Building on a shared passion for beauty, precision, and performance, and inspired by the shared historical significance of the iconic Gibson 1959 Les Paul Standard and equally iconic Triumph 1959 Bonneville T120, the outcome of this unique partnership is a stunning one-of-a-kind custom edition of today’s generation of each legendary model.
Created to support The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride, in its global charity efforts for men’s mental health, prostate cancer awareness and fundraising, the 1959 Legends custom edition Les Paul Standard Reissue and Bonneville T120 feature a host of beautiful hand-detailed custom touches, designed, and applied in Triumph’s factory workshop.
Triumph and Gibson Partnership
- Inspired by the shared historic significance of the year 1959, with the legendary 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard, the ‘holy-grail’ of guitars, and the equally iconic original 1959 Triumph Bonneville T120, the original British superbike and arguably the most famous name in motorcycling.
- Celebrating the timeless connection between music and motorcycle culture, and the passion that Gibson and Triumph designers share for beautiful design, precision, performance and world-class craftsmanship.
- Driven from a mutual ambition to support the global charity efforts of The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride, uniting motorcyclists through fundraising to support men’s health.
Gibson Les Paul Standard Reissue – 1959 Legends Custom Edition
- A genuine guitar icon, the 1959 Les Paul Standard Reissue is the ultimate Gibson classic, and an accurate clone that’s authentic in every detail, from its iconic sunburst finish to the look and feel of each part and its incredible trademark tone.
- The 1959 Legends Custom Edition features unique Triumph design detailing, including hand coach-lined pickguard, inspired by the Bonneville’s trademark engine fins, and etched pick-up covers, branded truss rod cover and reissue switch backplate.
- Along with the 1959 Les Paul Standard Reissue certificate of authenticity, the Legends Edition also comes with its own one-of-a-kind certificate signed by Triumph CEO, Nick Bloor, and Cesar Gueikian, Brand President of Gibson Brands.
Triumph Bonneville T120 – ‘1959 Legends Custom Edition’
- The latest generation of this genuine motorcycle legend, the Bonneville T120, combines timeless character and style, with class defining modern capability and performance.
- The 1959 Legends Custom Edition features unique Gibson design detailing, including beautifully unique hand-painted sunburst paint scheme, featuring Jet Black painted guitar neck and headstock shape, edged with hand-painted coach lining, plus a host of branded touches.
The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride
- The 1959 Legends guitar and motorcycle will together be offered as the highest fundraiser reward for the 2022 ride.
- The 2022 Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride represents a major milestone in Triumph’s sponsorship, marking 9 incredible years of support, with over 100,000 riders in over 900 cities across the world, raising over $31million USD for men’s mental health and prostate cancer awareness.
Gibson and Triumph 1959 Legends inspiration
Celebrating the shared historic resonance of the year 1959, the custom collaboration project honours the two iconic products central to each brand’s story – the 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard and the 1959 Triumph Bonneville T120, both considered to be the holy-grail of their worlds, and both still manufactured and sold today.
A genuine guitar icon, and a priceless music legend, the 1959 Les Paul Standard is the ultimate Gibson classic. And the Custom Shop 1959 Les Paul Standard Reissue is more than just a tribute, it’s an authentic and accurate clone. Matched to that, the ultimate classic motorcycle icon, the legendary 1959 Bonneville T120, delivered ground-breaking performance, making it the original British superbike. While today’s equivalent, the category-leading Bonneville T120 combines that timeless character and style, with modern capability and performance.
Inspired by the shared 1959 history and the enduring connection between music and motorcycle culture from the birth of rock and roll to the teenage café racer and beyond, Gibson and Triumph set out to create a unique custom edition to highlight and support the incredibly important fundraising aims and passion of The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride.
Triumph Factory Custom Detailing
Reflecting the passion that Gibson and Triumph designers share for beautiful design, precision, performance and world-class craftsmanship, the 1959 Les Paul Standard Reissue and Bonneville T120 were chosen to be hand-customised by Triumph’s world-leading design team at the Triumph factory workshop in Hinckley, the global HQ and home of Triumph.
Gibson Les Paul Standard Reissue – 1959 Legends custom design detailing:
- Unique Jet Black scratch plate with hand-painted coach lining to celebrate the signature machined engine cooling fins of the classic Bonneville T120.
