In 1957, both the gold-top and Custom Gibson Les Pauls acquired new pickups, the twin-coil, “humbucking” transducers developed a few years earlier by staffer Seth Lover. The rich timbre provided by these units has come to be widely regarded as the “classic Les Paul sound”, although some players retain a preference for the P-90s and Alnicos fitted to earlier models.

In 1958, the instrument’s gold finish was replaced with a sunburst look, and it was renamed the Les Paul Standard.

In the initial production years of 1958-60, only 1,700 Standards were made, and became almost mythical. They were discontinued to make way for Gibson’s new SG-shaped solid-bodies.