Gibson Les Paul Junior Vintage

This is an American guitar, made by Gibson. It's a more affordable version of their Les Pauls, which are amazing guitars but are notoriously expensive. Its defining feature is it's single P90 pickup in the bridge position. It has a mahogany neck and body with rosewood fretboard with 22 frets. With just one pickup, it only has one volume and tone control, and no pickup selector switch. There are a variety of finishes that you have to choose from, of which I am not entirely sure, however that is more or less irrelevant to the worth of the guitar from a sonic perspective, which is where I focus my reviews.

UTILIZATION

This guitar plays very beautifully. It's got a lot of versatility to it. It has a nice thick, smooth playability. You can really lay into power chords or even full barre chords nicely. You can also really feel out a nice jazz tune nicely with it, as well as do some chicken-pickin' (aka country playing). Basically I've never had a complaint with the way that it plays, which says a lot about the quality of the wood and the build.

SOUNDS

The only tones you can't capture with it are bright single-coil tones like Strats and Teles, which are basically impossible to replicate with other guitars that use humbuckers. Everything else is pretty much covered, which makes it a great guitar for rock, metal, country, even some jazz and electric blues. It's got a thick, rich tone with a ton of sustain and vibrancy. I prefer to use it with Fender Twins or Marshall tube amps. Metal players could have good results with a Mesa/Boogie.
The obvious drawback to this guitar, however, is that it only comes in a bright, bridge-pickup tone. There is no option for a neck pickup sound, which will give some jazz players a bit of trouble as they prefer the rich warmth of the neck pickup. However, if you simply play rock or punk or something like that, and you have no need of such versatility, this is a great guitar that you can get at about half the price of a comparable Les Paul.

OVERALL OPINION

This is a fantastic guitar. While you can get a decent amount of versatility with it, I don't really think I would use it for more clean sounds that need the neck pickup. However, plenty of rockers will find it more than capable. Great for hardcore, punk, some metal, and straight-ahead rockers, and certainly affordable, this was a great call by Gibson.

The Gibson Les Paul Junior was a guitar that had been on my watchlist for some time. Time and time again I would see many great classic and hard rock musicians using these guitars and I would marvel at the thick and ballsy tone that they got out of slab of mahogany with a since P90. So, when the chance came up to grab one after about ten years of admiring them, I went for it. The details on mine specifically are that is was a 2009 Gibson USA Les Paul Junior Satin in the Worn Cherry finish (It was a matte 'satin' finish that was very soft to the touch.) It had a mahogany body and neck, a rosewood fretboard with 22 frets, Kluson Deluxe "tulip button" tuners, wraparound tailpiece, a single P90 pickup in the bridge position, and it was capped off with just a single set of one volume and one tone control. It certainly isn't the most feature-laden guitar out there, but the versatility that lies within that single pickup and control set is absolutely staggering.

There isn't really much more to be said about the features, so I'll cap if off by saying that a simple guitar will get a simple review of the features! Part of me wished at times that it had a P90 in the neck position as well to maybe add some more versatility, but as stock it sounded really quite good.

UTILIZATION

The design of this guitar is basic Les Paul fare. It's a little bit lighter than the average maple topped Standard (and lacks the binding and some of the other aesthetic accoutrements as well.) As a result of this, the design isn't the most ergonomic in the world. It's a bit more manageable than it's maple topped brethren, but it may still be odd to get used to if you're not normally a Les Paul player. The upper fret access on this guitar was decent. Quite honestly, LP's don't have the greatest upper fret access in the world (not like say, a nice superstrat), but it's not that much of a deal-breaker for me. As a side note, by the time that I sold this guitar, I'd really learned to make it work for me as far as playing it.

I should mention that the whole guitar (not just the body) is finished in a satin/matte lacquer, which makes it very easy to go up and down the neck whether playing rhythm or lead. This factor, combined with the absolutely scorching tone from the P90 pickup made me want to play at warp speed most of the time. That being said, it was extremely easy to get a wide variety of tones from that single pickup. Using my volume and tone controls, I was able to very easily alter the tonal spectrum and go from clean to semi-dirty to full out rock with only the volume control and no channel switching from my amp! A great thing about the P90 pickup is that it combines the dynamics and punch factor of a single coil with the output and balls of a humbucker (in my opinion anyway.) Because of this, I was able to do what I mentioned above. I very rarely had to worry about switching channels or turning effects on or off because I knew I could control the essence of the tones from my guitar... very cool!

