Gibson Les Paul Goddess

In Which Gibson's Design Team Had a Brief Moment of Pure Inspiration. Some guitars stick around forever. Others burn bright and disappear, leaving collectors kicking themselves for decades afterward. The 2006-2008 Les Paul Goddess falls squarely in that second category - a brilliant flash of innovation that vanished almost as quickly as it appeared.

You've seen plenty of Les Pauls, but none quite like this Sky Burst beauty. Gibson's designers weren't content with just another sunburst finish - they created something that looks like it fell from a crystalline blue heaven. But the real visual drama comes from those transparent pickup covers revealing electric blue coils beneath chrome surrounds. It's like having X-ray vision into your guitar's sonic soul.

Here's where the Goddess gets practical: that narrower 1⅝" nut width makes this feel distinctly different from standard Les Pauls. Combined with the slender '60s-style C neck profile, your fingers get more real estate to work with, especially beneficial for intricate fingerpicking or complex chord voicings that would feel cramped on wider necks.

The tonal personality comes courtesy of that classic 490R/498T pairing, but mounted in a weight-relieved Honduran mahogany body topped with carved maple. At 7 pounds 8 ounces, this won't destroy your back during marathon sessions. The Alnico II neck pickup delivers smooth, clear warmth perfect for jazz chords or bluesy bends, while that high-output Alnico V bridge humbucker snarls with focused upper-midrange bite that cuts through any mix.

That Madagascar heather ebony fingerboard isn't just exotic eye candy - it's one of the most premium fretboard materials Gibson ever used, offering incredible sustain and harmonic complexity. Those Grover locking tuners and compensated wraparound tailpiece keep everything mechanically solid.

Sometimes the best ideas have the shortest lifespans. The Goddess proved that innovation and tradition could coexist beautifully - for exactly three years.

Neck Specs:
Wood: Honduran mahogany
Shape: Slender ‘60s-style C, measuring .785” 1st fret, .905” 12th fret
Fretboard: Madagascar heather ebony, pearloid trapezoid inlays
Frets: Medium jumbo, virtually no wear
Scale Length: 24 3/4”
Nut: 1 5/8”
Tuners: Grover Locking Rotomatics

Body Specs:
Wood: Maple, Mahogany
Pickups: 490R/498T humbuckers
Harness: Alpha Gibson-stamped pots
Controls: Volume, Tone, Three-way pickup selector
Hardware: Compensated wraparound tailpiece, “top hat” knobs (ridged grips, chrome-plated)