Hal Leonard The Beauty Of The Burst

A must-have for any Gibson Les Paul player, enthusiast, scholar or collector.

It is the first and most notable compilation of 1958-1960 Les Paul (aka Bursts) photos and technical specs, in which not only will you find a lot of eye-candy, but also a lot of useful info on the evolution of 50's Les Pauls, hardware, wood, acoustics, finish and, of course, the PAF's.
It is somewhat a crossover between a holy scripture and a nudie magazine, featuring stars of the time.

Even though some of the content can nowadays be found online, there is a special appeal to browsing the printed version: it still has the power to take you places.
I go through BotB on weekend mornings, sipping coffee, and find myself either overcome by the need to play my Les Paul, or fantasizing about being a luthier, going through wild maple tops, shooting awesome sunburst finishes or, as many might, picturing myself playing a Burst.

So, if you're an ehtusiast, go for it.
PS: Thomann, looking forward to the "Burst Believers" series, by Vic DaPra ;)

"The Beauty of the Burst" is a book about the Vintage Gibson sunburst Les Pauls of the late 50s.
The book contains of detailed pictures of many old Les Pauls. To every guitar there is some short text about the look and the history of this particular guitar.
on the first look, the most guitars look quite similar, but everyone has it's unique details.
In the end of the book there's an part about the parts of a les paul, which explains the woods and the hardware of these guitars.

I can recommend this book to every vintage Les Paul fan, who likes the small and sometimes big differences of the guitars of this era.

My personal favourite is on page 58 ;)

if you are a lespaul lover this is the book that must not be missing from you library.
It has a lot of info about old bursts and beautiful photos of them (actually it is something like guitar porn)

What I didn't like is that it has not been updated for a long long time.
So many other bursts have emerged since it was last published which should be included as well (take for instance Joe Bonamassa's collection)

This is a big book of photographs showing nothing but beautiful looking Gibson Sunburst Les Paul guitars (and maybe a teeny-weeny description). If you're wondering if you should buy it, maybe the following helps.

BUY THIS BOOK: if you think the LP is the greatest guitar in the world.

DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK: if you hate guitars.


* "on every page", okay so I lied, there are 26 pages without a LP on them. Still, most of those do contain great information on the "Science of the 'Burst".