. Reverb News dates the launch to June 1968 NAMM / July 1968 to dealers. It was not a 1959 Burst reissue. 1969: Deluxe with mini-humbuckers; some Norlin-era models use pancake mahogany/maple/mahogany. Studio arrives 1983.

Current typical Standard is the USA Original Collection 50s or 60s, Nashville. Solid mahogany, carved maple cap, no CNC weight relief. Original 1950s bodies were the same sandwich without CNC chambers. Forum arguments about 9-hole vs chambered vs solid are not factory spec for this SKU. “Vintage wood is lighter” shows up as anecdote (Vintage Guitar quoting Vic DaPra) without published weight stats.

50s: “50s Vintage” neck, Burstbucker 1/2 (Alnico 2), Vintage Deluxe Keystones, gold Top Hats with dial pointers. 60s: SlimTaper, 60s Burstbuckers (Alnico 5), Grover Rotomatic kidneys. AA figured maple is specified on the 60s Bourbon Burst. Burstbuckers are a factory claim, not a vintage PAF clone claim. Current USA nitro is modern gloss (or satin Faded), not period-correct aniline sunburst chemistry.

Modern Collection variants add Ultra Modern weight relief, coil splits, and a contoured heel. Those are not this page’s spec. Gibson Custom Historics (1959 Les Paul Standard Reissue VOS, Murphy Lab aged) are a separate line: laser-scanned body/neck, chemically recreated plastics, color-matched sunburst. A new VOS lists $6,699. That is a recreation. It is not a Burst.

Players

Ted McCarty, Vintage Guitar April 1999: Gibson designed a solidbody because Leo Fender was already selling one, and Gibson did not want to leave that field open. McCarty worked about a year on a prototype, then proposed Les Paul — then at the top of the charts with Mary Ford — as the name. He was explicit about design credit: "He never saw it before I took it down there." Les requested a different tailpiece. Les Paul's homemade "Log" (early 1940s) is not the 1952 Gibson Les Paul Model. Design credit is contested in public memory; McCarty's on-the-record account is the stronger company-side source. Early public image was Les and Mary's pop/jazz/country television, not later rock mythology.

The 1952 guitar was a gold-finished Les Paul Model. The named instruments that turned the Standard into a collector object are 1958–60 Bursts: Greeny, Pearly Gates, Page's Number One, Clapton's Beano guitar, Bloomfield's '59, Allman's '59 after trading Goldtop 7-3312. They are not current catalog. Details sit in the sidebar. Named Bursts are famous examples, not separate encyclopedia pages.

Clapton's Beano guitar is a Les Paul, not an SG. Cream's later "woman tone" period is largely the Fool SG — a different guitar, a different page. Allman's "Beano Burst" is a mix-up. Allman's slide fame is mostly the 1957 Goldtop. The Beast is Bernie Marsden's Burst, not Page Number One.

Gibson Gazette uses Slash as a Standard association. The documented Slash guitar in Walter Carter's "First 'Burst" piece is sample 8 3096, a Burst, first plate in Yasuhiko Iwanade's The Beauty of the 'Burst. Adam Jones's Silverburst is a Les Paul Custom, not a Standard. Do not treat marketing "Slash without a Les Paul" copy as a documented instrument claim.

Rarity

Current USA Original Collection 50s/60s: regular production. Not rare. Figured-top vs plain-top and Faded finishes are catalog variants, not limited Historic runs.

Vintage pre-Burst goldtops, Customs, Juniors, and Specials collect on their own scale. Goldtop shipments reportedly fell from 2,245 (1953) to 598 (1957) (Vintage Guitar “First ’Burst,” Walter Carter, citing shipping records).

1958–60 Burst counts are an estimate, not a census (GuitarHQ 1,712 with 1958 mixing goldtop; Meiners/Joe’s ~1,465 sunburst; public range ~1,400–1,700). See the sidebar. Historic R8/R9/R0 reissues have shipped for decades. They are not Bursts.

Value

Informal estimate, 25 August 2026. Not an appraisal.

New street. USA Standard 50s/60s typically about $2,799. Gibson.com (25 Aug 2026): figured-top Standard 50s Heritage Cherry Sunburst $2,799; figured-top Standard 60s Bourbon Burst $2,799; plain-top 60s / exclusive colors $2,599; Standard 50s Faded $2,299. Current Custom new about $5,499. Historic Collection VOS dealer/retail ask commonly ~$6,000–$8,000 (Gibson Custom 1959 Les Paul Standard Reissue VOS lists $6,699). Murphy Lab typically ~$7,000–$12,000+ depending on aging grade (Ultra Light Aged Factory Burst lists $7,199). Those reissues are not vintage Bursts.

