HD.6-X Pro Digital Les Paul
Gibson’s HD.6-X Pro Digital Les Paul represents the greatest technological advance in guitar manufacturing in more than 50 years. The result of years of research and development by Gibson engineers, the HD.6X-Pro Guitar System combines Gibson craftsmanship with ground-breaking digital technology. The HD LP may look like a traditional Les Paul, but it’s actually a complete digital audio system. The heart of the HD LP lies in Gibson’s revolutionary Hex Pickup, carefully situated between the bridge pickup—Gibson’s 498T—and the Tune-o-matic bridge. The product of many years of research and development, the Hex Pickup is made up of six small, patent-pending humbuckers positioned under each string at the bridge. The incredibly sensitive pickups send six individual signals to studio-grade preamps, allowing them to be immediately digitized—offering players a wide spectrum of dynamics and sonic possibilities. The Breakout Box—otherwise known as BoB—converts the signals from digital to analog, and routes them in any combination to any assigned destination. An Ethernet port called the Media-accelerated Global Information Carrier—or MaGIC—is a patented Gibson technology that allows the bi-directional signals to be carried over miles of cable with low latency and no loss of quality. The rest of the HD LP is traditional Les Paul, but with a few modifications. The hand-oiled mahogany neck with rounded profile and ebony fingerboard offers comfortable, effortless playability, while Gibson’s 490R and 498T pickups deliver traditional, singing humbucker tone. A custom blue metallic finish, block carbon fiber inlays, platinum speed knobs, and platinum knurled tuners round out the HD LP’s distinct look.
Finishes
Hot Points
The Gibson Logo
The most innovative and revolutionary stringed instruments of all time have bared the name Gibson—the Les Paul, the ES-335, the Explorer, the Flying V, the SG. The list goes on and on. There is no mistaking the classic, hand-crafted mother of pearl logo, inlayed into a pressed fiber-head veneer that is then glued to the face of the mahogany headstock. A thin coat of lacquer finishes the process. It is the most recognizable logo in all of music, representing more than a century of originality and excellence. There is simply no equal.
GIBSON’S ANGLED HEADSTOCK
The angled headstock is another example of Gibson’s industry-changing way of thinking. Every Gibson headstock is carved out of the same piece of mahogany as the neck then fitted with Gibson’s traditional wing blocks. It is not a “glued-on” headstock, and the process takes craftsmanship, time and effort. But the rewards are worth the effort. The headstock is carefully angled at 17 degrees, which increases pressure on the strings and helps them stay in the nut slots. An increase in string pressure also means there is no loss of string vibration between the nut and the tuners, which equals better sustain.
Adjustable Truss Rod
The adjustable truss rod is a Gibson innovation that revolutionized the guitar. Before this ground-breaking discovery in the early 1920s, the truss rod was used only to strengthen and stabilize the neck. By making it adjustable, the truss rod now allows a guitar to be set up using a variety of string gauges, as well as string heights. This easily accommodates any style of playing, and allows a limitless range of set-up options. And by placing it at the base of the headstock, the adjustable nut is easily accessible, even while the strings are still on the guitar. The truss rod cover, as it appears on the HD.6X-Pro Digital Les Paul, is platinum plated.
’50s Rounded Neck Profile
No guitar neck profiles are more distinguishable than the neck profiles employed on the Gibson models of today. The more traditional ’50s neck profile on the HD.6X-Pro Digital Les Paul is the thicker, rounder profile, emulating the neck shapes found on the iconic 1958 and 1959 Les Paul Standards. The neck is machined in Gibson’s rough mill using wood shapers to make the initial cuts. But once the fingerboard gets glued on, the rest—including the final sanding—is done by hand. That means there are no two necks with the exact same dimensions. So while it still has the basic characteristics of its respective profile, each neck will be slightly different, with a distinct but traditional feel.
