GIBSON manufactured the LES PAUL PERSONAL between 1969 and 1973. The Les Paul Personal was the result of Les Paul's improvements on his iconic Gibson design of the 1950s. As a jazz player Les Paul favoured a clean tone and this guitar has oblong slanted low-impedance pickups - with improved fidelity and clarity. The Les Paul Personal also had a wider mahogany body (than the more well known Gibson LP design),  phase switching, and 11-position Decade control, and a microphone socket on the bout of the guitar (with its own output and level control!). Unfortunately the model was not popular - possibly because the average guitarist at the time was not looking for a high fidelity clean sound: only 370 were ever produced.

The model was followed by the Les Paul Professional and Les Paul Recording. Les Paul himself  used this style of guitar (and sounded great) in his weekly live jazz gigs - try to catch the Les Paul Live in New York DVD a tribute for Les' 90th birthday to hear this type of guitar in action.

The Gibson 1970 catalog describes the Les Paul Personal as follows:

LES PAUL PERSONAL — Low Impedance: Gibson engineers and "Mr.Guitar"... Les Paul, spent endless hours of research and experimentation in producing this exceptional instrument. A revolutionary new design with low impedance pickups. The Les Paul Personal is truly a giant step forward in musical electronics and tone reproduction.  

FEATURES: Low impedance electronics and pickups. Microphone input jack. Clear grain British Honduras mahogany body with center cross band. Three-piece laminated British Honduras mahogany neck construction.The laminations are quarter-sawn for maximum strength. Buffed and polished clear walnut finish reveals all the tune grain lined features of the basic wood. Ebony fingerboard with "fretless wonder" frets, mother-of-pearl block inlays. Gold-plated deluxe design machine heads with sealed gears. Gold-plated Tune-o-matic bridge. 18.25" long, 14" wide, 2" deep; 24.75” scale length, 22 frets, neck joins body at 16th fret.