A Wonderful Les Paul Junior…a.k.a. "The Baseball Bat"

This super light guitar weighs in at just 6.90 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of 1 11/16 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. This is one of the early versions, with a solid mahogany "slab" body with slightly rounded edges, one-piece mahogany neck with that great '59 "baseball bat" style profile, and Brazilian rosewood fretboard with 22 frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Headstock with "Gibson" logo and "Les Paul Junior" silk-screened in gold. Black plastic bell-shaped truss-rod cover. Closed-back single-line Kluson Deluxe strip tuners with white plastic oval buttons. Serial number ("0 0332") inked-on in black on the back of the headstock. One super hot black P-90 pickup with a huge output of 9.60k. Single-ply tortoiseshell 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 "134 931" (Centralab August 1959). Combination "wrap-over" bar bridge/stud tailpiece. There is a small "extra" strap button hole on the edge of the bass horn, a small amount of fine body checking, a minuscule amount of belt buckle wear on the back of the guitar, and a few very small surface marks on the top and edges of the body. The cherry-red color is really vibrant and there is very little fading to the top of the body, which is only really noticeable when the pickguard is removed. Even with the silly "extra" strap button hole, this guitar is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition. Although the serial number is from early 1960, this wonderful example has all of the features of a '59 -- with a neck to die for, and just about the hottest P-90 (9.60k) that we have ever seen. The sound of this little beastie is quite simply "the bestest"! Housed in a later (ca. 1980) Gibson five-latch brown hardshell case with purple plush lining (9.00).

"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[s] 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).