Gibson 'Burst Reissues Vs Bernie Marsden's 1959 'Beast' Les Paul 

What a player! I can safely say I’d never buy a record he’s played on, but he is one amazing Blues guitarist.

This man has absolutely no ego and is severely underrated.

I was influenced by Bernie Marsden and Micky Moody when they were in early Whitesnake. The live album Walking in the shadow of the blues

It is a lost art, that one of the reasons I love jimmy page

I think that comes from having single channel or non-footswitchable amps, a lot of which had very few tone controls. Which is what was available in 50s, 60s, 70s. In order to get different levels of gain you had to play with the volume of your guitar. If the amp was too trebly you had to roll off the tone a bit. I believe that it made for a more complete understanding of how your instrument worked. That’s the reason why my main amp only has one channel.

Such a lovely guy and no mean player….. So glad I saw him in 1972/3 with UFO. RIP Bernie.

@Large Coke exactly, amazing how people want to believe someone selling something doesn't have an agenda. All this markup is bs. Shows how stupid people are.

This stuff boils down to good pickups and no polyester lacquer.

What's a shame is that the people who believe this bs are the ones keeping these prices up. Every Gibson should be made like the relics at a decent price but it will never happen because of the idiots who buy this high priced stuff. It sounds good compared to a standard but those should sound awesome anyway. I shouldn't have to replace pickups on a Gibson or Fender.

@@ArcticRaven0 Depends on the sound you're going for, there are many different stock pick ups that Gibson uses. I like my stock burst buckers because they have bite, however if I were to ever experiment and swap I would want to try some super distortions or even some t-tops or shaw buckers. I don't know about you but I sure as hell wouldn't buy a Gibson if I didn't like the pickups it came with.

@@ArcticRaven0 watch itchibashi used listings - there have been r9s in the 3k range and LPC black guitars for low 2000s that are relatively recent. Unless gibson is hiding something, they don't really do the work of a custom company in their production customs (the kind of work that they do in the vault at PRS or the details that collings does on what's essentially really high effort production guitars - better than most full custom guitars - having eaten s__t on a few full custom guitars that weren't that great when I got them. What do you do when you commission a custom guitar and then it's just OK? You're stuck with it. You lose at least half the cost if you want to sell it). Only problem with buying gibson custom guitars overseas is that I've had people buy used collings off of me and say they ran the racks to get a really good R9, and then found out that they can mail order a cl deluxe and it's better than all of them (and then mail order another one, and it's just the same ....there's a reason for that. collings actually voices the guitar bodies.....but if you don't like what they're doing to make the guitar bodies resonant, then you won't like any of them, because they all sound the same. All you can really do with them is change pickups and pots and find the electrics that you really like).

Yeah with their regular USA production guitars they have improved tremendously! I had a 2022 standard myself and it was very impressive but the Custom shop's have been really good for quite a few years. My 2018 historic R9 i traded the standard towards is stellar and i played a few 2016 R8 historic's that were incredible. There is no denying the latest Production line Gibson's are the best they have been in a really long time!👍

Very cool...yeah that beast..les Paul..just sustains...I don’t know ..dried wood degaussing pickups ...but Man U can on an iPad hear the audible difference.....👍...oh and Bernie...does seem like a humble down to earth guy...not full of himself...like many ..

pete, incidentally, i have kinda been doing that today!

SHOOK well said.

too much advertising for my liking this is one of their better videos

Stuart Gudgeon - Somebody has to pay for it...what did it cost you? They tried pay TV and now they are trying pay 'internet TV', but it never had this content anyway.

satinwhip it was probably a great instrument already. That’s why it was played

He came up to us after one of his gigs and asked us if we wanted to go for a curry. Lovely guy.

No doubt, and on the spur of the moment. The English are soo spontaneously descriptive in such an eloquent honest way (:

Trash Bulb Angus Gas

Island Gore Angas

He looks like a bucket of kfc

@@joshmuz9018 I have a feeling you look pretty funny yourself. Such a mean comment about such a stand up guy. You must be a teen.

