Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
This is the Stanford Guitars Fleetwood Bigsby B7: a fascinating new and relatively affordable take on the Goldtop Les Paul with a Bigsby vibrato tailpiece!
Get a Fleetwood here: thmn.to/thoprod/608960?offid=1&affid=1250
Stanford have flown under the radar with many guitarists for the past few years, but the Crossroads Series – of which the Fleetwood is a member – is bringing the brand far broader recognition than ever before.
When it comes to the Fleetwood, though, it’s not hard to understand why. This guitar imbues much of the mojo of the iconic Gibson Les Paul into a package that many in 2026 will find hugely appealing.
First off, the Fleetwood, which currently costs €1,099 – or €999, if you want it without a Bigsby – is made in China. It’s then shipped to iMusic Network (the Stanford brand owners) in Germany before making its way out to stores and new owners worldwide.
And while that price might not seem that cheap on the face of it, look closer at what you get for your money here, and well… you might change your mind! You get an okoumé body here – okoumé should provide a similar tonal performance to the traditional LP mahogany body wood, while being significantly lighter – and a maple cap.
We have a stunning Bullion Gold goldtop finish here – Amber Burst and Onyx Black are also available – and the Fleetwood is finished in nitrocellulose lacquer too. It’s a real looker, and the nitro is already starting to crack and tarnish (in a good way!) on this guitar as I take it out of the box.
Pickups-wise we have a pair of Stanford’s own traditional PAF-style humbuckers, and that official Bigsby B7 vibrato to add a shimmer and a wobble to proceedings.
The 628 mm/24.75” scale neck is solid mahogany and features a long tenon neck joint. We have a rosewood board here with 22 frets, a 43 mm bone nut, and a 12” fingerboard radius. The Thick C neck profile is medium thickness and incredibly comfy in the hand, so this is a neck that should appeal to Les Paul purists instantly.
Finally, up at the headstock – which is rather classy and not totally unlike the Gibson open book design, I have to say – we get a set of Kluson Supreme tuners.
Not bad for around $1000 then! But, all that said, how good is the Fleetwood really? Can it compete with a Gibson, or even a high-end Epiphone Les Paul? How well does that Bigsby stay in tune? And how good do those Stanford PAFs sound? It’s time to find out!
Here, I put the Fleetwood through its paces in as many different genres and styles as I can, from country, folk and indie, to pop, rock, punk – and of course some downtuned heavy stuff too!
Let me know what you think of the Fleetwood in the comments!
Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:
00:00 Introduction to the Fleetwood
01:08 Specs and info
04:47 Today’s rig and plan
05:49 Clean tone reference chords
06:08 Clean tone samples (folk, country, pop, indie, blues, funk, etc.)
08:46 Tone control test
09:55 Bigsby testing riffs
11:00 Indie and alt rock tones
13:48 Volume control roll off test
14:21 Classic rock tones (AC/DC, Hendrix, Airbourne, etc.)
16:31 Hard rock tones
18:12 Punk rock tones
19:06 Progressive and modern rock tones
19:57 Metal/chugging/heavy distortion tones (Drop D tuning)
21:34 My thoughts
22:01 First impressions and looks
22:38 Weight
23:19 Build quality and hardware
24:04 Playability and neck
24:45 Sounds and pickups
27:03 What other similar guitars are out there?
28:36 My conclusions on the Fleetwood and why you should buy it
My setup was as follows: I ran the Fleetwood into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head, also using my Greer Lightspeed, Crazy Tube Circuits Heatseeker, and my Revv G3 pedals for overdrive and heavy distortion sounds, and my Source Audio Collider for some extra reverb and delay. The amp went from the Red Box AE+ DI out straight into my Zoom H6 recorder. That's it. No post-processing on the sounds was done.
Get all this gear at Thomann: thmn.to/thocf/jkhog8l06m
Get all this gear at Sweetwater: sweetwater.sjv.io/LXqdE0
More at Stanford Guitars: stanfordguitars.com/products/cr-fleetwood-kopie?variant=46032850321636
---
Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe.
#StanfordGuitars #StanfordGuitar #StanfordFleetwood #LesPaul #Bigsby #LesPaulBigsby #Goldtop #GoldtopLesPaul #LesPaulGoldtop #RichWordsMusic #iMusicNetwork
*Note: certain links in the description are affiliate links. If you click said links and purchase anything as a result, I will receive a small commission. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, but it does help to support the channel. So, if you do that, thank you very much!*
@iMusicnetworkTV
This is the Stanford Guitars Fleetwood Bigsby B7: a fascinating new and relatively affordable take on the Goldtop Les Paul with a Bigsby vibrato tailpiece!