- Elegant Triumph logo laser etched into the lower pickup cover.
- Unique hand-painted Jet Black pickup cover surrounds.
- Low-profile electroformed metallic gold Triumph badge applied to the headstock.
- Beautifully cast, painted and hand-finished reissue switch backplate on the back of the guitar, featuring the “Triumph Gibson 1959 Legends” partnership logo, designed to echo the Bonneville T120 alternator cover badge design.
Triumph Bonneville T120 – 1959 Legends custom design detailing:
- Beautiful and unique custom paint scheme to match the Iced Tea Burst finish of the guitar, featuring Jet Black painted guitar neck and headstock design on the top of the tank, edged with hand-painted coach lining, showcasing the expert skills of Triumph’s custom paint team.
- Low-profile electroformed metallic gold “Triumph Gibson 1959 Legends” badges applied to the tank, side panels and front mudguard.
- Laser etched fuel filler cap featuring Gibson
- Custom brown real leather seat, designed to match the leather guitar case, with additional detailing including diamond stitching, embroidered Triumph logo and custom pick holders.
- Bespoke alternator badge featuring intricate detailing and the “Triumph Gibson 1959 Legends”
Certificate of authenticity:
Bespoke 1959 Legends Editions certificate, signed by Triumph CEO Nick Bloor, and Cesar Gueikian, Brand President of Gibson Brands.
The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride
The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride unites hundreds of thousands of classic and vintage style motorcycle riders all over the world to raise funds and awareness for prostate cancer research and men’s mental health. Founded in Sydney, Australia in 2012, the ‘dress dapper’ themed ride aims to combat the often-negative stereotype of motorcyclists and connect the global motorcycling community by raising funds for a cause important to every rider.
Since its first year, the DGR’s global community has raised over $31m USD for its charity partner, Movember, and now operates in over 900 cities and 114 countries around the world.
This year’s Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride will take place on Sunday 22nd May with pre-registration already open to riders across the world, and official registration and fundraising starting on 28th March.
Gibson 1959 Les Paul Standard
The Gibson Les Paul is practically synonymous with rock and roll, becoming the go-to axe for countless guitar heroes including Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, Aerosmith’s Joe Perry, and Guns N’ Roses’ Slash. It’s as versatile an instrument as it is iconic, and in the right hands can wring thunderous riffs, molten solos and warm, clean tones from it in equal measure.
Known as the Holy Grail of Guitars, the 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard represents the pinnacle of electric guitar innovation during Gibson’s enduring golden age. The Gibson Les Paul Standards from 1958 to 1960 are among the most collectible vintage guitars in the world, with the Gibson 1959 model as the most highly coveted of all. No specific Gibson guitar carries more intrigue and gravitas than the 1959 Les Paul Standard. Rare and highly-collectible, it has become the most iconic guitar in history, (under 650 were made), and before long, it was adopted by some of the world’s greatest guitarists–Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Duane Allman, Mike Bloomfield, Billy Gibbons, Joe Perry, Slash, Joe Bonamassa, Rick Nielsen and Jason Isbell, to name a few.
“It’s just a beautiful guitar and a fantastic instrument, and obviously it was adopted by dozens of hugely influential players,” says Mat Koehler, Senior Director of Product Development, Gibson Brands. “Guitar gods all favored this model. So, when you put that all together, it’s no wonder why the values are large fractions of a million dollars for originals.”
Triumph Bonneville T120
Legendary design DNA, class-defining premium finish and detailing with truly modern capability. The latest generation T120 Bonneville has been evolved for pure riding pleasure.
The definitive British motorcycle icon takes its torque-rich 1200cc twin performance, sophisticated set up and beautiful Bonneville DNA and significantly upgrades it for 2021, delivering a new benchmark for timeless character and easy riding capability.
With a significantly enhanced handling set-up, courtesy of a major 7kg weight saving, new lightweight aluminum wheel rims and new higher specification Brembo brakes, plus new rider technology, including cruise control and enhanced riding modes and an even more responsive throttle, the Bonneville legend continues.
For more information, visit https://www.triumphmotorcycles.com/for-the-ride/brand/distinguished-gentlemans-ride/triumph-and-gibson.
Main photo: The Gibson 1959 Legends custom edition Les Paul Standard Reissue and Triumph Bonneville T120.
Source: Triumph Motorcycles and Gibson
