Customer Reviews

The Gibson 'Burst: 1958-1960 (Guitar)

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Having Beauty of the Burst and the Bacon books on Gibson, as well as The Gibson, and a variety of other guitar related books, all of which deliver substantive, if not always dead accurate or entirely complete information, this is not the best book on Les Pauls. While the glossy hardback cover seems to give the promise of quality and nice LP eye candy inside -the contents are in my opinion, poor. The retail price of $50.00 would have made me even more angry, as there are many books on the topic IMHO which offer much more for half the price. Admittedly, this is weighted on aesthetics a bit more than copy-but that too is lacking.

Mostly general short comments/sections scattered magazine style rather than in depth detail. Mostly black and white pictures, grainy and of poor quality-lesser quality than many high school yearbooks. There are a few pages of color photos, for the voyeurs of LPs. While seemingly shallow, it is the examination of vintage LP's by photo that allows those of us who dont have access to better understand the nuances and details of the instrument. Not happeingin here, pics or copy. The book reads in bits and pieces about attributes and notables who have the guitar. The authors are great Les Paul lovers, and acknowledged as authorities on the guitar, but the book is not a work reflecting this expertise or passion IMHO. If you want to have it all, and collect LP info this might be part of your bookshelf.

The LP is an area of great interest for me, so I thought I should have this book. It has certainly been mentioned in many guitar forums. I am disappointed in the substance and quality and would suggest a hands on examination before purchase. Had I done so I would have passed on this book. You can learn from almost any book, but IMHO this is not the place to start.

Sorry to say this, but 'The Gibson 'Burst 1958-1960 by Jay Scott and Vic daPra is the worst book that I've read on the subject. The huge amount of spelling mistakes is absolutely unacceptable. Shame on the authors and on the publishing company. About 90% of the pictures in the book are black- and-white: So describing the wonderful colors of the guitars sounds almost cynical. Those who are interested in real good pictures of vintage Gibson Les Pauls, buy Iasuhiko Iwanade's "Beauty of the Burst". This guy seems to know what he is talking about.

The book is a photo survey of the Gibson Les Paul Guitars (bursts) made between 1958 and 1960. Easy to read, anecdotal, it contains pictures of the bursts played by very famous guitarists and now in the possession of devout Burst collectors. It also has a very accurate description on how the Cherry Sunburst finish was applied and this recipe really works. It would be a lot more enjoyable if the pictures were in color. This book is well worth the money and definitely a keeper in your Burst library.

First off you should know this is a REPRINT of an earlier work. Amazon fails to tell you that. Would you buy a book of B&W pictures of oil paintings ? Then you probably won't like this as it's mostly B&W. I too have many Gibson Les Paul books. This is not my favorite. Buy Beauty Of the Burst Instead.

This book is well written. Lots of information. The only thing that I was disappointed in was that most of the pictures of these beautiful guitars are in black and white. I wasn't aware of this before I purchased. I probably would have still bought the book. Maybe one of my guitars will be in his next book.....but please.....color pictures next time. Still a BUY!