Gibson Les Paul - Les Paul Imitations

Les Paul Imitations

Gibson Les Paul specifications during 1958–60 varied from year to year and also from guitar to guitar. Typical 1958 Les Paul Standard necks had a thicker "club-shaped" neck, thinner frets and lower fret height, which changed during the course of 1959 to develop into typical 1960 necks with a thinner cross-section and wider, higher frets. On the other hand, Les Paul Customs from the same period had totally different frets and were referred to as "The Fretless Wonder", which were designed for jazz guitarists of the day with thick flat-wound strings and they are generally unsuitable for modern blues-based playing. Coupled with a luxurious use of selected, naturally seasoned, quality tone wood, with its timbre and tendency to cause notes to sustain, and the hand-wound Seth Lover designed "PAF" humbucking pickups, the 1958–60 Les Paul Standard is most valuable of vintage electric guitars, at least in the view point of its price and scarcity. The huge premium it commands, starting in the late 1960s following Eric Clapton's recording with Bluesbreakers, began inspiring replicas and imitations.

Although early Les Paul imitations in the 1960s and 1970s, such as those made by Höfner, Hagström, Harmony Company and Greco Guitars differed visibly from Gibson's design, with different electronics, and even bolt-on necks, in the late 1970s some Japanese companies came very close to perfecting copies of the original 1958–60 Standards. It is considered among vintage guitar experts that the early and mid-1970s marked a low point in the quality of guitars from the major manufacturers including Gibson, which helped contribute to the popularity of the Japanese-made vintage replicas. These guitars later became known as "lawsuit" guitars. The actual lawsuit referred to, was brought by the Norlin Corporation, the parent company of Gibson guitars, in 1977, and was based on an Ibanez headstock design that had been discontinued by 1976. Ibanez settled out of court, and by 1978 had begun making guitars from their own designs.

ESP Guitars makes seven types, the Eclipse series, James Hetfield Truckster, and Kirk Hammett KH-3 from ESP, the LTD EC series and Truckster, the Edwards E-LP series, and the Navigator N-LP series, which are based on the Les Paul design. Certain EC models have 24-fret necks and active electronics using EMG pickups instead of the standard passive pickups and 22 frets found in the traditional Les Paul. The Edwards and Navigator lines are made in Japan, and available retail only on the Japanese market; they come standard with Gotoh hardware and Seymour Duncan pickups (EMG pickups in a few models), and unlike the EC and Eclipse series guitars, which are updated variants on the Les Paul, these are made to be as close to the Gibson 1959 Les Paul design as possible, in the vein of the late 1970s and 1980s "Lawsuit" model guitars from Tokai, Burny, and Greco, complete with Gibson style headstocks.

Heritage Guitars, founded in 1985 by four long-time Gibson employees when Gibson relocated to Nashville, continues to build high-quality guitars in the original factory at 225 Parsons Street in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Many of their models evoke memories of Gibson's late-1950s/early-1960s "golden years." The H-150 and H-157, for instance, are reminiscent of the original Les Paul and Les Paul Custom, while the H-535 is a modern version of the Gibson ES-335. Because Heritage guitars are built in the original factory, some do not consider them imitators at all, but a continuation of the Kalamazoo legacy.

In 2006 Gibson lost a lawsuit against PRS Guitars, Gibson claiming PRS was stealing the Les Paul shape and design.

Gibson lost the trademark for Les Paul in Finland. According to the court, "Les Paul" has become a common noun for guitars of a certain type. The lawsuit began when Gibson sued Musamaailma, which imports Tokai guitars, for trademark violation. However, several witnesses testified that the term "Les Paul" denotes character in a guitar rather than a particular guitar model. The court also found it aggravating that Gibson had used Les Paul in the plural form and that the importer of Gibson guitars had used Les Paul as a common noun. The court decision will become effective, as Gibson is not going to appeal.