Featuring the same construction as the guitar made from 1958 until the introduction of the SG body shape in 1961, this custom shop guitar features a single 'dog-ear' P90, a one piece mahogany body and a simple one volume, one tone arrangement that is quite the versatile combo.

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It's not that it is versatile per se; a Les Paul model with 2 humbuckers has the same base arrangement and if you select the bridge pickup, you can do the same things on that as you can on the junior. It's just that the junior forces you to do it! With no neck pickup, it's actually less distracting once you realise there is nothing to switch to and therefore you are forced to balance the 2 controls to get different tones.

It works! You always hear about 'all the tones' available but that's not really true. You can change the tone from an unimpeded signal to a faux neck pickup sound and the variations between the 2 controls yield a great deal of change depending on how you balance the pots. The tone control sounds different through the sweep with every change in the volume control.

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It's very satisfying.

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Another aspect is the magnetic pull of the neck pickup isn't there to affect the strings' vibration. The pickup, even when off, will resist the movement of the string into the magnetic field and it is said that single pickup guitars have a different sound due to this missing factor. The neck pickup is also nearer the full wave string excursion so by not being there,  this may indeed make a difference to the quality of the sound.

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I replaced the 2 potentiometers with a 500k SVT volume and a TVT tone from Crazyparts. The stock volume had a notch in it between 9 and 10 and it also only really was effective between 10 and 7, so not ideal for a single pickup guitar like this. The SVT purports to have a 'soft vintage taper' and indeed, it rolls off evenly to allow the range to be spread across the travel.

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I also replaced the wraparound bridge with a Mojoaxe compensated aged nickel one which works well but, actually, the uncompensated one worked well too but I had bought it expecting to need it. I used it anyway.

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The neck is worth a mention. You like fat necks? You despise weedy thin stick like constructions that cramp the hand within minutes of starting to play? Worry no more! Gibson have recreated the '58 neck for this Junior. Not as massive as the '57 Goldtop but not far off it to be honest. A big neck. You either like that or you don't. For me, the problem is necks that are too thin. My '65 Hagstrom was like that. It was great but that neck was so super skinny it actually made my hand ache within 5 minutes. It was so frustrating. I had to sell it as, for me, it was unplayable. Pity.

It went back to Sweden, so it turned out OK.

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