The Gibson Les Paul Special is a early variation of the Gibson Les Paul. Gibson originally introduced the Les Paul Junior with one P-90 pickup in 1954 as an entry level student guitar. The original Les Paul Junior was a very high quality guitar, sold at a remarkably affordable price of $49.50. Because of its great sound, excellent construction, high quality, and very reasonable price, the Les Paul Junior very quickly became a very popular guitar. In an effort to follow up on the success of the Les Paul Junior, the following year, Gibson introduced the Les Paul Special with two P-90 pickups in 1955. The Les Paul Special was in most respects a Les Paul Junior with two P-90 pickups. Gibson hoped that this guitar would appeal to young musicians who were a bit more than at the beginner level, but who also could not afford a Les Paul Goldtop or a Les Paul Custom.
It was positioned as a model to be an intermediate between the Gibson Les Paul Junior and the more expensive Gibson Les Paul Standard. To achieve this it was kept to the simplest and it does not have a carved top. The original Junior and Special models were distinguished by their single and dual P-90s, respectively. Gibson’s original fat single-coil pickups have been favorites of countless tone-conscious players since their arrival on great Gibson arch-tops way back in 1946.
The original run of this guitar lasted for 5 years between 1955 and 1960. During it’s production run different design changes were operated such a double cutaway body. The Guitar featured two soap-bar P-90 single coil pickups and was finished in a TV yellow variation.
This is a 1958 Gibson Les Paul Special that was owned by Jeff Kollman. The guitar was originally TV yellow and the paint was since stripped down to the bare wood. The tuners and knobs have been changed. The pickups are still the original P 90’s. This guitar was used on the recordings of 'Numena' and the 'Long Walk Goodbye' appearing on the Cosmosquad release Acid Test (2007).
In this clip you can watch Jeff Kollman playing this guitar:
