gringopig's guitars
1959 Gibson Les Paul Junior Double Cut
Starting out as a single cut model in 1954 and marketed towards students and beginners, the model soon was changed in 1958 to the double cut version, mirroring the double cut looks of the Fender Stratocaster. Finishes were cherry and, rarely, TV Yellow and the Junior featured a single classic P90 pickup and a wrap around bridge. It has become a classic in time and highly regarded!
The Les Paul junior started out looking quite different and was basically a budget version of the Les Paul Standard but cut down in terms of features. No binding, no added top, a single P90 pickup and a simple wrap around bridge which was also shared by its more expensive brother. It looked like this:
Quite a simple layout. A single pickup with volume and tone controls and a big thick slab of mahogany. Cheaper tuners too with 3 on a plate layout and simple plastic buttons. In fact, it featured everything you needed for pure function and no frills.
As you can sort of see from the image above, there was a problem however. The bridge was sited very close to the pickup and with the use of short tailpiece studs, there was a tendency for the bridge to lean and crack the wood between the studs and the rout for the pickup. This is common for the early models but was rectified in early 1956 with longer studs and a bigger gap between the bridge and the P90.
Apart from this, the model remained unchanged through to 1958.
You can see 2 early models in the upper section and 3 later ones above, including a TV Yellow model which was a custom colour offered by Gibson.
The model that replaced the single cut Junior in 1958 was the double cut version and this was largely the same functionally. Same slab of mahogany but now mirroring the Fender Stratocaster's double horns. It was available in cherry aniline finish and rarely, TV Yellow. I have never seen a sunburst one personally.
My friend Brian has a 1959 and I own a 2019 '58 Junior re-issue from Gibson's Custom Shop and I have done a comparison video but the opportunity arose to buy my own 1959 from ATB guitars. It never made the website. I saw it on Instagram and it was very unfaded and pretty clean so I bought it by contacting Steve Hove who took over ATB from Mike Long.
Thanks to Steve and ATB guitars for a great service.
The tuners are replacements as I imagine the tuner buttons rotted out as they do but they are a set of aged Kluson tuners of the correct type. The Brazilian board is nice and if it has been re-fretted it's been done so well that it is hard to notice. I think, as does Steve, that it has original frets. In fact, apart from the tuners, it's all original. I did notice a weird volume pot with an access hole for lubrication and apparently it's a Mallory type and occasionally used by Gibson in the late '50's.
The important thing is that it sounds absolutely amazing! It really puts my re-issue to shame. It has a bigger neck than my Friend's '59 but his is later '59 so mine is on the way from the ticker '58 neck to a more compact '59 neck shape. Very comfortable though and a bit slimmer than my custom shop '58 re-issue.
I'm sure it's the wood that makes it so great: a slab of Honduran mahogany and you can feen the whole thing vibrating as you play. Plus the P90 is strong and quite characterful. It sounds more bouncy under the fingers than the re-issue and has more bass and more treble. Hard to describe how different it is but I love it!
I did a demo with the 2 guitars for you to hear at the bottom of the page.
Click on gallery for larger version
