Well, I finally did it. I've been wanting one of these for quite sometime, since playing a few in vintage stores over the years. So, yesterday I bought a very cool 1963 Les Paul Junior! (SG) I was able to sell a bit of gear this past week... Anyway, this one has pots dated the 21st week of 1963, (1346321) and a serial number of 1207XX. It's also a birth year guitar for me. The neck shape is very nice. I just measured the following - 1st fret .80" / 3rd .84 / 5th .88 / 7th .92 / 9th .96 / 12th 1.01 / 15th 1.04 / 17th 1.06. I like the feel - it's just right. And yes, it sounds killer! The cherry finish has faded quite a bit on the top, and has tons of finish checking all over. I've just cleaned it with Virtuoso cleaner and will do it again to get the final grunge off. The board looks quite nice and dark, but needs a cleaning too. I've just emailed Dan (Danelectro) at Mojoaxe to get a replacement pickguard and bridge. The original bridge was in the non-original generic case, and some sort of butt ugly compensated bridge was installed. (I have a generation 1 Protector case, so I'll sell off the generic case) The original pickguard has shrunken at the holes and cracked. The nut maybe original, but it has been shimmed a bit higher for the slightly higher replacement bridge, I suspect. The original tuners are gone, and it has a set of Gibson deluxe (made in Germany) white tipped pegs. They look like Klusons on the back and Grovers (with the nut and washer) on the front. I may want to get a set of original tuners or repros, if it's possible to put it back to stock. Conversion bushings maybe? Is the Gibson logo under the finish on these? If so, I'd like to clean the headstock. I'm pretty sure the silk screened "les Paul junior" in on top of the finish, right? - So I'll avoid that area... Sorry, I don't have any pictures yet. But, they'll come later...
Congrats! An SG with a P-90 (or two) is my favorite kind of SG. I am convinced that these Juniors have better sustain than the Specials due to the lack of a neck pickup. Legend has it that a neck pickup may create pull on the strings from the magnetic field. When I got my '58 RI Les Paul Junior DC, I noticed the increased sustain right away compared to my SG Classics with two P-90's. I got my Junior second hand and it came with a Mojoaxe Wraparound bridge and the intonation is perfect up and down the entire neck of that guitar. On Juniors, the headstock logo is silkscreen under the clear coat. Specials from that era had the headstock logo as inlay.
I can see them in the "New Media" section, but it would be nice to have some pics in the thread. That is a great guitar. Congrats!
Yeah, I don't know what I'm doing! :) This is the best I can do for now... http://www.everythingsg.com/media/albums/63-lpj.178/
The bridge studs are not a match. One is 1" and the other is 7/8" long. Is that normal? I seem to be missing a proper truss rod cover screw and back plate screw, as well. Anyone have some spares?
Here are some of them: To insert pics from the media section in a thread, click on the pic in the media section, then copy the share image link to the right of the picture. Then click the image icon when writing your post and insert the link in the box that pops up.
Congrats on your New purchase! An SG with P-90 pickups is just awesome! You will have to update us with how it plays!
Thanks guys! I'm totally stoked - I love this guitar! I've got a very cool set of original vintage Kluson single lined "3 on a plate" tuners coming, and an aged pickguard and compensated "lightning bolt" bridge from Dan (Mojoaxe) I'll also be getting a few bits and screws from Kim Lafleur to bring this beauty back to stock.
Nice guitar. Welcome to the forum! Let's see some pictures when it's fully assembled again. Btw: Is your telephone from 1963, too?
Could be, but I think it has a date code from the 70's. It's funny to watch young ones when they first see it. It confuses the hell out of them!
I got a nice surprise email from Gibson last week. I thought they had stopped giving out the shipping ledger info. Maybe it's just a matter of timing... Anyway, here's my guitar's shipping date: Hi, In the Gibson Shipping Ledger Archives the serial number 1207XX shows a Les Paul (SG) Junior model shipped from the Kalamazoo, MI factory on 6/25/1963. Thanks, and I hope this helps! Interesting. My pots are dated the 21st week of 1963 - so May 20-26, and the guitar was shipped out about a month later - on Tuesday June the 25th. I guess they got a fresh order of 500k pots from Centralab towards the end of May and soon after installed a set in my guitar, before setting it up and shipping it out towards the end of June. I was born around the middle of March that year, so this guitar and I are very close to the same age.