22-Fret Ebony Fingerboard
Ebony has always graced the fingerboards of the world’s finest stringed instruments, including today’s Les Paul Custom, Les Paul Supreme, and the pioneering HD.6X-Pro Digital Les Paul. The fingerboard on HD LP is constructed from the highest grade ebony on the planet. The ebony is personally inspected and qualified by Gibson’s team of skilled wood experts before it enters the Gibson factories to be fitted onto the neck of the HD LP. The resilience of this dense and durable wood makes the fingerboard extremely balanced and stable, and gives each chord and note unparalleled clarity and bite. The 12-inch radius of the fingerboard provides smooth note bending capabilities and eliminates “dead” or “choked out” notes, common occurrences on fingerboards with lesser radiuses. Resilient and less porous, ebony absorbs oils well, allowing it to preserve its rich, beautiful color.
Nickel and Silver Alloy Fret Wire
The fret wire on most Gibson guitars is a combination nickel and silver alloy (approximately 80 percent nickel and 20 percent silver) specifically designed for long life and superior wear. Gibson’s traditional “medium/jumbo” fret wire is first shaped by hand, then cut to an exact 12-inch radius. After hand pressing it into the fingerboard, a machine press finishes the job to eliminate the gap between the bottom of the fret wire and the fingerboard.
Block Carbon Fiber Inlays
The classic block inlay is one of the most distinguishable features of many traditional Gibson models, including the ES-335s of the early 1960s and today’s Flying V Custom. On the HD.6X-Pro Digital Les Paul, Gibson uses block inlays made of carbon fiber—a material designed for the 21st century, with a traditional Gibson look. They are inserted into the fingerboard using a process that eliminates gaps and doesn’t require the use of fillers.
Set-Neck Construction
Like all classic Gibson guitars, the necks on the HD.6X-Pro Digital Les Pauls are distinguished by one of the more traditional Gibson features—a glued neck joint. Gluing the neck to the body of the guitar ensures a “wood to wood” contact, no air space in the neck cavity, and maximum contact between the neck and body, allowing the neck and body to function as a single unit. The result? Better tone, better sustain, and no loose or misaligned necks.
Mahogany Back and Maple Cap
There isn’t anything more critical than the marriage of a Gibson Les Paul mahogany back with a maple cap, as well as the regimen involved in selecting the right wood and the formula to dry it out. First, the wood is personally inspected and qualified by Gibson’s team of skilled wood experts before it enters the Gibson factories. These onsite inspectors also ensure that the plain maple comes from corporations adhering to the forest-saving standards of the Rainforest Alliance, of which Gibson is a proud member and sponsor. Inside the Gibson factories, humidity is maintained at 45 percent, and the temperature at 70 degrees. This ensures all woods are dried to a level of “equilibrium,” where the moisture content does not change during the manufacturing process. This guarantees tight-fitting joints and no expansion, and helps control the shrinkage and warping of the woods, in addition to helping reduce the weight. It also helps with improving the woods’ machinability and finishing properties, and adherence to glue. Consistent moisture content means that a Gibson guitar will respond evenly to temperature and humidity changes long after it leaves the factory.
GIBSON’S 490R AND 498T PICKUPS
The mid to late 1960s saw the emergence of a very different type of music coming from the clubs of England. It was an interpretation of the blues that hadn’t been heard before, and it was much harder, more rocking, and definitely louder than anything else before it. As such, this new genre’s players were demanding more powerful amplifiers with increased volume outputs to satisfy their sonic explorations. This led to a call for a more versatile pickup to split coils through a push/pull knob, and prevent the microphonic feedback that occurs when the volume is turned up to maximum levels. Gibson answered this call with the introduction of the revolutionary 490T and 490R pickups (“T” for treble, and “R” for rhythm), which has the traditional characteristics of the original “Patent Applied For” pickups, but with two key modifications. First, a four-conductor wiring scheme allows the 490s to be connected to any push/pull knob, which lets players split the coils and increase versatility. Gibson also introduced wax potting, which does away with any air space inside the pickup—thus lessening the chances of microphonic feedback. The result is a humbucker with the tonal characteristics of an original PAF, with a slight increase in upper mid-range response. The Gibson 498T bridge pickup is the 490’s ideal complement. Taking the 490 one step further, the 498 swaps the Alnico II magnet to an Alnico V, thus making it slightly hotter with emphasis on mid-ranges and highs. The pole pieces on the 498T are also aligned a little further apart to accommodate the spacing of the strings at the bridge, which is different than the spacing of the strings at the neck.
