Les Paul Jr

[EL34]

I have been wanting a Les Paul Jr for a long time.
I did not realize that Epiphone has one that is $479 and gets great reviews
Anywho, looking forward to a simple one pickup P90 guitar for some Leslie West tunes and other stuff
I have not played a short scale Gibson style guitar in many years.
I had a early 60's SG when I was young.
After than I went to Strat's

Should be here this week

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/EILJVSNH--epiphone-les-paul-junior-tobacco-burst?serial=22051527740

[ShoemanGB]

That'll be a fun guitar, especially if the P90 tone does get you that Leslie West or Live at Leeds sound. I have a couple of the Epi LP Special cheapo's because I came across them used for $100 each.  One has been routed  to death and is my pickup test mule when I wind my own.  A little fretwork (beyond me) would smarten mine up quite a bit.

[EL34]

All my guitars have floating bridges which makes changing string gauges or alternate tunings a no go without a huge amount of labor.
I can easily do DADGAD on the Jr
Think Led Zeppelin Kashmire
Or just drop the E down to D
Simple things that floating bridges are not set up to do.

Plus I'll be going down to 10's
The guitar comes with 10-46's
I have been playing 11-46's for 25 years
So shorter scale and less string tension
Hopefully I don't over bend having been used to the 11's for all these years

I just saw that the guitar comes with a 55 point inspection
Nice that Sweetwater goes over the guitar to make sure everything is ok

[acheld]

I've had nothing but great service from SW. 

Once you get used to the short scale, you'll love it.    I started playing a Jaguar some years ago, and never really made it back to Strat -- playing that, PRS and Gibson scales.  Somehow just feels right.

[mresistor]

I've been playing my Gibson LP special alot more these days.  The strats and mm's just sit there.  Something special about the sound of a Les Paul, the shorter scale is very nice too.

[Platefire]

Nice! I love that vintage sunburst. I've got rather small hands and short scale works pretty good once you get acclimated to it, after playing strat types. I also like the feel of the wrap around bridge. I got the el-cheapo Epi Special 1 with two P-90's. I'm pretty impressed with Epiphone quality. Will be looking forward to you road test report
 

 

[EL34]

I got the LP Jr a couple days ago

The first thing I noticed is the neck is way fatter than my other guitars
That takes some getting used to

I am used to the super precise Satriani guitar that I love

I like the Jr, but I need to go over it and dial it in
The frets need polishing
I can feel a tiny bit of roughness when bending strings

I'll put it on my guitar jig and see how flat the frets are and if I need to level them
I can polish the frets after doing that

I'll play it a while before doing those things

[Platefire]

My Epi Special had some drag on the frets when I first got it but smoothed out with a little bit of playing. It's not a guitar that I would play all the time. I think it's one I'll definitely keep. Its got a vibe all its own, those P-90's kick pretty hard, I get to missing it and have to drag it out and give it a go

[EL34]

The only thing I found so far that I don't like about the LP Jr is the sharp edge that presses into my chest
I am used to Strat style bodies that have the cut away contourIf it bugs me too much, I may modify the body and paint the contour black to match the body edge.
It is supposedly two pieces of mahogany wood with a veneer top
The only way to see the two body pieces are to look at the heel of the guitarYou can see the wood seam where they joined them

The good thing about all that is this is not an original LP Jr and it cost $470.00
So it's not like I am modifying an expensive guitar

[Platefire]

Well for some reason the lack of a cut away contour don't bother me. Mine is only 6.5 pounds. So when I strap in on it feels good and light.What made me really want my special is the historic content. I had never had a guitar with a Gibson type slab body(LP Jr type), or a wrap around bridge or P-90 pickups. Also I have a new found passion for TV yellow. Also I liked the fact that the volume knob was more forward closer to the bridge because I like todo volume swells with that knob and it's just in the right position for that. 


So this was opportunity to buy in cheap at $150. So I did invest a little more into it with Gotoh Keystone tuning keys, the pick-guard, different top hat control knobs and a Cross Truss Rod cover. I never had P-90 pickups before to compare with what I got, but they sound real good to me.

So how does your P-90 sound to you?

[EL34]

Sounds good
It feeds back and squeals if I stand too close to the speakers

My other guitars do not do that
I ordered a Mojo hot quiet P90 pickup to try
It will be a while
Mojo has 8-10 week backup on pickups right now
https://www.mojotone.com/Mojotone-Hot-Quiet-Coil-P-90-Dogear-Pickup?

[acheld]

A few years back I built a guitar and put some Lollar P-90s in it -- my recollection is they were the low wind version.  Sounded fantastic.   Lollar was able to ship pups fairly quickly during the pandemic -- not sure how they're fairing now.

