A Wonderful Early '59 Les Paul Junior… a.k.a. 'The Baseball Bat'

This super little guitar weighs in at just 7.10 lbs. and has that great baseball-bat '59 neck with a nice, fat nut width of 1 11/16 inches and standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. One of the earliest versions with a solid mahogany 'slab' body (with less rounded edges), one piece mahogany neck, and rosewood fretboard with 22 frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Gold silk-screened "Gibson" logo and "Les Paul Junior" on headstock. Closed-back strip tuners with white plastic oval buttons. Serial number "9 7819" stamped in black on back of headstock. One black P-90 pickup with a huge output of 9.01k. Single-ply tortoiseshell pickguard. Two controls (one volume, one tone) with black plastic bell-shaped "Bell" knobs. The potentiometers are stamped "134 841" (Centralab October 1958). Combination "wrap-over" bar bridge/tailpiece. One small indentation on top just above the volume control, a few other minor dings, and some good honest playing wera on the borrom edge. Otherwise an exceptionally fine example, totally original and almost unfaded. Housed in its original "alligator" softshell case (worn).

"Body style change to symmetrical rounded double cutaways, thick slab mahogany body, cherry red finish around serial number "8 49xx" (but note that single cutaway Junior have been seen as late as 1959). The peghead still says "Les Paul Junior", but often this body style is referred to as the "Les Paul SG" body style. The first few batches of 1958 double cutaway Les Paul Juniors had a noticably sharper body edge. Also in late 1958/early 1959 there were some 4-digit serial number Juniors and Specials (all with 6000 to 7000 serial numbers like 6264 and 7234, with no "8" or "9" as the leading digit). Pickguard changes to single ply tortoise, but either a black pickguard or a tortoise pickguard can be seen until late 1959/early 1960. The serial number color changed from a yellow inkstamp to a black inkstamp on the cherry red models, but some early 1958 cherry Juniors still had a yellow serial number. Again some early 1958 cherry Juniors have a slightly different pickguard shape with the bass-side of the pickguard going up the cutaway horn slightly (instead of being rounded). And finally early 1958 cherry Juniors have a more slab style body with less rounded edges" (http://www.provide.net/~cfh/gibson5.html).

"In 1958 Gibson made a radical design change to three of the Les Paul models, and a cosmetic alteration to another. The Junior, Junior 3/4 and TV were revamped with a completely new double-cutaway body shape. 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 and 36).

"Even in double-cutaway style, the Junior retained its charming simplicity. It is, if you like, the Fender Telecaster of the Gibson line: the guitar for the player who is fed up with all those over-complicated instruments out there and instead seeks heads-down no-nonsense boogie" (Tony Bacon, 50 Years of the Gibson Les Paul, p. 31).