MAYBACH LESTER CHERRY LANE 58 AGED £1,730 MAYBACH LESTER CHERRY LANE 58 AGED £1,730 ELECTRIC GUITARS ELECTRIC GUITARS

MAYBACH LESTER CHERRY LANE 58 AGED A hand-built Lester with relic’d nitro, period-correct hardware, boutique pickups and vintage wiring for well under £2K is guaranteed to grab our attention. HUW PRICE picks a cherry…

e’ve been very excited The features distinguishing to get our hands on this Gibson’s late-50s Les Pauls from later W new Lester – you might models are very well documented be wondering why the world needs and they’re mostly present and yet another LP-style guitar, but bare correct on the Maybach. There’s a with us here. For starters, the Cherry lightweight aluminium tailpiece, a Lane is a high-end guitar fitted with vintage-style bridge, ’vintage taper’ top notch components for a very 500k control pots and paper/oil tone reasonable price. What’s more, capacitors wired 1950s-style. The it’s hand-built in Maybach’s Czech hardware, including the vintage-style factory, where the product manager tuners, all comes from Gotoh. is a former Gibson employee and The control cavity is shielded, many of the luthiers there trained which makes sense despite not being and worked in the US. Starting to a period feature. We are also pleased get the picture? to see brick red Russian military Having been in the guitar industry surplus capacitors. Having tested for 30 years, Maybach’s owner, Toni plenty, these are our Lester cap of Götz launched the brand nine years choice and it’s encouraging to see ago, and the Lester Series models them here. exemplify the company’s ‘back to the You can choose aged and pristine truth’ motto. The mission statement finishes, but either way you get the is to produce single-cut guitars that all-important nitrocellulose. We are as vintage-correct as possible, would like to think the top on the all while maintaining a competitive review guitar is a representative price point. example, because it’s certainly one

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Kluson-style Gotoh tuners of the nicest pieces of maple we’ve For the most part, it’s reminiscent Control cavity shielding adorn the headstock seen in a long time, the faded cherry of Gibson-style razor blade work, isn’t a vintage feature but it makes perfect sense colour is just about perfect and the but this may have been augmented figuring does the ‘holographic’ thing with an air duster at the back, where as you alter viewing angle. there is also some crazing. Nobody The mahogany back and neck are would be deceived into thinking sprayed in an attractive shade of this is an old guitar, but if you enjoy cherry, although the neck is perhaps the relic aesthetic, the vibe of this

a bit on the dark side. Fear not, the instrument certainly benefits from it. The back sports extra tint is not hiding a stacked heel The headstock shape may appear small dents rather or a scarf jointed headstock. This to be a subtle and elegant variation than full-scale buckle rash is a one-piece affair with a vintage on Gibson’s iconic design, but it’s correct headstock angle and the actually a Larson Brothers design fabled long-tenon neck joint. that predates the Les Paul by a few The flame maple top is In contrast, the back is a centre decades. Interestingly Toni Götz also one of the nicest we’ve seen in some time joined two-piece and it’s weight- owns the Larson Brothers brand, so This is one of the nicest pieces of maple we’ve seen in a long time, and the colour is just about perfect relieved. The Maybach team thought it makes sense to ‘borrow’ the shape long and hard about it, eventually for Maybach’s Lester Series models. concluding that chambering is the The plastics look pretty good – only way to guarantee the sub-nine particularly the pickup surrounds, pound weight of most vintage Les poker chip, jack plate and pickup Pauls with the mahogany that is rings. We’re not sold on the knobs, readily available these days. the off-white switch tip or the rolled The ageing is quite restrained, pickguard edges, but they’re minor over 1mm in thickness, and we feel bulkier feel. It’s certainly playable, They don’t quite match aftermarket KEY FEATURES with lightly tarnished hardware and details that owners can address with the Maybach would look better with but if part of the appeal of a really boutique offerings from Tyson Tone, Maybach Lester Cherry pickup covers to match. There’s a bit replica parts if they wish. something a tad thinner. We also high-end LP is the extraordinary Throbak and Monty’s for upper Lane 58 Aged of simulated arm wear at the front, The frets are installed over the note that the body binding height feel of vintage-era necks, while the harmonic complexity or airiness, • PRICE £1,730 (inc hard case) • DESCRIPTION Semi-solid The ageing includes some dents in the buckle rash area binding, rather than with Gibson- increases in the cutaway, so there’s Maybach’s more modern square- which means the bridge doesn’t quite 6-string electric guitar. Made in lacquer checking and and lacquer checking everywhere style nibs. On a vintage LP you’d no 50s-style maple fillet visible here. shouldered profile will be perfect for have the vintage quackiness and pick simulated forearm wear Czech Republic besides the back of the neck. expect the binding to be a fraction Maybach hasn’t stinted on the many of us, it seems rather at odds articulation and vocal qualities aren’t • BUILD Chambered mahogany body humbuckers. The units in this guitar with the ‘back to the truth’ concept. as apparent from the neck unit. with figured maple cap, one piece are hand made in Germany by Amber The Amber pickups redress the However, not all players mahogany neck with long tenon, bound rosewood fingerboard Pickups. Wolfgang Damm’s company balance somewhat because the tone appreciate that style of vintage Les • HARDWARE Gotoh tune-o-matic is well regarded for its PAF replicas, is very much in the PAF camp. Nicely Paul tone and, in stock form, the bridge, aluminium tailpiece & Kluson- and these Spirit Of 59s are made to microphonic, they interact with the Maybach does the buttery smooth style tuners Maybach’s specs. controls just as we would expect from and warm blues/rock thing • ELECTRICS Amber ‘Spirit Of 59’ the real thing. Clean up occurs without particularly well. When you consider humbuckers, individual volume & tone controls, three-way pickup In Use muddiness, you can fine-tune the how much this feature set would cost selector switch Inevitably, the body’s weight relief quackiness in the middle setting by – even second hand – had it emerged • SCALE LENGTH 628mm/24.75” has an effect on the unplugged tone, carefully backing off the neck volume from a certain factory in Nashville, • NECK WIDTH 43.25mm at nut, but not to its detriment. Compared control, and you get that odd anomaly the Maybach is a lot of guitar for the 53.73mm at 12th fret • DEPTH OF NECK 22mm at first fret, to a Gibson Collector’s Choice model where rolling back the tone controls a money. And while it might not be 24mm at 12th fret and a 1982 Greco copy, the Maybach notch actually enhances clarity when the bang-on vintage replica at an • STRING SPACING 35mm at nut, is louder and fuller bodied. Crucially, both volumes are rolled back. affordable price that some might 51.5mm at bridge there is no apparent diminution of Our experience suggests that have wanted, it’s not far off. • WEIGHT 3.525kg/7.77lbs sustain and many will appreciate the original PAFs differed considerably • LEFT-HANDERS Yes • FINISHES Cherry Lane aged semi-solid tonal flavour. and we find the Ambers are voiced VERDICT nitrocellulose (as reviewed), Havanna Götz reports that 20 vintage on the darker end of the vintage Tobacco + Stunning looks and great playability • CONTACT Maybach Guitars Gibson necks were examined and spectrum. The midrange is also very + Very high build quality and maybach-guitars.de since they were all found to be forward, but that may be attributable impressively light weight different, it was decided to go with to the guitar’s acoustic character. + Vintage-correct components and a profile that proved popular with a The Ambers compare very wiring inside sample group of players rather than favourably with the humbuckers that – Non-vintage neck profile replicate any specific vintage neck. Gibson is currently installing in its – Some binding anomalies – Weight relief may divide opinion The outcome has a similar depth high-end Collector’s Choice models, to many late 50s necks, but a slightly perhaps sounding a bit clearer. As long as the neck profile appeals, this Lester could be the sensibly AWARD LIKE THIS? TRY THESE… priced vintage-style single-cut The headstock shape The corner shape and edge radius CHOICE Check out Gibson’s weight-relieved Les Paul Classic Traditional (£1,276), Les Paul you’ve been dreaming of is a vintage Larson of the pickup covers is closer to Brothers design vintage PAF spec than most Traditional (£1,599) and Les Paul Standard (£1,999). The Eastman Antique Varnish 9/10 9/10 SB59/V (£1,769) features an aged finish and a more vintage-style neck profile

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