[EL34]

I have Mojo Jazzmaster pickups in one guitar and they sound great
I am a Mojo dealer so I pay quite a bit less than the $130 price on the web site
I am not in a hurry
Probably be time for a string change by the time the pickup arrives
I can go over the frets and check the neck at that time

[jjasilli]

Same fret issue as Platefire.  I tried various Epi's @ the Guitar Center.  The frets feel like speed bumps which impair playability for me.  Maybe some fret work would help???

[EL34]

Same fret issue as Platefire.  I tried various Epi's @ the Guitar Center.  The frets feel like speed bumps which impair playability for me.  Maybe some fret work would help???

I have not noticed any neck issues except it's fatter than my other guitars

[jjasilli]

Doug, it's not the neck, it's the frets themselves that give me an issue.  But this may be subjective.  That said, Epi is now emulating year-correct copies of various Gibson guitar models, like '58, '59. '60. This entails different neck profiles to be aware of.

For live performance, I've come to appreciate 2 PU's, 4 knobs, 3 position SW.  With the knobs pre-set, to alter vol / tone, a flick of the SW is simpler than twisting knobs, especially if you've only got a half-beat to do it.  Still a Jr. is rather irresistible!  Hope you like it! 

[EL34]

When I said the neck, I meant everything on the neck.Frets, tuners, fret board etc
The one I just bought was manufactured very nice
Nothing about the neck/frets bothers me except the neck profile.

And I am used to My two super precise Satriani Ibanez guitars

[acheld]

And I am used to My two super precise Satriani Ibanez guitars

   An LPJ neck and Satriani's are about as far apart as you can get!

[EL34]

YepBig fat neck on LPJr
Thin profile neck on my Ibanez guitars
Thin neck on my purple Jazz-O-CasterThin neck on my Tacoma acoustic guitar
The fat neck and shorter scale length is hard to get used to
Fingers don't go to the same exact places sometimes

[jjasilli]

Doug, please keep us posted on PU tone.  Personally, I'm a fan of Fralin. 


How's the intonation?  Even Gibsons may suffer here.  Are you aware of the Music City Bridge?

[EL34]

The Mojo pickups sound good to me

I mainly use the guitar cranked for ZZ type tone, so I don't do much else with it.
Backing off the volume seems to clean it up pretty nice
But I got the hottest Mojo P90 they make, so that's what it seems to do.
Not familiar with any other bridges
I looked at a few but they were all way more money than the Wilkinson bridges I am using.

[EL34]

One issue I found with the bridge studs on my Epiphone LP Jr is that the bolts do not screw in tightly
The studs tend to lean forward when under string pressure
I had 3 sets of bridge studs here and all 3 had different amounts of wobble when screwed into the body
So the stud diameters are smaller than the threads in the body nuts

So I took a couple stainless 8mm x 1.25 nuts and turned then down thinner on my lathe
The bass side nut needed to be thicker than the treble side

The nuts thickness ended up being .15" on the bass side and .1" on the treble side
The string heights at the 12th fret are now 1.75mm and 1.5mm

I locked the bridge studs down to the body with the nuts
That forces the bridge studs to stand up straight with zero wobble

I was trying to figure out how I was going to be able to tighten the nuts once they are way thinner
I went to my tool box and found a hex wrench that fit the nuts
Not sure what this wrench came with but I am glad I saved it

I cut out the front of the wrench opening so it could fit the nuts

Now that the studs are locked tight and standing up straight, the intonation changed because the strings are now back further than when the studs were leaning forward

Here's a shot of the bass side nut and the wrench

[EL34]

I had one other issue
The Graph tech saddles were not as tall as the metal saddles that came with the bridge
I noticed a slight buzz at the saddle on the bass strings because there was not enough of a angled string break
I took the bridge back to my mill and used a small ball mill to make the string grooves deeper
This solved the problem

I love that I can now intonate the strings with movable saddles.
And the bridge is solid locked down to the body
The LP Jr is playing really nice with the Mojo Pickups

[Willabe]

Nice work. 

Those guitars are real nice for slide with the P90's and access to the notes all the way up high like that.

[EL34]

I doubt I will ever buy expensive guitars again
This LP JR and my new Jazzmaster play awesome and sound great
The LP Jr took a bit more customizing than the Jazzmaster did to get it set up and playing great

[EL34]

Here's a quick sound demo of the LP Jr
I took Mountain's never In My Life and took out the vocals and guitar
Here's the LP Jr in action
https://el34world.com/Misc/Music/files/NeverInMyLife.mp3

[EL34]

Doug, please keep us posted on PU tone.  Personally, I'm a fan of Fralin.How's the intonation?  Even Gibsons may suffer here.  Are you aware of the Music City Bridge?

The intonation is not a problem with the bridge I have.
I can adjust each string.

You can hear it in action in my post above
I did the bridge stud mod you see above and intonated it again
Now the studs sit straight up and down and so it moved the string lengths back

Also, fixing the string break angle over the top of the Graph Tech saddles made a big difference

My bridge mod post is here
https://el34world.com/Forum/index.php?topic=31084.0