Les Paul Junior 1958 Review

Since this is the best guitar I've ever tried, whith that I mean it fits perfectlly for rock/alternative/punk/hardrock. This Guitar is perfect for any rockstyle, from heavy overdrive to a clean ballad.

Features:	10
Sound:	9
Action:	10
Reliability:	9
Impression:	10
Overall rating:	9.1
Reviewer rating:	9.6
Users rating:	8.5
Votes:	20

overall: 9.6

Reviewed by: Sandies90, on august 22, 2011

Price paid: $ 1000

Purchased from: Musikbörsen Sweden (4Sound)

Features: - Made: 2010 in U.S.A.
- Frets: 22, Dot Inlays, 628mm scale, 43mm nut width
- Wood: mahogany body, set mahogany neck, palisander fretboard
- Finish: Satin Cherry
- Body Style: Les Paul Junior
- Bridge: Wrap-around bridge
- Electronics: Passive
- Pickup: Gibson P-90, With Dogear
- Tuners: Non-locking, Gibson Deluxe
- Accessories included: Gigbag. // 10

Sound: This Guitar is perfect for any rockstyle, from heavy overdrive to a clean ballad. I use this guitar with an Marshall Valvestate VS100R and I just love the sound. The biggest drawback with the sound should be that it's very noisy, due to the P-90 pickup that picks up more noise than a singlecoil or humbucker. // 9

Action, Fit & Finish: The only thing that I think is worth mentioning here is that the paint is that kind that easily fall of, and makes the guitar look "used" and old, but personally, I find that nice on guitars, though I've had this guitar for 6 months and no paint has been falling of jet. // 10

Reliability & Durability: I would highly recommand to use this guitar live, but remember to buy straplocks becouse the strap in the upper end is easy to fall of. I would therefore used this guitar without a backup, I find it very reliabel, and even the volumecontrol is able to stop the signal completly. That's the quality of Gibson! // 9

Impression: Since this is the best guitar I've ever tried, whith that I mean it fits perfectlly for rock/alternative/punk/hardrock. I've been playing for 5 years and I've been wanting to buy this guitar for 3 years before I got both money and curage. If it where lost/stolen, I would without a doubt in my mind buy a new one, allthough it would take some time to get the money. // 10

Comments

[R0B0_Ninja]

I'll be as polite as possible:

A guitar with only 1 pick-up, non-locking tuners and a fixed bridge probably shouldn't get a 10 in "features".

This guitar has less features than a telecaster which most consider a basic guitar

[LeakyFlask]

^True, it's a simple no frills guitar. Good, and of high quality most likely, but not really full featured.

[thejester]

^^ but why do features have to have all that stuff. it is based on a 1958 guitar when that stuff wasnt invented. thus for what it is modeled after it has all the features. not every guitar has to have a floyd rose, locking tuners, coil tapping, three pickups. not hurting on your comment but this is all up to personal preference

[MaggaraMarine]

R0B0_Ninja wrote:

I'll be as polite as possible:

A guitar with only 1 pick-up, non-locking tuners and a fixed bridge probably shouldn't get a 10 in "features".

This guitar has less features than a telecaster which most consider a basic guitar

Agreeing with you

thejester wrote:

^^ but why do features have to have all that stuff. it is based on a 1958 guitar when that stuff wasnt invented. thus for what it is modeled after it has all the features. not every guitar has to have a floyd rose, locking tuners, coil tapping, three pickups. not hurting on your comment but this is all up to personal preference

but agreeing with you too. If the reviewer doesn't need anything else then it's 10. But he doesn't comment the features, it's just 10 without any explanations.

[g0dd4rd]

please do proof reading before you submit a review...

[LeakyFlask]

thejester wrote:

^^ but why do features have to have all that stuff. it is based on a 1958 guitar when that stuff wasnt invented. thus for what it is modeled after it has all the features. not every guitar has to have a floyd rose, locking tuners, coil tapping, three pickups. not hurting on your comment but this is all up to personal preference

You make a valid point. I'd also like to see coil tapping on a P90!

[IGotIssues]

falling of jet

[lifesglorydead]

thejester wrote:

^^ but why do features have to have all that stuff. it is based on a 1958 guitar when that stuff wasnt invented. thus for what it is modeled after it has all the features. not every guitar has to have a floyd rose, locking tuners, coil tapping, three pickups. not hurting on your comment but this is all up to personal preference

Um... wrong. Dead wrong. I'm not even gonna explain it. Google is your friend.

[dethklok2393]

Why pay $1000 for a junior model when you can buy a much better guitar for the same price and better hardware and just for a couple mor hundred dollars ypu can buy a real les paul

[Xelested]

thejester wrote:

^^ but why do features have to have all that stuff. it is based on a 1958 guitar when that stuff wasnt invented. thus for what it is modeled after it has all the features. not every guitar has to have a floyd rose, locking tuners, coil tapping, three pickups. not hurting on your comment but this is all up to personal preference

When you review something you are supposed to think outside your own head, think subjectively. This guitar clearly lacks even the most basic features, so no matter what you think, it still doesn't deserve a 10 from features.

