Gibson Les Paul Special (Double Cut)

Stock photo of a modern reissue (Photo: Chicago Music Exchange)
Model: Gibson Les Paul Special / SG Special
Color: TV Yellow
Year: 1960 / early 1961 or modern reissue

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Used in...

- 1998-1999

- used to record demos & guitar parts for the album Standing on the Shoulder of Giants
Details

The Les Paul Special was introduced as a budget version of the regular Les Paul and it featured two P-90 pickups. A revised doublecut shape, introduced in 1958, allowed more fingerboard access.1

In late 1959, the neck pickup was repositioned further into the body: on earlier models, its close placement to the neck resulted in a weaker neck-to-body joint, a common point of structural failure.2

Around the same time, Gibson began phasing out the "Les Paul" decal on the headstock and rebranded the model as the SG Special, marking the introduction of the SG name into their lineup.3 This transitional period explains why late 1959 and 1960 models are sometimes referred to as either "Les Paul Special" or "SG Special". The distinctive SG body shape that we recognize today was introduced in 1961.

There is only one known photo of Noel playing this guitar, taken by engineer Stuart Epps at Wheeler End Studios during the recording sessions of Oasis' fourth album, Standing on the Shoulder of Giants.

Judging by the position of the neck pickup, the Les Paul Special he's using is likely either a 1960/early 1961 model or a reissue.
According to a 2000 interview with Noel, the Les Paul Special was used to record I Can See A Liar:4

"That's a black-front '64 Fender Deluxe amp, with the silver cloth [...] And the guitar was a yellow TV model Les Paul Junior - the classic punk rock guitar! That was like, 'Today I will be Steve Jones!' With a bit of AC/DC in there as well. [...] That is just pure rock and roll, man. It's Liam's favorite song. I didn't want to have it on the album at first, because I think it's too much of a Be Here Now track. But because it's so fu**in' AC/DC, we just said, 'We gotta have one of them on the album, 'aven't we?' It'll be great live. It's a total live song."

Noel accidentally refers to it as a "Les Paul Junior": the Junior has the same shape, but only one P-90 pickup, while the Special has two.

It is highly likely that this is the "1961 Les Paul Special" mentioned in a December 1999 article about Noel selling some of his guitars to London's Guitar Emporium "to make room for his new baby".5

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  1. https://www.gibson.com/en-US/Electric-Guitar/CUSU6S317/TV-Yellow ↩︎
  2. The Gibson Les Paul Book – Tony Bacon & Paul Day, 1993 ↩︎
  3. The Gibson Les Paul Book – Tony Bacon & Paul Day, 1993 ↩︎
  4. This extract comes from an unknown article that was rediscovered and shared by davidjay on the Live4Ever forum back in 2015. Check out Oasis Recording Info. ↩︎
  5. Noel’s guitar sale… No strings: Meg wants room for baby – The Mirror, Dec. 1999 ↩︎

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