Les Paul Flame Top

In 1958, Gibson changed the top finish on the regular Les Paul model from the gold color used since 1952 to the Sunburst finish already being used on Gibson’s archtop acoustic and hollow electric guitars such as the J-45 model. These Sunburst-finished guitars were later referred to as Les Paul Standards to differentiate them from the earlier Goldtop. The hardware specification was the same as that of the ‘57 Goldtop, featuring the new PAF humbucker pickups with some models carrying the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece along with the tune-o-matic bridge. Today, the Gibson Les Paul Standard has BurstBucker pickups on the Vintage Original Spec models and Burstbucker Pro on the lower end models bearing the ‘Standard’ name.