Used modern (2019–present 50s/60s). AxeDB (updated 19 Aug 2026, sold-data aggregator): Standard 50s typically $1,800–$2,075; Standard 60s $1,825–$2,125; high liquidity (~46 sales/month cited). guitarprice.net 2026 guide (secondary; cites Reverb): used Les Paul Standard $2,000–$4,000 overall; current-production Standard excellent $2,200–$2,800, good $1,800–$2,200. Reverb marketplace listing floors (not sold averages): Standard 50s (2019–present) “from $1,500.” Direct Reverb Price Guide pages were bot-blocked in the research pass. Rounded informal band: about $1,800–$2,700 for ordinary used 50s/60s Standards in good–excellent condition; AAA/exclusive tops can sit higher. Data is liquid for this SKU.

Vintage / collectible. Original 1958–60 Burst: see sidebar. 1957 goldtop Standard (first-year PAFs): True Vintage Guitar $40,000–$125,000 — below Burst, still top-tier original. 1968–69 single-cut return: TVG ~$10,000–$30,000 for true 1968 examples. Norlin 1970s Deluxe/Custom commonly $2,500–$8,000 player-vintage; a 2025 Reverb Price Index notes Norlin-era Standards up 41% vs 2019 — index movement, not a dollar range. Used Custom Shop R9s show up dealer-listed in the mid four to low five figures (Carter Vintage similar listings $5,650–$9,500 — asking, not sold; 1990s–2000s Historic used often **$4,000–$8,000**). Celebrity Burst lots (Knopfler and the rest) are a separate market, not production comps for a USA Standard.

Collectible: 1958–60 Burst

This is not a current SKU. Originals are Kalamazoo sunburst Les Paul Standards, 1958–60. A ~$6,700 Historic reissue is not a Burst. Named examples — Greeny, Pearly Gates, Page’s Number One — are famous instruments, not separate catalog pages.

Construction

Mahogany back, carved maple cap (often cited ~1/4 in), top binding. Tops specified bookmatched two-piece with a center seam; samples included three-piece (8 3087). Figure from plain to heavy flame; VG and Gruhn: flame was not a factory tone grade. Set mahogany neck, long tenon (Historics specify long tenon and hide glue as original practice; current USA Standards do not advertise it). 22 frets, rosewood, trapezoids, Kluson single-line Deluxe. Neck depth by year: 1958 typically largest (Well Strung ~0.96 in / ~1.02 in at 1st/12th); 1959 refined, then wider fretwire later in the year; 1960 often much slimmer (~0.80–0.84 in at 1st). Nut ~1 11/16 in is from related 1961 SG-body Standards (True Vintage), not a Burst measurement. Scale 24.75 in.

Two PAFs (Lover / Fuller). “PATENT APPLIED FOR” stickers continued after the 28 July 1959 grant (#2,896,491). Intended ~5,000 turns/coil of 42 plain enamel, no auto-stop, so DC commonly ~7k–9k+ (Duncan via VG; Well Strung 7.5–8.5k early). 1959 white-bobbin shortage → zebra / double-white. Magnets: VG (Duncan) Alnico II and IV; other write-ups mix 2/3/5 until short Alnico 5 ~July 1961, after Burst production. ABR-1 and stopbar or optional Bigsby; nickel. 1958 list $265, case $47.50.

Cherry sunburst over maple. 1958–early 1960: aniline red, UV-sensitive; fades (lemon, tobacco, honey); red often survives under the guard. Later 1960: more UV-resistant red, collector slang “tomato soup” — not a catalog name. Dye-change year: “second half of 1960” vs “early 1960 experiments.” Historics use color-matched VOS nitro, not 67-year-old aniline chemistry. 1958 is a partial year (goldtops still shipped). 1959 is the only full Burst year in most tellings. Early 1960 “double 0” (0 0xxx) often ’59-spec; late 1960 slim neck + new red. Bigsbys exist; some collectors discount them — VG quotes DaPra against over-penalizing.

