Gibson Le Les Paul Jr Single Coil Review

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Altin lives for guitar; grabbing his dear guitar is 1 of the first things he does when he hops out of bed in the morning. But, he isn't just defended to continuing to grow as a musician himself. Instead, he wants to help other people flourish playing the guitar too. It e'er makes Altin sorry when he sees musicians with potential give up on playing considering they get frustrated. After watching one besides many people put downward their guitar forever, he'south now dedicated himself to helping every beginner guitarist he can learn how to master their struggles.

The Les Paul Junior holds a special identify in the wide variety of vintage guitars. Initially launched as a student model in the fifty's, the single pickup's minimalist design made information technology in the hands of guitar legends that congenital a legacy in dejection, classic rock, and punk. This Les Paul Junior Review and Guide will come in handy for everyone considering buying the vintage classic or modernistic reissues.

My Bottom Line up Front: A Les Paul Junior is an iconic model, the simplicity of which makes it unique in design and tone. With only one single P90 bridge pickup, super lightweight body, and short scale, like shooting fish in a barrel to play cervix, this guitar is perfect for rock, blues, country, etc.

It has a punchy tone with lots of bite. Information technology sounds aggressive on loftier gain and cleans up perfectly to an almost acoustic-like sound. The book and tone command, when tweaked accordingly, can produce a wide variety of tones, compensating somehow for the lack of the Cervix Pickup.

Equally a studio guitarist that has played many guitars during the years, I can say upfront that the Les Paul Junior is a guitar that delivers and has tons of character

The Les Paul Junior Specifications

All Mahogany body and Neck
Gloss Finish
Single Cutaway join cervix body
25.75 Scale length and 12" fingerboard radius
Rosewood fingerboard with 22 medium Colossal frets
Typical Gibson shaped headstock
Wraparound bridge, Graph Tech Nut, and Plastic pickguard (Tortoiseshell in some models)
Single P-90 Cervix Pickup
ane book and tone control with hand-wired Capacitors

The Les Paul Junior Pros

It'due south lightweight and easy to play.
Features authentic vintage P90 tone and pattern
Information technology's a quality congenital and reliable for the route
The volume and tone controls make information technology a versatile rock guitar
The crunchy and clean tones are especially excellent

The Les Paul Junior Cons

The lack of a cervix pickup makes it not a slap-up choice for modern genres
The P90 is not a noiseless pickups
The neck joint is more delicate compared to similar quality guitars

About Junior Guitars

Later on the success of the Les Paul Gold Acme in the 50's Gibson immediately started working on expanding their line of guitars. The starting time guitars released were the Les Paul Custom Les Paul TV model and the pupil-oriented Inferior.

Les Paul Inferior'due south were designed to offer maximum playability with the least costs possible. With only one P-90 pickup on the bridge, one tone, and volume control in a unmarried-cutaway solid torso, the guitars were as simple as they could get and sold at the time for 99$. The model was an immediate hit for beginners and the likes of John Lennon, Mick Jones, and many others.

The simplicity fabricated the guitars unique, especially on high gain amps, where the bite and versatility of the single pickups became apparent.

Several models, including a double-cutaway torso and a "special" serial with two P-xc'south, were released until discontinued in 1963. Luckily you can go your hands on a new model every bit the guitar was re-released in 2001 with several new variations.

The Les Paul Inferior Tone

The most critical chemical element of the Junior is the Unmarried P-xc bridge pickups that take a ton of bite and attack only can clean upward nicely to sparkling clean.

P90'due south were and so widely used for blues and rock that the term 'P90 tone" was born to describe their characteristics. It is a unmarried-curlicue pickup with as much output every bit a humbucker due to the many coil turns.

This is between the nature of the P90'due south give it its tight-aggressive tone makes it capable of treatment loftier gains and with a tight, articulated, almost aggressive tone. The tone is not as warm as a Les Paul Custom or SG, but something in between that and a Stratocaster.

If y'all're a stone, dejection, and anything in between player, a P90 tone will brand you happy. Just make sure to identify the pickups as close as you tin to strings compared to a Strat single-coil; it doesn't have the same magnetic pull.

The master reason y'all should go for the Inferior is the tone. Other guitars at this cost point offer more features, but none with this particular tone. Many contend that it is not only the pickups and body but the lack of the neck pickups that makes the strings resonate differently. Apart from the Junior, not many other guitars offering that.

The Les Paul Junior Versatility

Contrary to it's single coil nature, the Junior is a very versatile guitar inside of it'due south range. The single-pickup combined with the volume and tone control offers a wide range of tones.

How is a Guitar With No Neck Pickup Versatile?

This question is well placed as it'southward not common to see quality guitars with only i pickup. The curt answer is that the character of the P90,' blended with the unique function of the volume and tone controls, makes information technology versatile.

Rolling the tone all the mode down makes the guitar sound very like to a Neck pickup warming the tone and making it about "woody." Raising the tone slightly makes it brighter and all the way upwards snarky and aggressive.

The volume knob on the Junior works equally on any guitar as proceeds control. However, it'south special in a unique manner as it can clean up entirely to resemble most an acoustic guitar. This guitar can have ane of the best acoustic-like tones and bright, make clean ones.

