Gibson SG Junior

This is a current production model SG Junior. It was manufactured in late '99 but is "officially" a 2000 model per the Gibson catalog. This guitar is as basic as it gets. Traditional SG body style, one P-90 at the bridge position, one tone pot, one volume pot, wrap around compensated brige, 22 frets, vintage tuners, strings, Rosewood fretboard, set neck, and a place to plug the cord.
The finish is a transparent stain called Wine Red. I think it looks more like the recently changed Heritage Cherry than Wine.
The guitar comes with a bag, but I opted for a Gibson hard shell case at an additional cost.
I bought this guitar because of its simplicity. I wanted to find a very simple guitar that could give me a unique tone that I could call my own. True, this guitar is not oooozing with gadgets and wiz bang features. That's what I love about it. It has everything I need it to have.
I suppose some would say it deserves a lower rating for features since it's so basic. But I knew exactly what I was getting and I think its elegant simplicity is what makes it so sweet. I don't want nor do I need any more features.

This category is the SG Junior's "sweet spot". As I said, I wanted to find "my tone" in the most basic guitar I could find. I spent years diddling with different amps, effects, and guitars (I own 18 guitars). I wanted to get back to basics.
When plugged into my Fender Hot Rod Deville 212, the SG Junior delivers very full midrange and bass tones. A very warm sound. I was expecting the P-90 to be a bit brighter since its mounted closer to the bridge than the neck, but bright highs do not seem to be this guitar's forte. I rarely play this guitar overdriven. When I do, I use the Deville's "drive" channel and the P-90 crunches up quite nicely. It's a tad noisy when overdriven but that's what I expected from the single coil of the P-90. No surprises there.
I was surprised at the range of tones I am able to get from this guitar...given the fact that it only has one pick up. Using the guitar's tone control in combo with the amp settings, I am able to make this guitar produce a fairly wide range of tones. This further reinforces my newly found notion that "less is more" when it comes to guitars.

Well, if sound is the Junior's "sweet spot", this category must surely be the Junior's "sour spot".
About the only good thing to say is that my Junior came with a perfect action. This is thanks to the great Guitar Tech where I bought the guitar. I did readjust the P-90 to my tastes but that's not unusual.
Pretty much everything else about this guitar is a quality control disaster. Gibson obviously screwed up when picking the wood for this guitar. It has two HUGE grain flaws in the wood that run perpendicular to the "normal" up and down grain pattern. This guitar should have never received a translucent finish.
There's a major Lacquer crack all the way down one side of the neck joint on this guitar. I've got other SG's with cracks in this area, but none this bad.
The chrome on the wrap around bridge is badly discolored. At first glance, this appears to be tarnish, but closer inspection suggests that it may be a defect in the plating. I plan to contact Gibson regarding this in an attempt to get the bridge replaced.
I had to regulate the nut to lower the D and G strings. There was barely any groove.
Both control knobs were loose enough to fall off when inverted.
Several screws holding some of the tuning machines were not screwed all the way down.
All I can say is this particular SG Junior is lucky it found an owner who appreciates sound over cosmetics. I don't expect any guitar to be absolutely perfect when I buy it, but this one was obviously skipped over when the Quality Control inspector visited the SG line.
In fairness, I have 5 other Gibsons and have been pleased with the Quality. This may have been the "one in a thousand" that got to market without proper QC.....who knows.
I want to be able to rate this guitar higher in this category, but I must call a spade a spade.

Despite its QC and Cosmetic flaws, this guitar should hold up like a tank. There's simply not enough stuff on it to fall apart. It has the later style "beefier" SG neck joint, so there should be no fear of a weak neck. I fixed the control knob looseness and they've stayed tight. The hardware seems tough enough to stand up for the long haul.

I've dealt with Gibson \ Epiphone on several occasions and found them to be extremely helpful and customer oriented. Lately, I've been using the Gibson Customer Relations forum at their website. I've found this to be an excellent way to get help and information. In the vast majority of cases, I'm able to get a response in a matter of hours. On warranty related issues, I've used the site and have had good success. On one occasion, they shipped me replacement parts no questions asked.

I've been playing on and off for 25 years. I own 16 guitars of vaious brands (mostly Gibson and Epiphone). As I said else where in the review, I was searching for the simplest guitar I could find that could deliver smooth warm tone through my Fender Deville. I found just what I needed in the SG Junior. The single P-90 delivers great tone in a package with the bare minimum of features!
Even though this guitar had its share of quality problems (mostly cosmetic), I still love it. I would replace it with another SG Junior if it was stolen or lost. In fact, I'm thinking about getting another one if I start playing out again. This has got to be one of Gibson's finest values going right now in a current production model. I highly recommend it.

This is a brand new 2000 model SG Junior (although it was manufactured late in '99). This SG is about as basic as it gets and that's what makes it so cool! 22 frets, One P-90, One volume control, One tone control, Vintage style deluxe tuners, compensated wrap-around bridge (no tune-o-matic), and a place to plug in the cord. No frills...NONE. This guitar is finished in a translucent "wine red" stain which is very similar to the older, darker, heritage cherry finish. It's the typical SG body style with the later style "beefed up" neck joint.
I suppose some would rate this guitar low in this category since it is not top heavy with wiz bang gadgets and cosmetic flufferies. I bought this guitar, NOT for cosmetics and fluff, but for Its elegant simplicity and great tone. I knew exactly what I was getting and did not go looking for this guitar because I wanted a pile of features. For those like me who WANT a simple no-frills guitar, additional features are useless. For that reason I will not rate the guitar on features. It would not be fair.

The single P-90 in combination with the one tone control and my AMP's controls delivers a surprisingly wide variety of tonal combinations. I use this guitar to play a lot of my own music which is mild alternative rock with a lot of clean tones. I wanted to get "my own" sound out of a very simple guitar with little or no effects and a decent amp. I got what I wanted by plugging the Junior into a Fender Hot Rod Deville 212. When I want to crunch the P-90, I use the "drive" channel of the Deville...NO pedal. Occasionally, I'll use a Boss Chorus and sometimes a Boss Delay, but that's it.
I was initially worried about intonation with the "wrap-around" bridge. However, this SG intonates BETTER than some of my ABR equipped Gibsons. It has a very warm, midrangey sound that can be muddied up quite a bit by its own tone control. I wouldn't exactly say this guitar was bright sounding. That's not it's forte. The single coil P-90 has a the usual single coil hum, though not as bad as some Strats I've heard.
This guitar gives me MY sound in a very simple package. I couldn't be happier.

The action was darn near perfect out of the box. I had to move the P-90 higher on the high strings to get the treble sounds as I wanted them. I also had to regulate the G string groove on the nut to reduce the tendency for that string to go sharp on heavy fretting.
The Wrap-Around Bridge also appears to be tarnished already. Either that, or the plating process was defective. I plan to contact Gibson concerning this quality lapse.
Gibson clearly screwed up selecting the slab of Mahogany for this guitar. The grain pattern had 2 very pronounced flaws in it running perpendicular to the usual "up and down" grain pattern. This guitar should have NEVER been finished in a transparent stain. Awful. Luckily, it ended up in the hands of an owner who values sound over looks.
It also came with a "Lacquer check" crack all the way down one side of the neck joint. Another testament to declining quality control at Gibson??? As the owner of 8 SG's, 3 of which have this type of cracking, I was not too concerned. But Gibson should be aware that MOST customers will not tolerate this kind of workmanship indefinitely.
I suppose if this guitar didn't sound so good I would be less satisfied. I can live with the defects. Other folks would be MUCH less forgiving. Gibson should pay attention to quality!
ONE bright spot in terms of craftsmanship on this guitar was the fretwork. The frets were very well done indeed. Another good point was the finish. The finish is thick, evenly applied, and glossy. Even though it is translucent and allows the hideous grain flaws to show, it was well applied.

As simple as this guitar is, I see no reason why it shouldn't remain virtually bulletproof for years and years. There's just not enough STUFF fastened to this SG to cause problems. Even with the cosmetic defects listed above, this guitar should be a tank.

I've dealt with Gibson\Epiphone on several occasions and have been very impressed with their responsiveness and willingness to help. I've dealt with them mainly through their website customer service forum and have found this to be an extremely effective way of getting results.

Been playing on and off over 25 years. I own a total of 19 Guitars, Mostly Gibsons, One Strat, One Dean, One Schecter, and 5 Epiphones. Despite the abundance of quality control related flaws on this guitar, I LOVE it. The appeal for me is in the simplicity of this plain Jane SG. No frill, just good sound.
I'd really love to be able to rate this guitar a 10, however, the DISMAL quality control that is evident on this guitar forces me to be honest. As I've said above, MOST folks would have walked away from this guitar in utter disgust without even trying to play it. That's a shame...for Gibson's reputation.
As a true blue Gibson fan, I can only hope that they read these testimonies and focus more on quality.

1966 Burgundy Mist metallic SG JR (body refinished,possibly at the gibson factory?The refin seems very old and very well-done,except that they didn't refinish the back of the neck).Basic as can be-single P-90,volume,tone,vibrola,stud bridge/wraparound tailpiece(if you don't use the whammy).Mahogany body/neck with rosewood board.pearl dot inlay,I think there's 22 frets,I don't have it in front of me at the moment.Replaced tuners with Grovers.I give it high marks because,even though it's very basic,it does its thing VERY well.

Ever played a really good P-90 equipped SG? If so,you know. If not,to quote Aspen Pittman,"let's just say your education is not complete".Excels at raw rock,noise and blues.Hell,it'll even do country pretty well for a GIbson.Bright but not too bright,resonant and full.Great for everything from Muddy type stuff to PJ Harvey 'To Bring You My Love'stuff to Season To Risk entropy.As Billy F. Gibbons has said about P-90 equipped Gibsons "listen to that P-90 man,it's just SMOKIN'" which petty much hits the nail right on the head.

Not exactly the slimmest neck ever but not a Louisville Slugger,either,it's just about right for me,great access to upper register too.The very simple bridge allows for use either as a wraparound or with the Vibrola,which unfortunately doesn't stay in tune very well.The intonation is less than perfect,and there's really no way to adjust it,but it's not terrible.Plays like a guitar should,IMHO-won't make yr fingers bleed,but it fights back just a little.Great for slide.

This guitar survived being knocked from its stand onto brick and all that happened was a machine head broke-the wood was fine!Still,I love this instrument dearly and take good care of it so nothing like that happens again.It's sturdy,but I'm sure I could break it if I tried.

Gibson is a 50/50 shot in my opinion.I've dealt with them,and they seem moody to me,and I've gotten a lot of conflicting information from different people there before...but for the most part they were nice enough.

I'm kinda biased toward SG's,Jrs and Specials especially...I would totally replace it,I actually parted with it for almost a year once but luckily I talked Buzzz back out of it (What a guy!,Buzzz if you ever see this I love ya,man!),I played probably 1/10th as much as I did before when I was without it.Get one now!!! (but try not to drive the price up any more so I can afford another one!!)

What is there to say about the Junior? Three on a side tuners, a P-90, a volume pot, a tone pot, and a Vibrola.

Sound? Well, it's about as straightforward as a guitar could be. A bridge P-90 on a plank. That's all you're going to get. But if that's what you want, a straight-ahead ballsy P-90 tone - it's a blast.
What prompted me to do a review is the resonance of this guitar. I don't understand how or why, but this thing doesn't even need to be plugged in. It just rings like an acoustic guitar.

This guitar is a '68, Mahogany finish. I appears to have been refinished a while back. Also, someone had slimmed down the neck a bit, from the baseball bat that you normally find. I have also had it refretted. Hence, I can't speak to the original status, but the neck, body, neck joint, tuners and electronics are holding up nicely.

Solid as a rock. I have heard they are suceptible to the headstock injuries common to old Gibsons.
The Vibrola bars can be found, but the other trem parts are a devil to find (as are the witch-hat knobs), and are usually missing.

n/a

I always wanted one of these, but the giant baseball necks kept me away. (Small hands.) I like the sound of P-90's and the odd trem system. It's a real snappy, zinging, sustaining guitar. Upper fret access is amazing as well.
A player that I am fond of uses an SG just like this one switching back and forth with a Telecaster. The tones sort of hooked me, and I went on a 'couple-year quest for one with a neck I could get around (which also didn't dive neck-first toward the ground when wearing on a strap).
Great guitars. Not that flexible, but a real player, and a great backup. I still have yet to meet it's equal for resonance.

This attractive guitar is believed to be a 1993, it was purchased new in that year. Since then I've never seen one new again. It is ebony with a single P-90 pickup and one volume and one tone control. It is also neck thru body unlike the bolt on necked Epi copy I've seen lately in stores. It is a mahogany body with a mahogany neck and rosewood fingerboard. It also has a stop tailpiece with adjustable bridge and a very uniquely cut pickguard.

This guitar has one sound as forementioned; a bright rock sound which can only be made slightly muddier. It does however pack miles of sustain, and is a great rock guitar. Just take your jazz licks eleswhere.

The SG was perfect from the factory, excellent fit and finish, great action and a Gibson rarity, "the right strings" the standard 10's were fantastic. This gutar didn't even have a smudge of fingerprint on it.

This SG unfortunately took the famed Gibson form of attempted suicide. In a strong wind it blew off of a stand and fell head first. Needless to say, I now have the infamous Gibson crack on the headstock. Amazingly though, it still stays in tune and has great sustain. Other than this misfortune, the guitar has held up quite well in all areas.

A Gibson Lifetime Warranty, never used it.

Overall, a single purpose but very fun guitar. If it were stolen, I don't think I could even find another one. Would I buy it again? Already did....off the guy I sold it to originally when the headstock first cracked!