Players

Greeny (Green → Moore → Hammett): 1959, serial 9 2208. Vintage Guitar (August 2006): Green was already playing a Burst when announced as Clapton's replacement in Mayall's Bluesbreakers (1966); A Hard Road (notably "The Supernatural"); then Fleetwood Mac. Distinct out-of-phase middle-position sound — VG attributes a reverse-mounted neck pickup described as a factory error; other lore says Green or a tech flipped the magnet later. Mechanism is agreed; cause is not. After Fleetwood Mac, Green sold it to Gary Moore (Blues for Greeny, 1995). Kirk Hammett acquired it in 2014 from dealer Richard Henry. Hammett denied ~$2 million; 2020 "less than half a million." Not a public sale. When Hammett later showed Green the guitar, Green said "That's not my guitar" — Green's stock answer, not a documentary refutation of custody.

Page "Number One": sunburst Les Paul Standard, ca. 1959–60 (Metropolitan Museum of Art object record; Guitar.com, 15 April 2025, calls it a 1959). VG called it a '58. Year contested. Purchased from Joe Walsh in 1969 (Met: 1969; Guitar.com: early 1969 / Walsh interview placing the handoff around April). Neck already shaved. Met: used in every Led Zeppelin performance and recording from 1969 to the 2007 reunion, and later with the Firm; still Page's primary guitar. Guitar.com: put to use recording Led Zeppelin II (from May 1969), replacing the Dragon Telecaster as favourite. Serial is not published in these sources; pickups have been changed over time. Do not invent a serial. This is not The Beast.

Page "Number Two": second 1959-style Burst, acquired after the 1973 U.S. tour as a backup. Neck shaved to match Number One. Often kept in DADGAD after Physical Graffiti (1975) for "Kashmir." Stage use from January 1975.

Clapton "Beano Burst": Les Paul Standard used on Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (Decca, 1966), nicknamed from the Beano comic on the album cover. This is a Les Paul, not an SG. Tony Bacon (Guitar World, 9 August 2026): Clapton had bought it the previous year with Mayall; it was stolen from a north-west London church hall during Cream rehearsals in summer 1966, before Cream played it in public or in the studio. Whereabouts still unknown. Year commonly given as 1960; some accounts (including VG) say 1959. Clapton's later Cream guitar "The Fool" is an SG Standard.

Pearly Gates (Gibbons): 1959; named for a 1936 Packard whose sale funded it. Acquired 1968. Gibbons has said it appears on every ZZ Top studio album from ZZ Top's First Album (1971) onward. Search for a Burst was prompted by Clapton's Blues Breakers sleeve photo.

Bloomfield's 1959 Standard: acquired spring 1967 from Dan Erlewine in a trade for Bloomfield's 1954 Goldtop. Debuted at Monterey Pop, June 1967, with the Electric Flag. Used on the Flag's A Long Time Comin' and Al Kooper's Super Session. Disappeared after Bloomfield abandoned a Vancouver club date; VG places the loss in 1974 or 1975; David Dann notes Toby Byron remembered the guitar still present in 1975. Current whereabouts unknown. Gruhn/VG credit Bloomfield with 1960s vintage-electric demand.

Duane Allman's 1959 Burst — not his first famous Les Paul, and not the Beano Burst. Dedicated Allman archive: Allman played a 1957 Goldtop (serial 7-3312) on the first two Allman Brothers Band albums and on most of Derek and the Dominos' Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. On 16 September 1970, after a Daytona show, he traded the Goldtop (plus cash and a Marshall head) to Rick Stine of Stone Balloon for a 1959 cherry sunburst Les Paul, keeping the Goldtop's pickups in the Burst. Video from Fillmore East, 23 September 1970, shows the new Burst. He used it until his death on 29 October 1971. Allman's slide fame is mostly the Goldtop. Pickup swap during the trade further complicates which guitar made which Layla track.

Bernie Marsden "The Beast": 1959 Les Paul Standard, owned by Marsden from 1974. Guitar World (22 June 2023): used in Whitesnake; Marsden has said he wrote "Here I Go Again" on it. Prior owners are reported as including Clapton, Paul Kossoff, and Andy Fraser — treat that chain as unowned rumor unless a primary receipt is produced. This is not Jimmy Page's Number One. "Number One / The Beast" is a common mix-up of two different named Bursts.