SOUNDS

When I had the LP Junior, I was using a whole variety of amps. However, the longest running combination (and one of the best I've had, oddly enough) was that guitar straight into an older Peavey Classic 50 2x12 combo. I was playing in a classic/hard rock band at the time and I found the tones that this rig offered to be exactly what the doctor ordered. It meshed very well in a band mix and provided a great contrast to my main guitar at the time, a Les Paul Traditional Plus. Even as I tried it through different amps (Mesa Studio Preamp, Genz Benz El Diablo 60C, etc), that great raw tone was always there. I found it was best with a nice British voiced high gain tone that would allow me to turn down to about 2-3 to get some semi-clean tones, up to 5-6 for my rhythm tone (think classic Thin Lizzy or Mountain) and then up to 10 for that blast of sheer sonic bliss that served as my lead tone (think classic LA hot rodded Marshall tones... Whitesnake, Ratt, LA Guns, GnR.)

All in all, I felt that the Junior was definitely one of the best sounding guitars that I've owned, and like I stated above, the only thing that I felt would've made it better might have been a neck position P90 pickup just to allow some more tones that might fit the jazzier or smoky blues realm, or even to do some cleaner voiced things... but all in all for being only a one pickup guitar, the amount of tones I was able to from the guitar was pretty respectable.

OVERALL OPINION

The Les Paul Junior is a guitar that most people pass over because of it's low price or lack of serious flashiness as far as its looks go, but I encourage you to try one if you get the chance. They're a great value in the market and if you're a rock, blues, country, or whatever player and want a guitar that will give you a tone that is very raw and pure plus sounds different from your typical Les Paul Standard or Custom, the Junior (or its sister, the dual P90 equipped Special) are worth a serious look. I sold mine to fund another purchase but have regretted it quite a bit since, and I definitely plan to purchase another similar one down the line. The tones are second to none if you're after that specific sound and if it's good enough for players like Montrose or Leslie West... it's gotta be good, right? In this case, the guitar definitely is worthy of the saying "Less is more."

Gibson USA
21 frets
simple bridge gibson
2 settings
small round modren for Junior 2001 and the 57 custom for a little more rounded but thin enough so

UTILIZATION

Channel pleasant
difficult as access to all acute lespaul is done to make ps Satriani, Led Zeppelin's if one is strong, that's not bad, especially for trees ryhtmique good punk rock and rock'n'roll.
weight is more than resonance (I had a custom black beauty which was very heavy)
for her it must be tame.
I have two: a custom shop and a simple sunburst 57, 2001 in Black:
2001 is the most glaring over fishing but much less precise than the 57 '

SOUNDS

Elllconvient is my style (punk rock) but can adapt to other styles, taking his time to search for sounds.
I play with a marshall JCM800 head in distortion, no effects just a boost and uen wah on some tracks.
I get an disto its very pretty vintage medium (eg Johnny Thunders)
I like their sound less clear, they are not made for that, but you can get a good result by trying ...

OVERALL OPINION

I have the 2001 for 3 years and 57 'for 2 years around, they are great at the beginning it was a bit disappointed because ells are simple (I owned a custom, the studio wahsburn pro, ibanez musician) but falls quickly in love with these models, I no longer play with them my reissue 57 'is just fabulous, it is expensive in France, I did return from the USA for 1850 euros and 2001 I have for 400 euro new (great deal, guitar won in a game)
I swear by them, I sold all my other guitars (not always easy it attaches).

Made in USA and all black.
1 micro P90
Simple bridge
1 volume, 1 tone
22 frets
Mechanical quite light but accurate.
Varnished handle means.
Marks round boxes.
No frills and stuff.
Mahogany! Although heavy.

UTILIZATION

The neck is nice and fine, although I aurra preferred a little wider. The frets are prominent. Access to acute is not good. It is a guitar heavy even without a table, but I like, we feel it. The ergonomics are very good, the body is small, the short handle, and is well balanced, it is in any position at stake standing but tends to fall slightly backwards in the sitting game. The tone knob does that about 3 possibilities: low and muffled - balanced - a scathing but you can play with the volume and suddenly change a little. Tone and volume to 6 thoroughly clean sound is ... perfect. The tuners are a little afraid.

SOUNDS

Rather whether it suits my musical style, say that I adapted it to my guitar. So it suits me. I play the new wave in general, or almost no effect (for now). In its disto I often play on a Fender bass amp (for now), nice attack, but its not super super distortion pedal because Marshall bof bof. Otherwise I play in a home studio in clear and puts a virtual distortion retro then. I like to play raw, and also I believe. It is raw and pretty darn effective. She flatters and breaks ears simultaneously. Tanto it sounds almost without being noticed, it sounds like a tanto pan. Whether plain or distortion.
In fact, the game without connecting it is a treat.

OVERALL OPINION

I've had two years. Black is a bit ugly and it would be better now in sunburst. But it is simple, the "log" what. It is compact, fine. I preferred a faded SG and a Telecaster.