Gibson Les Paul Doublecut

It appears that Gibson has since decided to discontinue much of the faded lines, including the Les Paul Special Double cut for its 2009 lineup.

A much more expensive and historically accurate version of this guitar, the 1960 Les Paul Special, is available as a Custom Shop/Historic Reissue model.

These Hamer versions of doublecutaway Les Pauls got widespread publicity for their use by the members of the rock band Cheap Trick and others.

The "Faded" model is called such because the nitrocellulose finish is not thick and glossy like the original vintage examples or Custom Shop double cut Les Pauls.

Many believe these newer archtop doublecut Les Pauls were developed in response to the high-end guitars of Gibson competitor Paul Reed Smith (PRS), whose PRS guitars most typically have a doublecut design and master tone and volume controls, and whose production eventually went from a small shop (as Hamer's has stayed) to an assembly-line production rivaling Gibson's.