Juniorguy Posted March 27, 2019 Share Posted March 27, 2019 Greetings! In the process of buying An LP Jr, plan on using it as a modding platform (after I just play it for a while.) Always been a big fan of "Simple". 1 pickup, 2 knobs, doesn't get much simpler! Anyway, I'm picking it up on Saturday. Sunburst, appears to be very clean from the CL pics (I know, never assume anything from a CL post). The serial number is 11031317296. From what I've been able to determine, its a 2011 model, March assembly, and from an unknown Chinese factory. The last part is what has me curious, if anybody has any experience with these. From this factory, what kind of wood can I expect (I'm assuming plywood, but not a deal breaker) Also, any quirks or specific things to look for about these? Any input and help is greatly appreciated in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brad1 Posted March 27, 2019 Share Posted March 27, 2019 Congratulations! It's not plywood. And never assume. 😃 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juniorguy Posted March 27, 2019 Author Share Posted March 27, 2019 Congratulations! It's not plywood. And never assume. 😃 Thanks! Should I have said "Laminate"? I know the Epi website lists them as Mahogany, just not sure how that's possible for the price! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted March 27, 2019 Share Posted March 27, 2019 (edited) That's a Qingdao serial number. At some point we deduced that 13 & 15 were Qingdao electric, and 16 & 17 were Qingdao acoustic. It's probably solid wood. I believe they stopped doing laminate bodies some time before they moved most of the production to China. They were most prevalent during the 80s and 90s. Edited March 27, 2019 by RobinTheHood Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juniorguy Posted March 27, 2019 Author Share Posted March 27, 2019 That's a Qingdao serial number. At some point we deduced that 13 & 15 were Qingdao electric, and 16 & 17 were Qingdao acoustic. It's probably solid wood. I believe they stopped doing laminate bodies some time before they moved most of the production to China. They were most prevalent during the 80s and 90s. Thank you! Just the kind of info I was hoping to find. In the Serial number pages I found, 13 just showed as ???. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gdecantoo Posted March 27, 2019 Share Posted March 27, 2019 (edited) If the description lists it as mahogany, this is more than likely what is under the 1/4 inch thick Poly finish. After changing out the tuners, pots and jack these are great guitars! The other is a 10 dollar pawn shop First Act guitar. Basswood i believe. Still have some work to do on that one. Edited March 27, 2019 by gdecant1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juniorguy Posted March 27, 2019 Author Share Posted March 27, 2019 If the description lists it as mahogany, this is more than likely what is under the 1/4 inch thick Poly finish. After changing out the tuners, pots and jack these are great guitars! The other is a 10 dollar pawn shop First Act guitar. Basswood i believe. Still have some work to do on that one. Nice! If the wood on mine is like that, may have to consider a similar re-finish down the road. Course, won't know til it's stripped. I really like that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorgle Posted March 27, 2019 Share Posted March 27, 2019 Thanks! Should I have said "Laminate"? I know the Epi website lists them as Mahogany, just not sure how that's possible for the price! It may be be mahogany, but don't expect it to be one piece. The body blanks are usually made from 3 or 4 (or more) boards glued together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juniorguy Posted March 30, 2019 Author Share Posted March 30, 2019 Well it's here! Picked it up this morning, replaced the bridge and tuners with some I had on hand. Neck is in great shape, no sprout,frets in good shape. Seller said he'd only tried playing for about 20 min, gave up and put it away. Believable, it still had the original strings on it. A lot lighter than I expected. I looked at one ('04 I believe) in a pawn shop the other day, and it weighed considerably more. The pickup and control cavities were shield painted black, so I can't tell anything about the wood. Plugged it in, and everything works. Pots are clean, and boy! the pickup is pretty hot (to me, anyway). Anyway, gonna play it as-is for a few weeks before I do pickup and electronics. Should be fun! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mihcmac Posted March 30, 2019 Share Posted March 30, 2019 (edited) The standard method of construction on Epiphone solid body mahogany guitars is usually 3 laminated blocks of mahogany with a thin mahogany veneer on the top and back. So if you sand them down for refinish you have to be careful not to go through the veneer. If the body was one solid piece of mahogany the guitar would be much more expensive. Most Gibson's under 1k are usually 2 laminated pieces with similar grain.. Edited March 30, 2019 by mihcmac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gdecantoo Posted March 31, 2019 Share Posted March 31, 2019 I prefer the natural wood look plus i thought it was a little too soon to mention veneer or photoflame! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juniorguy Posted March 31, 2019 Author Share Posted March 31, 2019 The standard method of construction on Epiphone solid body mahogany guitars is usually 3 laminated blocks of mahogany with a thin mahogany veneer on the top and back. So if you sand them down for refinish you have to be careful not to go through the veneer. If the body was one solid piece of mahogany the guitar would be much more expensive. Most Gibson's under 1k are usually 2 laminated pieces with similar grain.. Thanks! Good info to have. Didn't expect 1 piece mahogany in this price range! Just looking forward to a fun project. (When you're retired, you have to find things to keep your mind working.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juniorguy Posted March 31, 2019 Author Share Posted March 31, 2019 I prefer the natural wood look plus i thought it was a little too soon to mention veneer or photoflame! Oh yeah, yours really look great! Not sure if or when I might do anything to the finish. Might look for some way to de-gloss it a bit, cause I'm trying to get a retro, vintage effect. Not all the way to full blown reliced however! I've had "Reliced" instruments, but prefer to do that the old-fashioned way. Just play the dog out of them for years, in every condition imaginable! I appreciate the feedback from everybody. