Gibson Midtown Custom 2012

With a trimmed-down and more player-friendly body size that still emulates the lines of the ES models, but built with the chambered solid-wood construction (rather than a laminated top and back with solid center block), the Midtown Custom truly embodies the optimum marriage of solidbody and archtop. What’s more, it dresses all these tonal advantages in a package worthy of the hallowed “Custom” name.

The Midtown Custom starts with premium tonewoods, using Grade-A timbers beneath the three translucent finish options. A solid mahogany body is strategically chambered for optimum resonance and capped with a solid carved maple top with traditional f-holes, which is finished here in Antique Natural. Its solid mahogany neck is carved to a fast, comfortable ’60s-style profile that measures .800″ at the 1st fret and .875″ at the 12th. The neck is topped with a smooth, hard fingerboard crafted from Richlite, a fabricated material composed of cellulose fiber and phenolic resin, which offers the constructional and resonant properties of fine hardwood, but with improved durability, for a superb playing feel.

Tidy white binding accentuates the fingerboard, while multi-ply binding graces the body and headstock. The rich, dark fingerboard is enhanced with acrylic block inlays plus split-diamond inlays dress the headstock in the classic style of upmarket Gibson models.

Plugged in, this elegant hotrod runs the gamut of legendary Les Paul-to-ES tones, thanks to a pair of BurstBucker pickups, two of Gibson’s finest vintage-PAF-style humbuckers, and classic four-knob wiring with three-way toggle selector. A BurstBucker 1 in the neck position yields warm, throaty blues and jazz tones with plenty of clarity, while a slightly hotter BurstBucker 2 in the bridge provides more growl and bite for anything from hot country to rock ‘n’ roll, while together the pair provides round, slinky, funky rhythm tones. These great humbuckers from Gibson USA are made with genuine unpolished Alnico II magnets and wound with 42 AWG wire, just like the legendary PAFs of the late ’50s and early ’60s. In the hardware department, the Midtown Custom carries the classic pairing of Tune-o-matic bridge with stopbar tailpiece, and a set of premium Grover kidney button tuners up top.

SPECIFICATIONS

Body & Bridge
Top: Maple
Back: Mahogany
Body Type: Semi-Hollow, Chambered with F-holes
Bridge: Tune-O-Matic
Tailpiece: Stopbar
Pickguard: Black 5-Ply

Neck
Species: Mahogany
Profile: 60s-style Slim Taper
Fingerboard: Richlite
Frets: 22
Radius: 12″
Binding: White
Nut/E.O.B: 1.695/2.260
Scale Length: 24.75″
Inlays: White Acrylic Block

Pickups & Hardware
Pickup – Neck Position: Burstbucker 1 (Alnico II)
Pickup – Bridge Position: Burstbucker 2 (Alnico II)
Tuners: Grover Kidney
Strap Buttons: Aluminum End Pins