'Under The Bed' For Over Fifty Years - A Near Mint '59 Les Paul Junior

This super light guitar weighs just 6.70 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of 1 11/16 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Solid mahogany body with rounded edges, one-piece mahogany neck with that great '59 "baseball bat" style profile, and Brazilian rosewood fretboard with 22 original jumbo frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Headstock with "Gibson" logo and "Les Paul / Model" silk-screened in gold. Black plastic bell-shaped truss-rod cover with two screws. Closed-back single-line Kluson Deluxe strip tuners with white plastic oval buttons. Serial number "921668" inked-on in black on the back of the headstock. One super hot black P-90 pickup with a huge output of 8.28k. Black plastic pickup cover stamped on the underside "UC - 450 - 1 / 2". Single-ply black plastic (0.12 inches thick) pickguard with four screws. Two controls (one volume, one tone) on the lower treble bout. Black plastic bell-shaped "Bell" knobs. The potentiometers are stamped "134 914" (Centralab April 1959) and the capacitor is the requisite 'Bumble-Bee' type. Combination "wrap-over" bar bridge/stud tailpiece. There is absolutely no belt buckle wear on the back of the guitar - just some fine finish checking and a small surface 'ding' (slightly larger than a match-head in the center of the back. There are three very small surface chips on the lower edge of the body near the jack input. The top of the body also has some very fine finish checking. Otherwise this incredible fifty-one year old 'under-the-bed' guitar is in totally mint as new condition. The original frets show just a miniscule amount of playing wear, the fretboard shows no wear. The rich cherry finish has not faded in the slightest and there are absolutely no surface marks on the back of neck or on the headstock. This is quite simply the finest example of a '59 TV Junior (with a neck to die for) that we have ever seen and therefore our rating of near mint (9.25) condition is fairly conservative. We calculate the month of production to be August 1959 - as from the Gibson records we know that serial #922544 was shipped on 1st September, 1959. The sound of this little beastie is also quite simply "the bestest"! Housed in the original Gibson brown 'Alligator' softshell case with brown felt lining (9.25). Included in the case is the original receipt from October 23rd, 1959 (a huge $133.50 including the case) and also the original stop-tail/bridge allan key adjuster for the intonation - in its original tan envelope. This little guitar truly is "Back to the Future".

"In mid-1958 an extensive body redesign brought about a novel double cutaway shape permitting complete access to the entire fingerboard via a neck-to-body junction at the 22nd fret. Contrary to what appearances might suggest, this redesign did not alter the overall body dimensions. But in the process the standard finish was changed from sunburst to cherry red… " (A.R. Duchossoir, Gibson Electrics. The Classic Years, p. 205-206).

"Ted McCarty explained the re-design as a reaction to player's requests. "They wanted to be able to thumb the sixth string," he said, "but they couldn't do it if the only cutaway was over on the treble side. So we made them with another cutaway, so they could get up there. We did things that the players wanted, as much as anything." The Junior's fresh look was enhanced with a new cherry red finish. (Tony Bacon, 50 Years of the Gibson Les Paul, pp. 33 & 36).

The 'double-cut' Gibson Les Paul Junior was the favorite choice of many great guitarists including (in alphabetical order) Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day); Mick Box (Uriah Heep); Allen Collins (Lynyrd Skynyrd); Mick Jones (The Clash); Mick Ralphs (Bad Company); Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones) and Leslie West (Mountain).