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Hatsubai « Decent guitar for the price »
Published on 11/20/11 at 15:55If anybody wanted a decent double cut Junior, they'd probably start looking into the faded series. The faded series was a line that Gibson had to help cut down on costs but still deliver quality tone. The guitar features a mahogany body with a maple top, mahogany neck with a rosewood fretboard, 22 frets, trapezoid inlays, pickguard, binding, hard tail bridge, one P90 in the bridge, one volume and tone tone.
UTILIZATION
Les Paul Juniors aren't generally my thing. I tend to find them a bit thin sounding, and they lack the overall aggressiveness that the normal Les Paul has. These faded series are decent, but there are some dogs out there, so you have to keep that in mind. The fretwork was decent on this, but it could have used a nice fret level. The nut was cut properly, so no issues there. The guitar was balanced decently, unlike a lot of the SGs that Gibson tends to make. The finish wasn't bad, but I would have liked a few more options. The rest of the guitar was decent, albeit a bit bare overall.
SOUNDS
There is only one P90 pickup in this guitar, and it's very limited in the overall tones you can get. I tend to find single humbucker pickups to be a bit lacking in versatility, but at least they can be split and/or wired in different formats to get different tones. With this, you can't really do much as P90s are single/dual conductor pickups. The pickup itself was decent, but it was nothing mind blowing. I can think of a few other P90s out there that sound better than this particular one. The good news is that the guitar was at least resonant, so there were no real issues with the actual guitar itself.
OVERALL OPINION
If you're looking for a Les Paul Junior on the cheap, these can be a pretty decent buy. I don't exactly recommend them, but that's because I'm not a huge fan of Juniors to begin with. They can be decent players, but tone wise, I find that a P90 equipped Les Paul just blows these out of the water in every possible way.
UTILIZATION
Les Paul Juniors aren't generally my thing. I tend to find them a bit thin sounding, and they lack the overall aggressiveness that the normal Les Paul has. These faded series are decent, but there are some dogs out there, so you have to keep that in mind. The fretwork was decent on this, but it could have used a nice fret level. The nut was cut properly, so no issues there. The guitar was balanced decently, unlike a lot of the SGs that Gibson tends to make. The finish wasn't bad, but I would have liked a few more options. The rest of the guitar was decent, albeit a bit bare overall.
SOUNDS
There is only one P90 pickup in this guitar, and it's very limited in the overall tones you can get. I tend to find single humbucker pickups to be a bit lacking in versatility, but at least they can be split and/or wired in different formats to get different tones. With this, you can't really do much as P90s are single/dual conductor pickups. The pickup itself was decent, but it was nothing mind blowing. I can think of a few other P90s out there that sound better than this particular one. The good news is that the guitar was at least resonant, so there were no real issues with the actual guitar itself.
OVERALL OPINION
If you're looking for a Les Paul Junior on the cheap, these can be a pretty decent buy. I don't exactly recommend them, but that's because I'm not a huge fan of Juniors to begin with. They can be decent players, but tone wise, I find that a P90 equipped Les Paul just blows these out of the water in every possible way.