[Jgomez26]

dethklok2393 wrote:

Why pay $1000 for a junior model when you can buy a much better guitar for the same price and better hardware and just for a couple mor hundred dollars ypu can buy a real les paul

Preference my friend, preference

[LeakyFlask]

dethklok2393 wrote:

Why pay $1000 for a junior model when you can buy a much better guitar for the same price and better hardware and just for a couple mor hundred dollars ypu can buy a real les paul

I'd rather have a Junior, at least if it's a doublecut, than a Standard, it's just more suited for me. But really, a guitar with a wraparound bridge should not be given a ten in features. And that's really my main gripe with it, if only it came with a TOM it would have been pretty great.

[KenG]

lifesglorydead wrote:

thejester wrote:

^^ but why do features have to have all that stuff. it is based on a 1958 guitar when that stuff wasnt invented. thus for what it is modeled after it has all the features. not every guitar has to have a floyd rose, locking tuners, coil tapping, three pickups. not hurting on your comment but this is all up to personal preference

Um... wrong. Dead wrong. I'm not even gonna explain it. Google is your friend.

I disagree. If qty of features was the only criteria for judging, then a floyd rose equipped guitar with more knobs and buttons or pus must score higher than a simpler guitar, and that should not be the case.
I think the rating should be based on the perfomrance of the features that are present. So if you did have a floyd rose but a crappy one, or some funky tone circuit but it performed poorly, the review & score would reflect that. Lots of cheap ass guitars out there that sound good 'on paper' but don't really deliver the goods.

[jon.peebles]

I'd also like to see coil tapping on a P90!

P90's only use one coil. They can't be coil tapped.

[Weybl Himself]

Great guitar, but disgustingly overpriced. A friend of mine who works for Maton here in Aus built me one of these which plays as well and sounds as good as any Gibson LP Junior I've played and it only cost me $400AUD. Including paying both my friend and the paint-shop guy for their work.

Obviously not everyone knows a guitar builder and has that option but I just think that's still a pretty vicious mark-up for what is the guitar equivalent of a hammer.

[KenG]

Weybl Himself wrote:

Great guitar, but disgustingly overpriced. A friend of mine who works for Maton here in Aus built me one of these which plays as well and sounds as good as any Gibson LP Junior I've played and it only cost me $400AUD. Including paying both my friend and the paint-shop guy for their work.

Obviously not everyone knows a guitar builder and has that option but I just think that's still a pretty vicious mark-up for what is the guitar equivalent of a hammer.

While you can get a good guitar froma relatively unknown builder resale value is non-extistent. Not sure about Hammers now but in the late 70's they were a serious, well built alternative. Endorsed at the time by Howard Leese of Heart for one.

[Ziggity]

I have never liked the look of any white guitar until I had seen this one in white

[wolvenrick]

features in this case should be looked at quality-wise. are the features good for the money and do they work properly is what you should ask yourself. now about the marks, they've never been truthfully fact-based.
as for the most basic guitar, i wouldn't name the telecaster the most basic. in my opinion the basic guitar should be seen as a gibson les paul or fender stratocaster with they traditional building style.

to the guy writing the review: the volume control is really meant to take the signal away, if it doesn't do that get a new guitar under your warranty because it will be broken in that case.

i like to read more about the dynamics of the p90 on the review. how does the pickup change when turning the volume. is it just on and off and nothing in between? or is this one of those p90's that is really versatile.

[Sandies90]

thejester wrote:
"but this is all up to personal preference"

That's what I thought to I like this guitar and just thought I would share that with people since I didn't see any review on this guitar at all, and It's not that rare.

Ziggity wrote:

I have never liked the look of any white guitar until I had seen this one in white

This one is Satin red actually, they just didn't have a picture on it I guess

---
And to everyone else who thinkt it's overprice:

I bought it for 1000$, it is that expencive to be a musician in Sweden. You will be able to find it cheaper in the U.S. or the German website http://www.thomann.de I just don't like having stuff like that sent cuz of warrenty. If somethings wrong with it I would rather go to a store where I meet all the people handeling it and not send it at a high shipping cost.

And like all other markets you don't pay for just the product, you pay for the brand to, like Nike, or we say Microsoft Windows/Apple Mac. You be just as happy with a Linux PC as with a Windows.

[LeakyFlask]

jon.peebles wrote:

I'd also like to see coil tapping on a P90!

P90's only use one coil. They can't be coil tapped.

Yeah, that was kind of my point.

Sandies90 wrote:
You be just as happy with a Linux PC as with a Windows.

Well, I wouldn't say it's quite as easy as that. They are two very different operating systems, but it is true that with WINE you could probably run a whole heap of windows software, if a Linux version is not available.

[Sandies90]

LeakyFlask wrote:

Well, I wouldn't say it's quite as easy as that. They are two very different operating systems, but it is true that with WINE you could probably run a whole heap of windows software, if a Linux version is not available.

The point was that the brand name makes it more expensive than it have to be.

[SwitchFender]

nd thats why im opting to build on instead for probably no more than 300 bucks