Gibson Review: Les Paul Junior

History:

Purchase: I aquired this guitar because it was the best deal on an American made Gibson instrument at the time; $450 no tax or shipping, from Musicians Friend.

What I Like About This Gibson Les Paul Junior: This is a great guitar. It is very simple, only one p-90 pickup. The tone and volume knobs are great they give you a lot of control over the sound. The stop-bar bridge is not as good as a tune-o-matic, but it is historically accurate and serves the purpose fine. The neck is also very nice. I love the quality of the rosewood in the fretboard. The all mahagony body and neck create a great tone and sustain, rings like a bell though too high sounding for lots of modern music. You can adjust to get a better tone for metal though, heck lots of artists have used this guitar.

What I Do NOT Like About The Gibson Les Paul Junior: I don't like the frets they are not rounded off enough, they are old school, but can make sliding accurately difficult. I also don't like the look of the tuning pegs, they ar the small plastic old school ones. The gear ratio is also too high from the factory on the tuners for my tastes, you have to continually over and undershoot the target note. The tuners are good, however, and to the people who judge a tuner by how long they can go without tuning I say that you should tune your guitar everytime you take it out of the case or off the stand to play a new session. No tuner should take the place of tuning your guitar.

Gibson Les Paul Junior Quality Rating: The contruction of the unit is great because it was hand made in the USA. The finish is kinda thick, but very nice looking. Again, the quality of the wood is great and the electronics seem pretty good. I don't like the style of the truss rod, but that is ok, it doesn't really need that much neck adjustment and when it does it will suffice. Overall, excellent.

Review Summary: Overall, this a great simple, well made guitar. Has very much a P-90 sound, but I like that for blues-rock which is what I mostly play. With effects guitars kinda even out anyway, so for effects people the quality of the construction and the low price should appeal. The best value you can get unless you get the SG Junior, which is cheaper. A great guitar, highly recommended.

Rating of this Gibson product: 4

This Gibson Les Paul Junior Electric Guitars Review Submitted By: Schindiddy

Review Date: 2003-09-16