Midtown Standard P-90s By merging the best attributes of Gibson’s legendary solidbody and archtop electric guitars, the Midtown Standard and Midtown Custom of 2011 became instant hits with players of all stripes. Now Gibson USA taps those same irresistible qualities and adds a vintage-vibed twist to create a stunning new performer: the Midtown Standard P-90. This great new guitar maintains its predecessors’ trimmed-down and more player-friendly body size that still emulates the lines of Gibson’s classic archtops, but which is built with the Midtown line’s advanced chambered, solid-wood construction (rather than laminated top and back) to truly embody the optimum marriage of solidbody and archtop. To take the Midtown Standard P-90 anywhere from raw vintage rock, blues and funk to contemporary jazz, Americana, or whatever you want to throw at it, Gibson USA loads the guitar with a pair of fat- and rich-sounding P-90 single-coil pickups, and dresses it all in a hand-sprayed, high-gloss nitrocellulose finish in your choice of Fireburst, Vintage Sunburst, Heritage Cherry Sunburst, Wine Red or Pelham Blue.

The Midtown Standard P-90 starts with premium tonewoods, using Grade-A timbers beneath the four transparent finish options (with Grade-C grain beneath the Pelham Blue guitars). A solid mahogany body is strategically chambered for optimum resonance and capped with a solid maple top with traditional f-holes. Its solid mahogany neck is carved to a fast, comfortable ’60s-style profile that measures .800″ at the 1st fret and .875″ at the 12th. The genuine rosewood fingerboard carries 22 medium-jumbo frets and is inlaid with traditional acrylic trapezoids that link the Midtown Standard P-90 to one of its predecessors, the Les Paul Standard, while cream binding enhances both fingerboard and body top. To best show off its great woods and luscious finishes, the Midtown Standard P-90 is built without a pickguard.

Plugged in, the Midtown Standard P-90 reveals its true glory via a pair of Gibson’s legendary P-90 pickups. These beloved pickups have a fatter, richer tone than thinner single-coils, and provide everything from thick grit and snarl for rock ‘n’ roll, to rich, creamy warmth for jazz, to singing blues tones with great snappy and funky tones in between. Each pickup is made to the same specs as the vintage examples that made the P-90 famous, including coils wound from 42-AWG wire with two Alnico V magnets loaded beneath each pickup. To keep it all simple, Gibson USA routes these pickups through the traditional 3-way toggle switch and master volume and tone controls with classic gold Speed Knobs. For optimum resonance and sustain, the Midtown Standard P-90s carries the classic pairing of a Tune-o-matic bridge and stopbar tailpiece with a PLEK-cut Corian™ nut up top, partnered with a set of premium Grover™ Keystone tuners.

Nice – imagine a small bodied ES335 but with a more fundamental “solid body” tone.  The P90′s provide that elusive “Dynamic” that Humbuckers lack.  Playing style moves you from clean to overdrive just with playing dynamics (providing you’ve got the amp set up right….).  This 2012 example of a relatively new Gibson model is unmarked, and in full working condition – clean clear and no crackles.  The slim ’60′s set neck is a beauty to play.  It’s not a 335, definitely more Les Paul, but it has a look and vibe that are altogether something else.  The guitar comes with a virtually unmarked original Gibson case as pictured.  In the case are the packing slips and manual, also a new feature to me – a photo taken at the factory!

£850 including insured UK delivery.