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Model: Gibson Les Paul Standard
Color: Black
Year: 2024 or 2025

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Used in...

- 2025

- played during the Oasis Live '25 tour

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Details

So here it is: the most talked-about guitar from the 2025 reunion tour. It first surfaced in a gear photo taken by Brian Cannon for the official tour programme. Everyone expected a Les Paul... but no one expected a Les Paul equipped with P90 pickups!

P90s are a unique type of single-coil pickups that usually have a thicker, warmer tone with more midrange punch than traditional, Fender-like single-coils. While they're often found in hollow-body models like the Casino or ES-330, or in stripped-back Les Paul Juniors and Specials, seeing them in a Les Paul Standard is much less common.

That said, it's not entirely a surprise. Noel has clearly developed a taste for P90s in recent years. Perhaps he was chasing that tone - but without the feedback issues that can come with his fully hollow USA Casinos (Royal Tan, Sunburst, and Cherry).

This guess was confirmed in an interview with Lee Bartram, Head of Commercial, Marketing & Cultural Influence at Gibson:

"We have been working on this guitar for at least 18 months. It really came from a conversation around creating a Les Paul that would accommodate P-90s at high volumes, without compromising on the sound and tone of the pickup."

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The guitar was built to Noel's specs: it is based on a 1960 Les Paul Standard shape, but it features a more modern "SlimTaper" neck profile as per the Noel's preference. The P90 pickups (Gibson Custom Shop variants) are fitted with soapbar-style nickel covers, echoed by the switch plate which is nickel as well.

The pickguard is a black 5-ply piece, similar to the ones found on Les Paul Customs. It's mounted using a bracket secured with a slot-head screw - a detail seen on original '52-'56 Les Pauls, and occasionally on some '59 "bursts" as well.

Additional photos have revealed that the guitar's neck isn't black like the body, but natural mahogany. The headstock also features a black "stinger" - a pointed black finish on the back of the headstock. Originally used by Gibson to conceal wood imperfections or construction details, the stinger eventually became a stylish detail featured on select Custom Shop models.

The stinger shape may actually be the result of the neck being sanded down to natural mahogany: Noel loves sanded or worn necks.

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Interestingly, the guitar appears differently across various photos. In some shots, it has a lightly aged finish, while the one Noel is playing on stage shows clear signs of heavy wear and tear. The contrast is obvious, and several readers have pointed it out too.

This difference was later explained by Lee Bartram:

"Everything we build for Noel starts out as Light Aging, and he will then decide after playing it if he wants to add more aging or keep it as it is [...] In this case, he wanted more on the body, neck, and back, which looks great on stage."

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The thing is, there definitely appear to be three distinct versions of this guitar:

- #1: the main guitar Noel plays live, which began with a light relic finish (as seen in the first pic above), and was later further aged (see the second pic above, shot by Brian Cannon for the official tour programme);

- #2: another version, originally with a lighter relic finish (third pic above), features aged gold or brass hardware instead of nickel - it might be the one backstage as a backup (fourth pic);

- #3: what appears to be a non-aged version with nickel hardware, which is currently on display at the exclusive on-site exhibition; it closely resembles a regular production model from Gibson USA (not Gibson Custom), with a few subtle differences setting it apart from the other two; check out the various pictures below.

A replica of Noel's Gibson Custom Murphy Lab guitar was released in August 2025, limited to just 25 pieces. However, the details of guitar #3 hint that a more affordable, non-limited production model could be on the way...

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The P90-equipped Les Paul was the guitar Noel chose for the very first song of the reunion tour - Hello, in Cardiff on July 4, 2025. It also featured on Acquiesce and Bring It On Down. Noel played another LP during the gigs, a Cherry Sunburst model. Interestingly, on the final night at Heaton Park in Manchester (July 20), Noel used the Sunburst LP for Hello and Acquiesce instead of the P90 LP.

The P90 Les Paul was back on August 2 at Wembley and at the following gigs. However, during the US/Canada/Mexico leg of the tour, it was not played.

For a full list of the gear used at the reunion gigs, check out this blog post!

When I first saw this guitar, it instantly reminded me of the iconic 1978 Les Paul Custom — the ex-Johnny Marr one: Noel modified it around 1998 with pickups from his Firebird. Maybe that guitar inspired this one, especially since the '78 Custom is definitely "a bit heavy" to bring around on tour. Noel's non-reverse Firebird originally had three P-90 pickups, which were replaced in late 1994 with a set of Seymour Duncan humbuckers.

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Sticker...?

This Les Paul also appears to have some sort of sticker on the pickguard - though it's not immediately noticeable in most photos.

As it turns out - and credit goes to the eagle eye and sharp intuition of a reader - it is not a proper sticker. It's the leftover stick-on rubber from the four feet of a guitar pedal. Now that's a weird one!

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This is a fansite. It is not affiliated with Noel Gallagher, his management or his record label.
For informational and non-commercial use only. Please do NOT publish this content elsewhere.
If you share or use this information, please provide proper credit and link to the website.
I appreciate your respect for the years of dedicated, freely available research!
Visit the “Info & About” page for contact details and more.
Thanks!

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1. https://gazette.gibson.com/artists/whats-the-story-behind-noel-gallaghers-live-25-les-paul/ ↩︎
2. Details and pictures come from a couple of Instagram posts by Lee Bartram, Head of Marketing & Cultural Influence at Gibson. Thanks to him – and also to Jaiden for the heads-up! ↩︎
3. The first hint came from this Instagram post by Dean – thanks go to him. ↩︎
4. https://www.es-335.com/2017/05/27/stinger-things/ ↩︎
5. Thanks to the great Trogly from The Trogly’s Guitar Show for crediting my work in his video and for sharing his perspective on the stinger/neck detail! ↩︎
6. https://gazette.gibson.com/artists/whats-the-story-behind-noel-gallaghers-live-25-les-paul/ ↩︎
7. What started as a visual guess from various photos is now confirmed: thanks to Jacob in the comments, we know that Noel has two of these guitars kept backstage, plus a third one featured in the exhibition. ↩︎
8. https://www.microdotboutique.com/ ↩︎
9. https://gazette.gibson.com/artists/gibson-custom-announces-noel-gallagher-les-paul-standard/ ↩︎
10. https://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/noel-gallagher-talks-guitars-production-songwriting-and-chasing-yesterday-618083 ↩︎
11. Thanks to N. Mario for pointing out a mistake in the first version of this page! ↩︎
12. Thanks to Geoff in the comments below. Well spotted! ↩︎