“This wasn’t Seth Lover’s instinctual way to create a pickup. This was Les Paul in his ear saying, ‘This is what you should do”: The story – and tones – behind Gibson’s distinctive Alnico V ‘Staple pickup’

Gibson Les Paul Custom.

Many years ago, in one of the first issues of Guitarist magazine I ever read, there was a report from a vintage guitar show. Among the pics of Paisley Telecasters and ’Bursts was a shot of a black Les Paul Custom fitted with what, to my inexperienced eyes, appeared to be an unusual neck pickup. 

It had chunky rectangular polepieces and looked like a relic from an earlier era. This, I later discovered, was Gibson’s Alnico V pickup, also known as the ‘Staple’ pickup because of those evenly spaced rectangular polepieces.