Gibson Les Paul Humbucker (PAF) 498 T

The second issue of the Les Paul guitar was introduced to the public in 1954. Called the Gibson Les Paul Custom, this entirely black guitar was dubbed the Black Beauty. The Les Paul Custom featured a mahogany top to differentiate the instrument from its Goldtop predecessor&maple top. It also featured the new Tune-o-Matic bridge design and a pickup with an alnico-5 magnet, P-480, in the neck position. In addition, since 1957, the Custom was fitted with Gibson&new humbucker pickups, PAF,[16] and later became available with three pickups instead of the more usual two. The three pickup model retained the standard Gibson 3-way switch so not all pickup combinations were possible. The &and &settings were retained, but the middle switch position was set to enable the middle and bridge pickups. A common modification was to restore the standard &switching combination and add a switch to enable the middle pickup on its own.[citation needed] The guitar is wired as a "normal" 2 pick up Les Paul except there is a master volume, master tone (for neck and bridge pickups) while the middle pickup has its own volume and tone. This allows the middle pickup to be taken out of the circuit or mixed with the other two, allowing many different tones. The Les Paul Custom single cutaway was discontinued in 1961 and replaced with the SG (as we know it) designation for "solid guitar". This model featured a thin 1-5/16" body and a double cutaway. Confusion abounds to this day over the name Les Paul...