gringopig's guitars
1957 Gibson Les Paul Junior Double Cut
This is the immediate predecessor to the Double Cut Les Paul Junior released in 1958. This single cut-away model was first released in 1954, 2 years after the Les Paul Standard model and it fulfilled the requirement for an entry level guitar. It remained largely unchanged until 1958 and was seen in sunburst; as seen here and TV yellow.
You can see the similarity to the first year Les Paul except for the cosy cutting absence of binding, the fancy tailpiece and the second neck pickup.
This shares the layout of the subsequent double cut model. Set neck, solid one piece body made from old growth Honduran mahogany and one simple P90 pickup in the important location and a simple but really effective wraparound tailpiece/bridge arrangement.
These Juniors found great favour from established players in the years following. You have seen them played on stages all over the world.
I purchased this at Olivia's Vintage in the United States and many thanks to Joseph for selling it to me.
It's all original but for the tuners which are double line Klusons from slightly later. The originals would have been single line tuners like this:
These tuners can suffer from the plastic rot that affects older tuner buttons and someone has replaced the original tuners with ones from mid 1960 to about 1964. They work well and have the brass tuner posts which I like. I have a few sets of tuners coming and I will see what they are like if I decide to change the tuners on the double cut which has new but aged Gotoh Kluson reproduction tuners on.
Click on gallery for larger version
It's a great sounding guitar and apart from the tuners, all original. Original pots and bumblebee cap as can be seen in the photo gallery and the original frets which are all good but the smaller variant which changed in time for the '59 double cut which has medium jumbos as standard.
It's also in great condition and the neck is quite chunky indeed - a full C shape which changed again towards 1959. My '59 neck is smaller and my friend's '59 smaller still but is later 1959.
I did a demo and you can hear the Junior in action below:
