Gibson '09 Les Paul Junior

2009 product of USA. 22 frets on a rosewood board. Round profile mahogany neck, although not the baseball bat you might expect on a '50's style Gibson Jr. Beautiful slab mahogany body in satin finish vintage sunburst. Might be 2-piece. Might be 3. Really hard to tell. Grain is very even. Simple volume and tone controls for the one bridge-positioned P90. Compensated wraparound bridge. Tuners appear to be your normal Kluson (style) Gibson Deluxe with plain white buttons. Came with a gig bag.

It is hard to believe something so simple could be so comprehensive. I'm used to playing hollowbodies with two pickups and Bigsby's. I don't miss anything with this Jr. The P90 is the best pickup ever made. With simple adjustments to the volume and tone controls, you can make this guitar sound like anything. I normally play through lower power amps. I like 15 watt all tube platforms, mostly EL84's and guitar right into the amp. Effects at most are reverb and vibtrato. With everything wide open, this thing can scream. But just lightening up on your picking hand gets everything back under control. I love this thing.

I took this guitar out of the bag, tuned it and started playing. The first few days I struggled to keep the thing in tune. After reading another review here, I applied nut sauce to the slots for the G and B strings and there has been no looking back. That was seriously the only flaw. My Taylor and Guilds require the same treatment when I change strings.

I changed the strap buttons to oversized AllParts as I do on all my guitars. I despise straplocks. Everything else is built to use for a long time. I never go oout without a backup. . .guitar or amp.

No experience here.

Been playing since 1964. I also have a Guild X170T, a Guild Starfire III, an Epiphone EJ1160E John Lennon and a fully acoustic Taylor 314. My amps are a Fender Tweed Pro Jr with MojoTone Alnico, Fender Tweed Blues Jr. w/Jensen, Vox AC15 and Kustom Coupe '36. I am primarily a piano player. I have had and parted with a warehouse worth of guitars over the years. There have been issues with every Gibson I have ever owned. I should have bought one of these Jr's in the first place. Could have saved myself a lot of aggravation and a bank of money. If it were stolen, I would absolutely buy it again. And if it were the only electric guitar I had, I'd be pretty happy.

the reason i'm giving this a 10 is because this is not a guitar you should buy if you want too many different sounds.it is best suited to someone like myself who just wants one basic sound.if that's what you're after,then this guitar has all the features you need.

it seems to have a high output from the p-90.the gibson website is vague about the pickup,giving no indication of output value or magnet material.overall a good sound but has a touch of hardness to it that is making me debate replacing it.not quite as warm as i was hoping.it goes beyond just the natural treble response of a single coil,it might possibly have a ceramic magnet in it.

on the whole very good.the compensated bridge seems to go a long way in helping the intonation of this guitar but i think it still needs a bit of adjusting.the nut is not brilliantly cut but not that bad either.some of the strings do catch slightly in their slots which is probably what causes the tuning to slip now and again but not a major problem.the actual machineheads feel reassuringly stiff.I AM CONCERNED ABOUT ONE THING THOUGH:i noticed amplified i was getting an annoying buzzing coming through my ampeg j-20 now and again and after a process of elimination i've identified the source of the problem:if i tap the back of the neck of the guitar then i can hear rattling as if the wood is cracked or the truss rod is loose.i can't see any cracks so i'm assuming the truss rod,or some part of it is loose.you don't notice it that much when you're playing though and it happens only particularly audible around the middle of the neck.this is where neck relief is the greatest,so i'm sure there's a connection there somewhere.

haven't had it long but seems very sturdy.the knobs/machineheads feel secure and have a nice amount of resistance when they are turned.provided the neck isn't cracked (see above) then if treated well,i don't see why this guitar wouldn't last for many years.

haven't contacted them.

i bought this guitar and had it posted to me.i've had problems with other guitars i've bought mail order in the past,so my advice to anyone reading this is to go into a shop and try the guitar out first;thoroughly!

As described very well below, this is a bare bones guitar with the slab mahogany body, dog ear P90, compensated bridge and not much else. I went for the cherry finish which looks awesome in the satin finish. Instrument weighs about the same as my American Standard Strat (7.5lbs) and is nicely balanced on the strap. Came with a gig bag which has been relegated to the closet. It's a bit hard trying to get a good fitting case for a junior because they are not as 'thick' as a normal LP with a carved top. Gibson want stupid money for an original case so shop around.

This guitar has the potential to sound awesome. I use the word potential as it is suffering from the infamous 'Gibson G-string'. For the uninitiated, it seems from a plethora of internet forums that the G string is notoriously hard to get in tune. Mine will be out of tune (checked by tuner) within a very short time and it pulls sharp. It appears from good advice that this is a nut problem easily fixed with by a tech with a file and some Nut Sauce. All the same, from a company who's been making stringed instruments for over 100 years this is a huge disappointment. When in tune it sounds woody and dirty which is why the Jnr is so famous. Well suited to many styles particularly through a slightly dirty amp. It's a pretty addictive sound actually. Low rating based on G string issue.

It is clear that this is not one of Gibson's top shelf products. That said, I find the finish and construction to be of a very high order. The frets are thin, very tall and finished well from the factory. I'm just getting used to the overall feel after being a Strat player for many years. The intonation from the compensated bridge is not great but it's not too bad. The neck feels alot like my American Standard Strat and the satin finish makes it a lot less sticky than many necks I've played. All up it's an easy player and finished better than what you'd expect from an 'economy' model.

I've only done one gig with this instrument. I gave it a good wipe down with some high quality polish and you wouldn't have known that it had been out of the case. Apparantly the finish smoothes out with time and looks 'cool' so we'll see. I changed the strap buttons for some Schaller strap locks for more security. I play my instruments pretty hard and found that after 2 sets, g string issue aside,I had no issues with it. The tuners have cheap looking buttons on them but the casings looks no different than those on the higher priced models with the 'keystone' buttons.

I've been playing professionally for 25 years. Most of my gear over this time has been American Fender. I'd always wanted a Gibson but didn't like the bling aspect and because of my big strumming style I can't have a guitar with a switch where the normal Les Paul has one. The Junior ticked all the boxes for an alternate instrument for a few songs per set. I'll get the G string issue fixed but it's a big disappointment that I even have to.

brand new. bought it yesterday. vintage sunburst, everything else jsut like a junior of old times should be.

it sounds amazing both clean and dirty. you can go from a nice clean rythm ,turn up the gain, it will tolerate heavy metal . very versatile for a one pickup guitar.its noisy on gain settings but thats part of the charm.none dislikes

guitar came flawless from the store i bought it in.didnt have to do anything. no sharp fret- ends, solid tuners,nut cut just right, intonated .finish was great for a satin finish .

the finish will show wear faster than a gloss finish as the satin is really thin. strapbuttons are too small as always,and should be replaced asap .always brin a second guitar to your gig

good customer support,answer my questions the same day or the next one

22 years of experience,owns 18 guitars,9 gibsons,3 epiphones,1 fernandes,one ltd esp,1 washburn semiacoustic,a ibanez classical guitar,a ibanez acoustic c&w ,a squier jazz bass, fretless. marshall jcm2000 dsl401,loads of effects and gadgets.if stolen i would buy another . its a great guitar

Gibson have just re-issued the Junior (much to my delight) for the early part of this year. It was made in the USA and it is just a Junior! not a VOS or anything with the price tag, they have gone back to what the junior was made for. Cheap & powerful.
solid mahogany 'slab' with a Nitro finish with a new finish for the Juniors, which is vintage burst (instead of the goldy yellow to black its more walnut to black). Rosewood fretboard with acrylic swirl dot inlays, and vintage 'button' tuners.
It has a single dog-eared P-90 at the bridge, that has an absoloutly frightining growl to it. It screams, and true to P-90 style, it hums but i personally like that. Gives it an edge.
As it only has the pickup it only has a volume & tone knob, but they really do the job. If you back the tone off, the P-90 gives you a fatter sound, but then bring it back up to ten and you get that signature bite.
The Bridge is a compensated wraparound, which i personally prefer to the tune-o-matic on my '06 LP standard. just gives it that extra bit of sustain in my opinion.
The junior wasn't made for features, its a no frills tone machine and it does its job perfectly.
Also came with a nice Gibson gig bag too =)

The Sound. Obviously the most important thing. I play alot of Indie rock (libertines, arctic monkeys, The View) and its perfect.
As i said before, this guitar is an animal that really doesn't want to be tamed. Its gonna hum. if you really dont want the hum then get a BJA LP junior with the H-90.
when i got it 3 days ago, i tried it acoustically, and i was immediately impressed on how it sounded. i ran upstairs and ran it through my VOX AC-30 and stomped my TS-808 tubescreamer for a little overdrive and just ran a few riffs off and i couldnt believe the tone it gave!
My LP standard is fat and chunky sounding cos of the humbuckers etc, but this.. this just blows me away. Its more of a 'thin' humbucker sound is the way i would describe it. Doesn't have the fattness, richness & warmth of the humbucker, but it replaces that with the sheer glassy growl it sends out.
Clean its a very trebley sound as you would expect.
alot like a Strat with the bridge & middle pickup mixed setting. very nice indeed..

the action was very good when i got it. i like it low, but the bottom E buzzes on the 1st,2nd & 3rd fret, which i sorted within 5 seconds.
The finish is gorgeous. Nitro-cellulose on the body & a satin finished neck.
Nitro is uber-thin so within a year, i think its going to wear very nicely. Just how a junior should look in my opinion.
No flaws on the finish. I always hear people complaining about quality control with Gibson, but both this & my standard were pretty near perfect out of the box.

This guitar is going to live a long time. Because of the nitro finish it will wear REALLY easy, after just a few sweaty gigs, but like i said thats what i want.
Now the strap buttons. Minature is all i can say. I would whip them out straight away and gets some strap-loks put in straight away.
This is now my main guitar. my standard is now my backup. very dependable.

life warranty but never had to deal with their customer support. That must be a good thing right?

I have been playin guitar for nearly 8 years now, and this is by far my favourite guitar i have ever played (and ive played a few to say the least).
If it was stolen/lost, i would replace it straight away. its my baby =)
Favourite feature has to be the P-90. they even look as mean as they sound!
I would recommend this guitar to anyone.
Cheers =)