With apologies to the Stratophiles out there, the Les Paul is the most important electric guitar in the world.  2012 marks the first significant update in 4 years.  Peter Hodgson’s take:

NOT YOUR GRANDPA’S LES PAUL
The Stan­dard is not a Les Paul for tra­di­tion­al­ists. It’s a mod­ern take on the instru­ment which offers a huge range of pickup selec­tion options, a lighter feel and a very com­fort­able neck. But it doesn’t sound exactly like the Les Pauls of yore. It def­i­nitely has its own thing going on, and that’s the con­text within which this gui­tar should be viewed: as the 2012 Les Paul Stan­dard, not the 1958 one.

THE 2012 GIBSON LES PAUL STANDARD.