I have a 64 SG Jr. Cherry red in color with a rosewood (I think) neck. It has a volume knob and a tone knob...that's it. Very light weight but standing up it is headstock heavy...I have to keep lifting the neck up so it won't hit me in the knees. The original bridge had no adjustment for intonation so I replaced it (but kept the original). Don't know what the body is made of... mahogany maybe? Bought used in 73 with no accessories. It has 1 pickup near the bridge. It's black plastic with metal screws or posts sticking out under each string and is held on to the guitar by two small screws.

Blues guy here...and this guitar is a 1 trick pony..rockers only, blues guys need not apply. BUT it was my first guitar and it has a WONDERFUL neck... big, fat, and fast. It sounds great for distorted rock and roll (think "Sweet Emotion" by Aerosmith) but the clean sound is too trebly for my ears to do blues. It can be noisy through the wrong amp and if you stand in the wrong place it will give you a 60 cycle hummer. Damn, I just wish it didn't play so well...I'd trade it in on someting with some tone. But I'll give it a 10 for the rock sound it does make.

Action: This is without question the best PLAYING guitar I have ever tried. The action is set low, the neck is beef, the strings are light, and it doesn't buzz or fret out. My right hand seems to just fall into the right place to play. MAN I wish my strat played like this. The finish looks cracked but it is such a pretty red not flaking or peeling so I'm leaving it alone and original.

Never a problem with the guitar that wasn't my fault...I dropped it once and broke the headstock just above the nut.

never had occasion to use it...so I don't know

been playing since 72. As far as other guitars go, I also own a 92 Strat plus and a 74 Guild acoustic. I suspect that I could get dramatically better tone simply by moving the pickup up by the neck or maybe adding a neck position single coil to the guitar (what do you think?) It has been a great guitar for rock and roll.

I sold this guitar a while ago, so forgive me if I don't remember everything. It was a 1968, I think 22 frets.It only had a volume and a tone, with a P-90 in the bridge. Mahogany body and neck, rosewood fingerboard. The bridge was wierd, like the bridge of a Tune-O-Matic but a tremolo tailpiece. Not a bigsby though. I can't remember the brand of tuners. The neck definately had some meat to it. A friend of mine called it the "Louisville Slugger" neck. When I got it, it had a cheap cardboard case with it.

This guitar did one sound. You could go loud or quiet, bright or dark, but it was still all the same. It was an great sound though. At the time I played Blues and classic rock. This thing made the perfect early Santana sound.

I can't really say, it was a little beat up when I got it.

Well, it was about 30 years old when I got it, it was all original. The finish had dents in it in a few places, and was a little scratched up, but I'd say it was pretty good for an instrument that was around when the Beatles were still together.

I never needed any repairs. I have no idea about the warranty, but it probably expired before I was born.

This was my first electric guitar. I bought it mostly because it was old, it said Gibson on it, and I could afford it. Since then, I've moved on to bigger and better things. I sold it after I bought my first PRS (Custom 24) because I hadn't touched it in 3 months. I used the cash to go buy a second PRS (Custom 22). I sold it to a friend, and he loves it. It's exactly what he'd been looking for. If I would have ranked this before I tried a PRS, it would gotten a 9, but it really was no competition to a top of the line modern electric.

It is a 91' with one P-90 in the bridge position. It has a set-neck and one volume and one tone knob. It has a tune-o-matic bridge and a nice set of tuners. I believe it to be made out of Mahogany with a rosewood neck. The neck is pretty thin and feels great. It has dot inlays and 22 frets. I got it with a gig bag. It is made in the USA.

I really, really enjoy the guitar and probably will never get rid of it. I have never seen another one just like it and it plays like a dream. It has a very full and tight sound. The guitar has only the one pickup and cannot do many different sounds but has a tone that is really, really lovely. I don't like the tune-o-matic bridge that much and would prefer a wrap around but, what can you do? The P-90 can be noisy at high distortion levels but nothing bad.

The guitar is built extremely srong and feels great. The action is very nice. I tweaked it for along time before I got it just where I wanted it though. The guitar is definatly made well!

This guitar will stand up to almost anything you do to it. I would play this without a back up because the wood sounds great and the guitar resonates extremely wonderfully. I wish I could get more sounds out of it but I would not want another pickup in it because it looks so, cool this way. The starp buttons are tough but I wish they put the neck one on the side of the body instead of behind the neck. It is a very dependable guitar and the finish will last along time.

Gibson is great with any help you may need.

I got a great deal on this guitar and I would definatly buy it again. They aren't very easy to find though. They do however sound like a dream. The neck is very fast and I love the way it can hold notes. I have to many guitars to name and this one definatly has its place in my rig. I still love the versatility of my Strat Plus Deluxe and my Firebird but this guitar has its own sound and can definatly back itself up with it. If you can find one they are a great guitar. Just make sure you give it a chance. I almost got rid of mine one time but would have regretted it. Overall, wonderful guitar.