Get a Fleetwood here: thmn.to/thoprod/608960?offid=1&affid=1250
Stanford have flown under the radar with many guitarists for the past few years, but the Crossroads Series – of which the Fleetwood is a member – is bringing the brand far broader recognition than ever before.
When it comes to the Fleetwood, though, it’s not hard to understand why. This guitar imbues much of the mojo of the iconic Gibson Les Paul into a package that many in 2026 will find hugely appealing.
First off, the Fleetwood, which currently costs €1,099 – or €999, if you want it without a Bigsby – is made in China. It’s then shipped to iMusic Network (the Stanford brand owners) in Germany before making its way out to stores and new owners worldwide.
And while that price might not seem that cheap on the face of it, look closer at what you get for your money here, and well… you might change your mind! You get an okoumé body here – okoumé should provide a similar tonal performance to the traditional LP mahogany body wood, while being significantly lighter – and a maple cap.
We have a stunning Bullion Gold goldtop finish here – Amber Burst and Onyx Black are also available – and the Fleetwood is finished in nitrocellulose lacquer too. It’s a real looker, and the nitro is already starting to crack and tarnish (in a good way!) on this guitar as I take it out of the box.
Pickups-wise we have a pair of Stanford’s own traditional PAF-style humbuckers, and that official Bigsby B7 vibrato to add a shimmer and a wobble to proceedings.
The 628 mm/24.75” scale neck is solid mahogany and features a long tenon neck joint. We have a rosewood board here with 22 frets, a 43 mm bone nut, and a 12” fingerboard radius. The Thick C neck profile is medium thickness and incredibly comfy in the hand, so this is a neck that should appeal to Les Paul purists instantly.
Finally, up at the headstock – which is rather classy and not totally unlike the Gibson open book design, I have to say – we get a set of Kluson Supreme tuners.
Not bad for around $1000 then! But, all that said, how good is the Fleetwood really? Can it compete with a Gibson, or even a high-end Epiphone Les Paul? How well does that Bigsby stay in tune? And how good do those Stanford PAFs sound? It’s time to find out!
Here, I put the Fleetwood through its paces in as many different genres and styles as I can, from country, folk and indie, to pop, rock, punk – and of course some downtuned heavy stuff too!
Let me know what you think of the Fleetwood in the comments!
Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:
00:00 Introduction to the Fleetwood
01:08 Specs and info
04:47 Today’s rig and plan
05:49 Clean tone reference chords
06:08 Clean tone samples (folk, country, pop, indie, blues, funk, etc.)
08:46 Tone control test
09:55 Bigsby testing riffs
11:00 Indie and alt rock tones
13:48 Volume control roll off test
14:21 Classic rock tones (AC/DC, Hendrix, Airbourne, etc.)
16:31 Hard rock tones
18:12 Punk rock tones
19:06 Progressive and modern rock tones
19:57 Metal/chugging/heavy distortion tones (Drop D tuning)
21:34 My thoughts
22:01 First impressions and looks
22:38 Weight
23:19 Build quality and hardware
24:04 Playability and neck
24:45 Sounds and pickups
27:03 What other similar guitars are out there?
28:36 My conclusions on the Fleetwood and why you should buy it
My setup was as follows: I ran the Fleetwood into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head, also using my Greer Lightspeed, Crazy Tube Circuits Heatseeker, and my Revv G3 pedals for overdrive and heavy distortion sounds, and my Source Audio Collider for some extra reverb and delay. The amp went from the Red Box AE+ DI out straight into my Zoom H6 recorder. That's it. No post-processing on the sounds was done.
Get all this gear at Thomann: thmn.to/thocf/jkhog8l06m
Get all this gear at Sweetwater: sweetwater.sjv.io/LXqdE0
More at Stanford Guitars: stanfordguitars.com/products/cr-fleetwood-kopie?variant=46032850321636
---
Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe.
#StanfordGuitars #StanfordGuitar #StanfordFleetwood #LesPaul #Bigsby #LesPaulBigsby #Goldtop #GoldtopLesPaul #LesPaulGoldtop #RichWordsMusic #iMusicNetwork
*Note: certain links in the description are affiliate links. If you click said links and purchase anything as a result, I will receive a small commission. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, but it does help to support the channel. So, if you do that, thank you very much!*
@iMusicnetworkTV
