Named in honor of Ted McCarty, the Theodore is based on a design the legendary Gibson president penciled into a sketchbook back in 1957. Ted was angling for more radical solidbody designs at the time, departing from the curvy Les Paul and entering a phase that would soon yield the Explorer and Flying V. With the Theodore Standard, Gibson captures a transitional moment in its history as it brings Ted’s sketch to life.

The distinctive tulip-shaped body is a slim cut of mahogany that tucks up comfortably whether you’re seated or standing, plus it’s lightweight and has a rounded edge where your forearm crosses the lower bout. The Theodore would have been Gibson’s first double-cutaway, being a year ahead of the Les Paul Junior, and can be imagined as a precursor to the SG (especially in the deep Vintage Cherry finish of our test model; other options are Antique Natural and Ebony). The rounded “scimitar” headstock shape, as seen on the Explorer, is a counterintuitive pairing with the pointed Florentine cutaways but contributes to the guitar’s good balance.

There’s no mistaking that you’re pulling up to a Gibson neck; 22 frets on a 24.75″ scale, a set neck joint, bound mahogany, and trapezoid fret markers on an Indian rosewood fretboard. With its SlimTaper profile, the neck has satisfying girth to fill your palm while also enabling an easy reach across the strings all up the neck.

The Theodore roars thanks to the 57 Classic (neck) and 57 Classic Plus (bridge) pickups. Spec’d to match the vaunted Gibson PAF, the set delivers that thick, harmonically rich overdrive that makes for a soft “woman tone” at one extreme and aggressive Angus Young chunk at the other. A bit of air in the tone brings the SG again to mind, though it’s also capable of LP creaminess.

Gibson offered a previous iteration of the Theodore in a limited 2022 run before arriving at all new specs for this namesake production of McCarty’s idea. Now, what else is in that sketchbook?

This article originally appeared in VG’s November 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.