1961 SG Les Paul Junior

1961 Gibson SG Les Paul Junior.

This featherweight guitar weighs in at just 5.90 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of 1 11/16 inches, a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches and a very fast thin profile. Solid mahogany body with bevelled edge, one-piece mahogany neck, and rosewood fretboard with 22 jumbo frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Headstock with gold silk-screened "Gibson" logo and "Les Paul Junior" and serial number "26506" impressed into the back of the headstock. Later closed-back single-line Kluson Deluxe strip tuners with white plastic oval buttons. One P-90 pickup with an output of 7.59k. The pots are stamped "134 6103" (Centralab, January 1961). Two-layer (black on white) laminated plastic pickguard with eight screws. Two controls (one volume, one tone) on lower treble bout. Black plastic bell-shaped knobs with white markings. Jack socket on body face. Combination preset ridged "wrap-over" bar bridge/stud tailpiece. The guitar has been expertly re-fretted with the correct gauge fretwire. The body and the back of the neck are faded. There is some light belt buckle scarring on the back (nothing through the finish), some minor finish checking and a few light surface marks on the body. There are also a few areas of edge wear. There are two small chips (by the screws) on the pickguard. Overall this great playing, wonderful sounding little guitar is in strong excellent plus (8.75) condition. Housed in the original three-latch Gibson brown "alligator" softshell case with brown felt lining (8.50).

"Considering all the Les Paul models as a whole, sales declined in 1960 after a peak in 1959. By 1961, Gibson had decided on a complete re-design of the line in an effort to try reactivate them...One of the first series of new models to benefit from Gibson's expanded production facilities was the revised Les Paul design, the SG ("Solid Guitar"). At first, these completely new instruments with their highly sculpted, double-cutaway design continued to be named Les Paul models, so guitars of this new style made between 1961 and 1963, with suitable markings are now known as SG/Les Pauls. But by 1963 the Les Paul name had been removed, and the models officially continued as SGs" (Tony Bacon, 50 Years of the Gibson Les Paul, p. 44).