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mihcmac Posted April 1, 2019 Share Posted April 1, 2019 (edited) Thanks! Good info to have. Didn't expect 1 piece mahogany in this price range! Just looking forward to a fun project. (When you're retired, you have to find things to keep your mind working.) I have a few retirement projects, now I am addicted to putting tremolo's on them. Edited April 1, 2019 by mihcmac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted April 1, 2019 Share Posted April 1, 2019 (edited) Thanks! Good info to have. Didn't expect 1 piece mahogany in this price range! Just looking forward to a fun project. (When you're retired, you have to find things to keep your mind working.) This run was made from basswood, which is why it's super light. I bought a TV Yellow from the same run that happened to be made from Asian mahogany. It's as heavy as my 94 G-310. I'm not sure if all.of the Yellow ones were made that way or not. GC only had one yellow SG Jr. And I bought it. Edited April 1, 2019 by RobinTheHood Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mihcmac Posted April 1, 2019 Share Posted April 1, 2019 (edited) This run was made from basswood, which is why it's super light. I bought a TV Yellow from the same run that happened to be made from Asian mahogany. It's as heavy as my 94 G-310. I'm not sure if all.of the Yellow ones were made that way or not. GC only had one yellow SG Jr. And I bought it. My Epi Junior DC, made in Indonesia in the 90's, is also made from mystery wood, could be bass wood but definitely laminated and has a maple neck... One feature of this early Junior is that the control cavity was sized for 4 controls with a large cover plate making the lower part of the cavity is empty, so I added 16oz of lead to the cavity to help balance it. But aside from a few short comings in the quality of the build, this Cort built Junior DC plays really well.. Note a 2011 Junior made at the Gibson Qingdao factory would be all mahogany construction.. Edited April 1, 2019 by mihcmac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted April 2, 2019 Share Posted April 2, 2019 quote name='mihcmac' timestamp='1554145225' post='1985157'] Note a 2011 Junior made at the Gibson Qingdao factory would be all mahogany construction.. The 2011 SG Juniors were listed as basswood with a mahogany veneer and the weight of them seemed to validate that. Mine was made in Samick,Indonesia (23) for some reason, so maybe that's the difference. But the run was supposed to be basswood as an inexpensive alternative to alder. The new SG Junior Player Pack is now back to Alder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mihcmac Posted April 2, 2019 Share Posted April 2, 2019 (edited) The 2011 SG Juniors were listed as basswood with a mahogany veneer and the weight of them seemed to validate that. Mine was made in Samick,Indonesia (23) for some reason, so maybe that's the difference. But the run was supposed to be basswood as an inexpensive alternative to alder. The new SG Junior Player Pack is now back to Alder. Yes that is correctly what the wiki shows but the Epiphone homepage shows for an 2011 era Junior to mahogany.. Epiphone Les Paul Junior info....... Edited April 2, 2019 by mihcmac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gdecantoo Posted April 2, 2019 Share Posted April 2, 2019 2011 is about the time i bought mine. Guitar Center had a stack of them at the front door for $90 each. Took one home and gave it a good once over. After finding what it was made out of i went back the next day and bought a few more! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted April 2, 2019 Share Posted April 2, 2019 (edited) Yes that is correctly what the wiki shows but the Epiphone homepage shows for an 2011 era Junior to mahogany.. Epiphone Les Paul Junior info....... Ah...whoops. My bad. I thought we were talking about the SG Jr. Got confused with a different thread. Just ignore my nonsense. You are correct. The LP Jr. is mahogany. Edited April 2, 2019 by RobinTheHood Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mihcmac Posted April 2, 2019 Share Posted April 2, 2019 (edited) Ah...whoops. My bad. I thought we were talking about the SG Jr. Got confused with a different thread. Just ignore my nonsense. You are correct. The LP Jr. is mahogany. No bad... I noticed the wiki went up to 2004 on the LP Junior listed different materials than the Epiphone site.. I really appreciate having access to the wiki, it has a lot of good history... So thank you for bringing it back.. Edited April 2, 2019 by mihcmac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted April 2, 2019 Share Posted April 2, 2019 The LP Junior has been made with every wood type in the scrap pile. Lol. Not sure why the wiki only goes to 2004. I thought there was a more current entry for it. And thanks. I'm glad I was able to bring it back! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juniorguy Posted April 7, 2019 Author Share Posted April 7, 2019 Thanks for all the valuable info! Got it in, new bridge and tuners first off. New pots and capacitor, and a dog-ear P90 on the way. Hopefully by this time next week it'll be what I wanted going in! Appreciate the help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johntrem Posted May 14, 2019 Share Posted May 14, 2019 My Epi Junior DC, made in Indonesia in the 90's, is also made from mystery wood, could be bass wood but definitely laminated and has a maple neck... One feature of this early Junior is that the control cavity was sized for 4 controls with a large cover plate making the lower part of the cavity is empty, so I added 16oz of lead to the cavity to help balance it. But aside from a few short comings in the quality of the build, this Cort built Junior DC plays really well.. Note a 2011 Junior made at the Gibson Qingdao factory would be all mahogany construction.. That's lovely. I'm jealous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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