The amber cap is exactly what gibson used on the original guitars back in the fifties. And yes, it has threads. I use these caps on all my historic reissue gibson guitars because the toggle caps that come with the historic reissue guitars today are light brown and not amber like the originals. These ARE Original Gibson parts. If you put these on other brand guitars you're obviously going to find an imperfect match for your guitar. If you want an original gibson toggle cap from the fifties (like your '59 les paul)... this is it! I love them and won't use anything else.

Buyer beware this replacement cap is not for Gibson and Epi guitars made in the last decade as they started using different toggle switches. The new switches have caps that thread on, but this cap is made to snap on and has a wider base like the one on the original toggle switches.

switch caps with no threads = junk.