Gibson Les Paul BFG Electric Guitar

June 3, 2007 by Jo Minor 


Are you interested in a Gibson Les Paul with a bit of an attitude? The BFG is just such a guitar. It has the Gibson quality (and price), along with the basic shape of a Les Paul, but that’s where the similarity ends. The Gibson Les Paul BFG sports an unsanded maple top, pared down and rough hewn details, and even comes in a shop worn case. It has a humbucker at the bridge and a P-90 single coil pickup at the neck, for a unique combination of musical potential. The list price of the amazing Gibson Les Paul BFG electric guitar is $1399.00.

Gibson Guitars have been around a long time. Orville Gibson started the company in his workshop in Kalamazoo, MI, in 1894. By the 1920’s, Orville was gone, but the company continued to make mandolins and other instruments and to grow in reputation. The company was famous for innovations that made instruments easier to play and better in sound. By 1937, they offered an electric guitar. The hollow bodied ES150, as it was called, is still considered to be a fine jazz guitar.

Popular music was changed forever when a member of Benny Goodman’s swing band plugged in the ES150 and began to play jazz leads on it. The guitarist’s name was Charlie Christian. Since then, the electric guitar has been used for a lot more than just rhythm and chords.

Les Paul joined the design team at Gibson in the early ’50s. His name has since become legendary, as are the guitars that bear his endorsement. Les had approached Gibson earlier in the mid ’40s with his ideas for a solid body electric guitar, but he was ahead of his time. It wasn’t long, however, before Gibson was glad to produce his designs.

Les Paul guitars have a good-looking rounded single cutaway body. They are made of mahogany with a maple top, and have a maple neck. These woods are chosen for their tonal qualities. Gibson makes a variety of LP models with varying features. These guitars are loved by many professional musicians in rock and other styles of music. The Gibson Les Paul BFG is just another in a long line of fine sounding Les Paul guitars. It differs, though, in it’s rough hewn appearance and raw appeal.

Advantages: The unfinished, rough cut appearance of the Gibson Les Paul BFG means that you don’t have to worry about scratching something up. You won’t have to worry about shining off fingerprints from this baby. The 1950s style neck is designed for comfort and speed. The overall guitar is well balanced and comfortable to play. It is not as heavy as other Gibson Les Pauls.

The combination of a single coil pickup and a humbucking pickup give you all sorts of options not found on other Les Pauls. For instance, the P-90 gives you lots of twang for playing country, and also sweetens up your rhythm playing. The Zebra BurstBucker 3, on the other hand, gives you that edge for blues and rock. The kill switch is another feature that guitarists can have a lot of fun with creating unique sounds.

Disadvantages: The Gibson Les Paul BFG is one of those unusual guitars you will either love or hate. If you’re into gleaming classic beauty, it might look a little raw for your tastes. Also, like other Gibson guitars, it has a bit of a hefty price tag, although there are a lot of Les Pauls that retail for more.

Specs:

  • Unsanded carved maple top
  • Mahogany back
  • 1950s style rounded mahogany neck
  • Distressed Grover tuners
  • Rosewood fingerboard
  • 24.75 inch scale
  • 22 frets
  • Neck joined at the 16th fret
  • 1.695 inches wide at the nut
  • White dot inlays on the side of the neck - none on the fingerboard
  • Color choices include transparent cherry with gun metal hardware, transparent black or gold with distressed black chrome hardware
  • Distressed stopbar tailpiece
  • Tune-o-matic bridge
  • 2 wooden volume control knobs
  • 1 wooden master tone control knob
  • P-90 single coil neck pickup
  • Zebra BurstBucker 3 humbucking pickup at the bridge
  • Toggle kill switch
  • 3-way mini-toggle switch
  • No washers or caps on switches
  • Transparent windows on the back revealing the wiring
  • Brite Wire strings in .010 to .046
  • Comes with a shopworn Les Paul case

Here’s a well written review of the Gibson Les Paul BFG from the folks at Musicians’ Friend.

At the Gibson website, you can watch video clips of the Les Paul BFG being played by Cheetah Chrome or by Duane Denison. Cheetah does a little teaching in his clip.

Here’s a brief history of the Gibson Guitar Company.

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