The Special was the last of Gibson’s four original Les Paul models.

The wide gap between the entry-level Junior, with it’s single pickup and flat “slab” body, and the original goldtop Les Paul Model, with it’s two pickups and carved, contoured top, begged to be filled, and Gibson did just that in 1955 with the Les Paul Special. The Special offered the same performance as the goldtop, wth a pair of P-90 pickups, but it had the cheaper-to-produce slab body design of the Junior.

Gibson appropriated the newly introduced “TV Yellow” finish – soon to bemknown as “Limed Mahogany” – from the Les Paul TV Model and made it the standard finish on the Special.

Sales of the Les Paul Special were as expected for it’s place in the Les Paul line – fewer than the less-expensive Junior and more than the higher-prices Model/Standard.

Possibly the most famous of the single-cutaway versions is an early 1970s Special that was the main guitar of reggae legend Bob Marley.