Gibson Custom Shop Collector’s Choice #1 Melvyn Franks ’59 Les Paul Standard Reissue Electric Guitar, (Used, Comm)

The Gibson Custom Shop Collector’s Choice #1 Melvyn Franks ’59 Les Paul Standard Reissue is a limited-run electric guitar produced by the Gibson Custom Shop as part of its Collector’s Choice series, which focuses on highly detailed recreations of notable vintage instruments. This model is based on the original 1959 Les Paul Standard known as “Greeny,” a guitar historically associated with Peter Green, Gary Moore, and collector Melvyn Franks. It follows traditional late-1950s Les Paul construction with a carved maple top, solid mahogany body, a set mahogany neck, and a rosewood fingerboard, built to a 24.75-inch scale length with 22 frets.

The guitar uses a dual humbucker configuration designed to closely emulate the tonal behaviour of the original instrument, including its distinctive out-of-phase middle position sound. The pickups are wound in a vintage-accurate style and paired with period-correct-style wiring and components, allowing for a range of tones from warm, rounded neck sounds to sharper, more cutting bridge tones. The middle position delivers the characteristic nasal, slightly hollow response that became one of the defining features of the original “Greeny” Les Paul.

Hardware follows late-1950s specification patterns, including an ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic bridge and lightweight stopbar tailpiece mounted to a solid mahogany base for resonance and sustain. The guitar also features vintage-style tuners and nickel-plated hardware, along with a carefully aged nitrocellulose finish intended to replicate the appearance and feel of a well-preserved late-1950s instrument.