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Gibson SG Junior - anyone tried one?


bassbiscuits
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Anyone here tried a Gibson SG Junior? 

I've borrowed a 2004 one off my brother who isn't using it, and i fear i can see how this GAS will all end...

I normally play strats, and this definitely isn't one of them - a single P90, a wrapover bridge, late 60s batwing-style pickguard, fat 50s-style neck, dark red woodstain. 

But oh, the sound! 

Real snarl and bite from the P90 cranked to full, but rolls off nicely on the volume, and the tone control rolled off takes you into halfway-set wah wah territory and dark woody sounds.

Ironically, i can see me having to flog my USA HSS strat to fund this (if it comes to that - steady on!) and while this SG Junior does more or less just one thing, it does it spectacularly!

Oh yes, and it looks awesome.

sg.JPG

Edited by bassbiscuits
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I always found that a single pickup guitar focused one’s attention marvellously and made you think of different ways to coax different tones from it. Leslie West did wonders with his LP junior back in his Mountain days. Vive la difference!

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  • 1 year later...

I bought a 74 SG Special about 26 years ago. I wasn't able to play at full volume in the shop (Session Music, Belfast), but it felt great despite being so narrow at the nut. The mini humbuckers looked cute.

I didn't like the sound of the mini hums when I tried it at home. I replaced the one in the bridge with a Seymourised model, but it didn't improve things. 

Fast forward over 15 years and I sold the mini humbuckers for money to buy pedals and got a cheap P90 from eBay and installed it in the bridge. It sounded great! I got a friend to make me a custom scratchpad to cover the route for the neck number and the guitar now looks somewhat like a Junior.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Absolutely! My brother recently picked a 1963 one up for £2,400 because the body had been professionally refinished (and the nitro crazed) to cover up a past bodge fitting a tremolo.

Absolutely gorgeous to play and the descriptions of the P90 sound above are spot on. Saw him gig it with Stonehouse the night he got it.

Stonehouse.thumb.JPG.e64fb8e5a892d9d39223f9767a90632f.JPG

That's a Flea bass through an SVT on teh left.

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  • 5 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...

I had a Junior way back in the 70's (cherry of course) and also an SG100 (slanted pickup near the neck) after that. Never got on with the 100 but the Junior was a fabulous guitar. Beautiful creamy tone with the tone backed off and cutting rock sound with the treble hiked up. Eminently playable on long gigs and a do it all classic. Miss mine.

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  • 1 year later...

I’ve got a Vintage (brand, not age) SG that plays beautifully. I’ve retro fitted a Bigsby style trem, and put coil-tappable humbuckers with push/pull pots to go between humbuckers and single coils. 
At its default setting it’s wired as a pair of single coils, and I find that I rarely bother with hunbuckers- it sounds great like that.

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