Keith Richards "Keith Burst": 1959 Les Paul Standard with a Bigsby. Guitar Player (Rod Brakes, 25 October 2023): visible on the Rolling Stones' Ed Sullivan Show debut, 25 October 1964 ("Around and Around"; also "Time Is On My Side"). Dealer Richard Henry traces prior owner John Bowen, trade-in at Selmer's, London, then Richards. Later: Clapton at Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival (1966); sold via Ian Stewart to Mick Taylor (Hyde Park, 1969). Sullivan-show appearance is documentary. Studio track credits for "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" are weaker than the photographed TV/stage use.

Paul Kossoff Burst: 1959 Les Paul Standard used by Free's Kossoff from 1970 until his death in 1976. Associated with the period of "All Right Now" / Fire and Water (1970). Do not confuse with other Kossoff Les Pauls (he also owned a Custom that had passed through Clapton).

8 3087 / 8 3096: "2 LP Spec Finish" shipped 28 May 1958 (Carter). VG: cherry sunburst on or about 30 June 1958. 8 3096 later Slash, first Iwanade plate; 8 3087 original-owner Tom Griffiths. These are early 1958 Standards, not 1959s. Morgan Burst 9 1865, one digit from Beck's; Dore & Rees 16 Mar 2022. Brock Burst: American Guitars cover. Knopfler 1959: Christie's London Jan 2024, £693,000 — celebrity lot, not a production comp.

Known-to-play, without a stable public nickname in the sources above: Jeff Beck (widely cited among the mid-1960s players who made Gibson revive the single-cut; specific named Burst not documented here); Joe Walsh (owned the guitar that became Page's Number One); Mick Taylor (the Keith Burst after Ian Stewart); Tom Scholz — 1968 revival Les Paul (Goldtop-spec Standard, not a Burst) on Boston's "More Than a Feeling."

Rarity

Burst shipping is an estimate, not a census. Gibson did not publish a Burst serial list. GuitarHQ Kalamazoo Standard totals: 434 (1958) + 643 (1959) + 635 (1960) = 1,712. 1958 mixes goldtop and sunburst, so 434 is not a Burst count. Meiners / Joe’s Vintage Guitars 1958 finish split: 247 goldtop + 187 sunburst, then 643 + 635 → ~1,465 sunburst (1,467 with two 1961 leftovers). Public working range ~1,400–1,700 — a reconciliation of those two treatments of 1958, not a factory Burst serial list. Both figures stand. Survival is unknown — no public serial-by-serial census. Originals are not 1968+ production and not Historic reissues.

Value

Informal estimate, 25 August 2026. Not an appraisal.

Public comps are sparse; the private dealer market is the real Burst market; celebrity provenance skews the top. Label dealer ask vs public sold. Original finish vs refinish, and provenance, can double or halve a result.

Dealer estimates (True Vintage Guitar; not public solds): 1958 Standard $100,000–$165,000; 1959 $200,000–$400,000; 1960 $150,000–$300,000. Joe’s Vintage Guitars: original 1958–60 sunburst with PAFs $200,000 to $500,000+; exceptional examples have exceeded $1 million at auction — that tail is provenance/celebrity/figure, not a median.

Public auction solds sit on a different ladder. Heritage: 1959 serial 9 0696 $350,000 (31 Jul 2021); 9 0643 $300,000 (31 Jul 2021); 9 1966 $143,750 (17 Dec 2024). The December 2024 $143,750 is below the 1959 dealer band. 2025–early 2026 public Burst auction solds are thin; one 2024 Heritage sold versus 2021 $300k–$350k is not a new median. Private dealer sales are widely believed to sit at or above the top of the dealer guides for “right” 1959s; those are not public solds.

Artist-owned lots are a separate market. Knopfler 1959, Christie's Jan 2024, £693,000 (~$876,000) — celebrity outlier, not a production comp. Heritage 24 Sep 2022 Harrison-associated 1958 serial 8 5424 $312,500 — provenance outlier, not a generic 1958 Burst. Westport 14 Jun 2020: $216,000 (older; the write-up’s “less than 1,700 still exist” is not a census). Greeny’s price is not a verified public number. Historic VOS ~$6,700 is not a Burst value.

Les Paul

The short version

Gibson blinks

Gold, then sunburst

Gibson gives up

Flip the record · By the numbers

The Beano album

Everybody wants one

Not a Burst

Put this on

The cast

Liner notes

Construction

Players

Rarity

Value

See also

Sources

The short version

Flip the record · By the numbers

Put this on

The cast

Liner notes

Construction

Players

Rarity

Value

See also

Sources

Keep digging