This guitar, whose original cherry finish is unfaded and nearly unworn, is in amazingly clean condition -- a virtual time capsule. It does show some few- and-far-between dings - maybe four on the top surface, 6 on the back along with some surface contact, a few light shirt button scratches but nothing deep or dramatic, some tiny scuffs on the front and back edges of the headstock and the back - but we mean intensely small signs of use. It looks as if it has been left in its original case 99.99999% of the time it was owned. Okay, maybe just 99.9999%. It has its original Kluson Deluxe (the brand name etched in the center stripe) nickel-plated rectangle-back tuners with ivoroid buttons, the standard Gibson center-dip headstock, a hand-filling and yet extremely comfortable rounded back neck whose scale length is approximately 24 3/4", whose nut width is 1 11/16th” and whose string spacing at the wraparound bridge is a penurious 1 15/16th”.
This model has a single black P-90 dog-ear pickup in the bridge position; an amoeba-shaped tortoise shell celluloid pickguard held in place by four screws, a dark Brazilian rosewood unbound fingerboard that hosts 10 pearloid dotmarkers in 9 fret positions, “Gibson” peghead logo in gold in postwar block script and, positioned horizontally, “Les Paul” in gold decal script and “JUNIOR” in block letter decal below the headstock logo. We have inspected the back cavity and found, extremely simply, two potentiometers, a bumblebee capacitor and a black plastic covered wire – this is the Model T Ford of guitar electronics, but nothing whatsoever is out of place. The pot code that's readable states "134852" which means it was made by Central Lab in the 52 (last) week of 1958. I just weighed this guitar and it comes in at 7 pounds 4.7 ounces – which is also extremely light. The output is 9.21 ohms which is classically hot.
The nut is original, the two black high hat knobs appear original also. The guitar is accompanied by a “Retail Installment Contract” dated and signed September 4, 1959 in which the guitar is sold to Mrs. Charles W. Snyder by Terry McCall of Denten, Cottier & Daniels, Inc., 32-38 Court Street, Buffalo 2, NY (but they also had branches in Niagara Falls and Olean, NY and the buyer lived in Olean). Mrs. Snyder paid $145.86 including the credit service charge, and she paid this off at the rate of $9.61 per month for 12 months. The current owner purchased this about 10 years ago from a now defunct music store in Flushing, Queens, New York. This owner had brought the aged original receipt to a Les Paul concert at Iridium and Les wrote “Keep picking, & good health. Les Paul.”
We have never before seen a Gibson Les Paul Junior original cherry double cutaway maintained at this remarkable level of preservation. That's really saying something! If you are seeking more excitement than many a body can stand, this is the guitar for you.
This WAS $8242 but it is NOW ON SALE . . .