frettedamericana | 1 decade ago

http://www.frettedamericana.com/gibson_les_paul_junior_1959-d-1215-0.html
This super light guitar weighs just 6.70 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of 1 11/16 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Solid mahogany body with rounded edges, one-piece mahogany neck with that great '59 "baseball bat" style profile, and Brazilian rosewood fretboard with 22 original jumbo frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Headstock with "Gibson" logo and "Les Paul / Model" silk-screened in gold. Black plastic bell-shaped truss-rod cover with two screws. Closed-back single-line Kluson Deluxe strip tuners with white plastic oval buttons. Serial number "921668" inked-on in black on the back of the headstock. One super hot black P-90 pickup with a huge output of 8.28k. Black plastic pickup cover stamped on the underside "UC - 450 - 1 / 2". Single-ply black plastic (0.12 inches thick) pickguard with four screws. Two controls (one volume, one tone) on the lower treble bout. Black plastic bell-shaped "Bell" knobs. The potentiometers are stamped "134 914" (Centralab April 1959) and the capacitor is the requisite 'Bumble-Bee' type. Combination "wrap-over" bar bridge/stud tailpiece. There is absolutely no belt buckle wear on the back of the guitar - just some fine finish checking and a small surface 'ding' (slightly larger than a match-head in the center of the back. There are three very small surface chips on the lower edge of the body near the jack input. The top of the body also has some very fine finish checking. Otherwise this incredible fifty-one year old 'under-the-bed' guitar is in totally mint as new condition. The original frets show just a miniscule amount of playing wear, the fretboard shows no wear. The rich cherry finish has not faded in the slightest and there are absolutely no surface marks on the back of neck or on the headstock. This is quite simply the finest example of a '59 TV Junior (with a neck to die for) that we have ever seen and therefore our rating of near mint (9.25) condition is fairly conservative. We calculate the month of production to be August 1959 - as from the Gibson records we know that serial #922544 was shipped on 1st September, 1959. The sound of this little beastie is also quite simply "the bestest"! Housed in the original Gibson brown 'Alligator' softshell case with brown felt lining (9.25). Included in the case is the original receipt from October 23rd, 1959 (a huge $133.50 including the case) and also the original stop-tail/bridge allan key adjuster for the intonation - in its original tan envelope. This little guitar truly is "Back to the Future".