However, information technology's not a guitar you could bring to a recording session for a pop song or play every genre with, every bit you might need the other pickups. For a rock guitarist, it can essentially cover all the basis you need for a stone guitarist.

The Les Paul Junior Playability

When you pick up a Les Paul Inferior, the first affair you find is how calorie-free the guitar is.

It fits well against the trunk, and reverse to most Heavy Les Paul's, you can play it for hours on a strap without feeling any pain. Fifty-fifty though sometimes the guitar's weight is taken for granted, in my experience, it'southward very of import to consider it.

If y'all're a gigging musician, in that location's nil worse than having to hold a heavy guitar for hours day after day. Doing some phase acrobatics is very easy with the Junior, equally proven by the punk stone bands that play them extensively.

The brusque-scale length is typical of Les Pauls and makes them piece of cake to play. Playing fast is not as challenging as on Strat, and angle feels light in all the frets. The cutaway torso, particularly the double-cutaway 58' model, offers outstanding accessibility to all 22 frets.

The neck is where the vintage element of the guitar is really shown. The Junior features a U-shape thick "meaty" neck. Yous get a good grip on the cervix, and it fills your hand nicely. There'southward quite the satisfaction in playing a neck like that. However, some people might prefer a modern C shape cervix or something like every bit they are more friendly sometimes to guitarists with smaller hands.

The Inferior bridge and tuners practice not have special features but keep tuning stable. I would compare it to any expensive Les Paul simply without the typical "Chiliad-Cord out of tune" problem.

In terms of playability, you will take a guitar that tin compare to any other model and serve you well for casual playing or fifty-fifty arena shows.

Les Paul Junior Alternatives

Gibson Les Paul Special

This is substantially a Junior guitar but with 2 P90'south installed. It covers more footing sonically and sounds different from a unmarried span P90.

The two individual tone and volume command and 3-manner pickup make it more similar to a Les Paul Custom versatility but a similar tight seize with teeth of the Junior. I put this guitar on the same level equally the Les Paul Inferior, just different in grapheme and more for the jack of all trades guitarist.

Depending on what y'all want from your guitar, the Special is a great selection and costs roughly the aforementioned as the Inferior.

Gibson Les Paul Custom

The parent guitar of the Junior, a Custom, is what more often than not comes to everyone's mind when the proper name Les Paul is mentioned.

The Custom has superior hardware and adds a mixture of tonewoods to the Mahogany trunk with the Solid Spruce Top. The tone is warmer and gets heavy and dark with a lowered tone and a lot of gain. It features a iii-fashion switch, typically two humbuckers and two individual tone and volume controls, making it more versatile than the Inferior.

A Custom is much more than expensive than a Inferior if you want a U.s.a. version. Vintage ones also sell for high prices and sometimes for likewise much due to the historical value.

Gibson SG

Another guitar with tons of characters and seize with teeth is the SG by Gibson. The release of this guitar meant the discontinuity of the Junior every bit the SG became the highest-selling Gibson guitar ever.

What makes it unique is the similarity with the Junior in the design simplicity. Both guitars have like shooting fish in a barrel-to-access frets, are lightweight, take a lot of bite, and congenital a legacy of stone and blues. The main difference is the tone, as the SG is warmer and darker and gets flossy with the tone down. The Junior, however, has a better make clean tone equally the P90 cleans upward in a more crispy and articulate way.

Both guitars are similarly priced and are upward to your taste in design and tone to choice your adjacent guitar.

FAQs

Question: Is a Les Paul Easier to Play Than a Strat?

Answer: Mostly, a Les Paul volition have a shorter scale, making strings easier to bend and play faster. IN most cases, the activeness is too set lower, which favors playing fast.

Notwithstanding, it depends much on the genre, your playing style, and how you lot similar the guitar to exist ready upwardly – some players like how a Strat neck feels and want more resistance on the strings.

Question: How Much does a Gibson Les Paul Jr Weigh?

Answer: It'south a super light guitar of only around 7lbs, three.2 kg. Depending on the production yr, it tin weigh up to 7.5-eight in some models as the tonewoods used were not the same over the years.

Question: Which is Improve: P90 or Humbucker?

Answer: Both pickups can handle high gain and serve well dejection and rock guitarists. Humbuckers, still, can handle higher gain and eliminate noise, then if you're into heavy music, humbuckers are always all-time.

The P90's are essentially loftier output single coils and clean upward amend at low gains, are tighter, with more high mids than Humbuckers. Humbuckers are warmer and more often than not insist on lower mids.
No one is meliorate than the other; both serve a different purpose.

Final Thoughts on the Les Paul Junior

You tin can't become wrong with a Junior, where it's a vintage one or a release. The guitar has a ton of grapheme in the tone and is versatile enough for any dejection, country, and rock guitarist.

If you can find a used vintage 1 in expert condition, I'd propose you get for it as the small "inaccuracies" in the pickup binding tonewoods of the fourth dimension make every guitar have a unique dash in the sound. However, vintage and new ones are pricey guitars, so yous might consider other alternatives with three or more pickup combinations if you want to utilize it for many genres.

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Source: https://guitarspace.org/electric-guitars/les-paul-junior-review/