The Gibson Hex Pickup
The heart of the HD LP lies in Gibson’s revolutionary Hex Pickup, which is carefully situated between the bridge pickup—Gibson’s 498T—and the Tune-o-matic bridge, offering a low-profile, non-intrusive solution to Hex separation. The unobtrusive and extremely powerful pickup is the product of many years of research and development. The Hex Pickup is made up of six small, patent-pending humbuckers positioned under each string at the bridge. The incredibly sensitive pickups send six individual signals to studio-grade preamps, allowing them to be immediately digitized—offering players a wide spectrum of dynamics and sonic possibilities never before imagined. It truly captures all the nuances, attack, and phrasing of playing.
Tune-O-Matic Bridge
The Tune-o-matic bridge was the brainchild of legendary Gibson president Ted McCarty in 1954. At the time, it was a true revelation in intonation, and set a standard for simplicity and functionality that has never been bettered. This pioneering piece of hardware provides a firm seating for the strings, allowing the player to adjust and fine-tune the intonation and string height in a matter of minutes. It also yields a great union between the strings and body, which results in excellent tone and sustain. It is combined with a separate “stopbar” tailpiece, essentially a modified version of the earlier wraparound bridge. To this day, the Tune-o-matic remains the industry standard. It is the epitome of form and function in electric guitar bridge design, and is one of the most revered and copied pieces of guitar hardware ever developed.
A Nitrocellulose Finish
Applying a nitrocellulose finish to any Gibson guitar—including the HD.6X-Pro Digital Les Paul—is one of the most labor-intensive elements of the guitar-making process. A properly applied nitro finish requires extensive man hours, several evenly applied coats, and an exorbitant amount of drying time. But this fact has never swayed Gibson into changing this time-tested method, employed ever since the first Gibson guitar was swathed with lacquer back in 1894. Why? For starters, a nitro finish dries to a much thinner coat than a polyurethane finish, which means there is less interference with the natural vibration of the instrument, allowing for a purer tone. A nitro finish is also a softer finish, which makes it easily repairable. You can touch up a scratch or ding on a nitro finish, but you can’t do the same on a poly finish. In addition, a nitro finish is very porous in nature, and actually gets thinner over time. It does not “seal” wood in an airtight shell—as a poly finish does—and allows the wood to breathe and age properly.
Single-ply Silver Body Binding
To see the process of putting the binding on a Les Paul is to really appreciate the effort and attention that Gibson puts into each instrument. A lone craftsman will carefully glue and fit two pieces of binding around the entire body of a Les Paul. He then winds a single, very long piece of narrow cloth around the entire body until the entire surface is nearly covered. The body is then hung to dry for a full 24 hours before it is unwrapped and moved into the next phase of production. It has been done the same way for over 100 years. Some question the value of adding binding, but Gibson believes it is a fundamental part of our rich guitar-making history. The binding adds elegance to any Gibson guitar, and helps protect the edges of the body.
MULTI-FUNCTIONAL DIGITAL JACKPLATE
Other than the platinum accents and the carbon fiber block inlays, the only other visible difference between a standard Les Paul and the HD.6X-Pro Digital Les Paul is the jackplate. Besides the conventional quarter-inch jack, the HD LP’s jackplate also has an RJ-45 Ethernet jack for the delivery of a pure digital signal. There is also a microphone input with 5-volt phantom power, a headphone jack, and a volume dial that can deliver a monitor mix straight to the guitar, putting monitor control where it has always belonged—with the guitarist.
VOLUME AND TONE CONTROLS
Just like many of Gibson’s guitars, the HD.6X-Pro Digital Les Paul has two controls for volume, and two for tone, in addition to the standard three-way toggle pickup switch. The difference in the HD LP is that the bridge pickup volume control also doubles as the digital output level control, which provides easy access to the guitar’s most basic function.
Gallery