@@nevigo5519 I'm a giant transgender alien with 4 dicks

Do you think Gibson historic reissues are made by one man? Given how many are released every year, I think that's unlikely. They are great guitars nevertheless.

I was referring to Cherry Picker Guitar's original comment

I don't think you can actually make judgement on original or "average", as you put it, '58, '59 or '60 Les Pauls unless you've played several yourself. Just for insight, how many have you actually played?

+Dagger 323 a dozen or so. I'm almost 60 and learned to play in the '60's. By the mid 70's i was "buying and selling" guitars, like most teenage players of the time. These were just used guitars then. As more and more marquis players turned to the 58 - 60 les Paul's, us armatures followed suit (I'm a tele guy, so I've never owned one myself but several colleagues have in the 70's and 80's) I've played two 1958s in recent years, both of which were refretted, and they were both exceptional guitars (at shows/events) I also was the GM of one of Canada's top 10 blues fests from 2002 - 2009 and got to rub elbows with some of the players who made those les Paul's famous, so it's more than just my opinion that I expressed, originally. Peace Keep on pick'n

Wow, that is actually fascinating! Do you think there are any areas where the originals are better than the reissues? What's your favourite guitar / Les Paul?

its the pickups

Didn't it just. Definitely a bit of magic in that instrument. Good to see how much he loves it, too.

+Laurie Harper she seems to love him back, too

I'm like 1:35 in and I have to agree!

One of those ‘Journos’ is Mick Taylor from ‘That Pedal Show’ and they’re all good mates, so I doubt any of it was intentional bonfire pissing!

You frankly just come off like an ignoramus, and a jealous one at that, who's never experienced what a good 'burst can do. The good ones are absolutely worthy of the hype. And by the way, there's nothing wrong with geeking out and getting excited about guitars like this. The journalists being in awe of such a fine and famous instrument as "The Beast" is no knock against their character, but your condescending attitude is certainly a knock against yours.

More nuance,and resonant. Can't really put a price on it. Bernie is a great player. And what a story!

Bernie’s wonderful. I wish the video was longer. The Beast as always sounds magnificent but personally I liked the 59 Select the best. It had a bit more bite and that hollow nasally honk that I love. I trust my high end ATC monitors in a treated room to provide accurate resolution. Some of the comments are pretty funny and typical, yes, the burst will always have that something extra provided we know which one is the burst, otherwise it’s just another great Les Paul. I’d love Bernie to play them all without saying which is which so we can see the comments.

It’s crazy, wonder why Gibson can’t replicate that even though they’ve tried so many times. Makes me feel no reason to fork out 6,500 for a guitar that doesn’t even sound like a guitar made 60 years ago

lovesgibson I think it’s fair to say they sound pretty similar! 😛

@@lovesgibson It would be interesting to measure all the harness/pickup values on the Beast . The old wood isn't what a new one is made of either .

Yeah there are some really sweet Gibson re-issues. you just have to hand pick them. People play 1 or 2 and are not impressed then they go around saying the Gibson's are not good? That is total BS because my 2018 Historic is incredible. and i agree about that R0 bernies played in this vid. it had that Wow factor!

Thats all you need.

I was just talking to an aquantaince of mine who had gone to see Martin play and I said Martin is one of those players that has huge respect from people who are aware of him. He is under rated because he's under known, I think. Great player. Same with Bernie.

Bro, all you gotta do is save up. The problem is everybody wants stuff instantly.

Not everyone wants to spend $4000+ on a guitar, wether they have the money or not.

Collin Groat exactly. Some people have families, children, mortgages and the like. I make pretty good money but could not justify spending 4 to 10k in a guitar. Vintage does make nice guitar for the money. I own a 91 Gibson LP 60s reissue that plays great. I also recently acquired a vintage V100 that feels very LP like for a fraction of the price.