The Gibson Les Paul Junior was designed in the 50’s to be a student guitar. It was a no-frills slab body guitar, made cheaply and quickly, and sold for less than Gibson’s regular Les Paul. Over the years, Gibson has discontinued the Junior and brought it back several times. For 2015, they’ve brought it back again, and you can pick up this affordable guitar for a mere $899 at Guitar Center. Or you can spend another hundred dollars and get last year’s Gibson Les Paul Studio on closeout.
This is a slab body guitar with one pickup. It’s a neat guitar with a great sound. And it’s apparently selling well, because Gibson understands the premium they can charge to put their name on the headstock.
But more about the actual guitar. It’s a fun guitar to play, if you like P90’s. Which I do. The slab mahogany body combined with the pickup gives this guitar an angry but enjoyable tone. The fretwork on the guitar I played was perfect, as you’d expect – out of the factory, Gibson guitars have perfect fretwork (done by the PLEK system.) But wood can and does shrink and swell depending on the climate, so it’s not uncommon for any guitar to have a few issues with fret ends. However, the model I played did not.
Looks are subjective. I hated the look of the Junior growing up, because of what it was – a no-frills student guitar. My heroes played real Les Pauls (or Strats.) But as an old guy, I think they look cool because they were designed in the 50’s and… well, I don’t know. I just like them. Older people tend to like older things.
So it looks cool, and it plays and sounds great. What’s not to like? The price. Gibson knows they can get away with selling this thing for premium dollars right now, so they’re doing it. But that’s capitalism, right? The price should be whatever the market will bear, right? It depends on your goals. If you want to make as much money as possible, then yes.
Every business wants to make money. There are plenty of businesses that charge top dollar for what they’re selling. Two examples would be Apple and Bose. If you buy an iPhone, the hardware you’re getting isn’t as good (arguably) as the hardware from some of the companies that make phones for the Android platform. But you’re getting an iPhone, and regardless of how one feels about Apple, it’s a damn good phone, and a great user experience – some would make the argument that it’s the best user experience. Bose charges more money for its speakers than it should in terms of the competition, but Bose puts more money into R and D than any other speaker company. They’re constantly trying to push the envelope of what speakers can do.
But Gibson’s not providing the best user experience with the Junior, nor are they pushing technological boundaries of guitar-making. They’re cranking out a slab body guitar that doesn’t cost them much to make, and then charging as much money as they possibly can for it. It’s hard to have warm, fuzzy feelings about a company that will do that.
But if you love this guitar and you buy it and are happy, who cares? I do. Because the entire point of this website of mine is to promote the great but inexpensive. I’m not going to give this a sucker award, but I almost did. If I saw this guitar new or used for $399 I’d seriously consider it. At $399 this would be a kick ass budget guitar. But at $899 retail I’m disgusted with Gibson. But I shouldn’t be – they are a company that definitely puts profit first. Gibson makes great guitars, and then they charge twice as much money as they should for them. But when you can pick them up used, for $500 or less, they can be fantastic. Look for the 2015 Gibson Les Paul Junior on the used market during the next 2 years. Tons of people will buy this guitar and then not like it and trade it back in.
