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why is a junior a jr? and what defines a special? and post your pics of each

evol04gt

By evol04gt
in Epiphone Electrics

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pohatu771

pohatu771

Posted
Posted

I assume "soap bar" means P90, in this case... I'm not sure why you're talking about Fender, but...

 

Gibson introduced the Les Paul in 1951, with a carved top and two P90s.

 

In 1954, they introduced the Les Paul Junior, with a single P90 and a slab mahogany body for $50. It was a student model.

 

They eventually added the Les Paul Special, which was a Les Paul Junior with two P90s.

 

Eventually things evolved and humbuckers were available, but the body/pickup arrangement has stayed the same.

 

[EDIT] Well, I just realized what you were talking about...

 

I just saw a picture of a "Telecaster Jr." which looks very much like a Les Paul Junior, including the soapbar pickups.

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Lerxst1281733995

Lerxst1281733995

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They did... They issued a limited edition '57 reissue Junior.. Before that, they made a double-cut Special, which was also an LE.. Currently, they make a bolt-on, plywood Junior with a humbucker that used to cost $99, but I guess they upped the price to over $150, since MF was selling "blems" for that much a little while ago.. Those don't show up on their web-site product list for some reason... The 100 and the Special II are not Juniors..

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evol04gt

evol04gt

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yep.... znd those puppies are hard to find...the fender webcite has a shot of a mahogany with red clear and the p 90s.. looks like a lespaul with the p90s and slab body..... i will say p90 and soapbar interchanged and yall will get very upset buy it at some point.

 

 

funny the more on on the epi cite, the more i miss my fenders...the more on on fender, the more i miss my EPIsons. lol

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RotcanX

RotcanX

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The P-90 comes in two "flavours".. the soapbar and the dogear. You see the soapbar on LP Specials and the '56 GT and you see the dogear on the Junior (and, BTW, on the Casino).

 

Speaking of hard to find, try and get your paws on one of these Epiphone LP Specials:

 

LPSP.jpg

...it's da Bob Marley guitar!

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Bakz

Bakz

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I have to reply to this. I'm a big Flat Top Fan. Here is my current array:

 

000_0844.jpg

 

These are all exceptional playing and sounding instruments with set necks. The Chinese SoBe is my current favorite. I despise the finish, and the bridge pickup sounds brittle. But the playability, intonation, and overall "gnarliness' make it a keeper and very difficult to put down. It's the guitar you hate to love.

 

Over the years Gibson/Epi have offered a variety of Specials, Juniors and "the Pauls" at the lower range of the Les Paul product line. Juniors generally have a single pickup, while the Specials and the Pauls have two. Traditionally the Juniors and Specials used the P90 single coil. Soapbars and Dog Ears are two different ways of mounting the pickup. They are virtually the same pups internally, and quite similar in appearance. Today, they include a variety of humbuckers P90s and P100s (a stacked HB), mounted in both soapbar and dog ear fashion.

 

The 57 Junior above has a P100 dogear that has been modded to a P90. The 79 unlester has a pair of Kent Armstrong HB90s with lead foil caps and CTS pots. The SoBe, is stock although I have a GFS Dream 90 I'm going to put in the bridge.

 

You just gotta Love that thick P90 sound.

 

PS - RotcanX, Yes they are hard to come by. I love your Special. That's a Japanese LQ limited isn't it? Post some more pics, and tell us some more about it.

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RotcanX

RotcanX

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There's no hard and fast rule, but, in a nutshell, the "Special" tends to be the budget version of the "Standard" instrument, and the "Junior" is the beginner's ultra-low-budget single pickup version. On the other end you have the deluxe "Custom" version. While Specials typically came with P-90 pickups which were considered inferior to the new humbucking design, today you see Specials with humbuckers, such as the SG Special with its pair of 490s. They even had a LP Special Deluxe for a while that had 490/498 pickups and a uncarved flame maple top. You'll see Hubert Sumlin playing one of these on the first "Crossroads" DVD.

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RotcanX

RotcanX

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Ok.... I understand the difference between the Jr. and the Special but I don't understand the difference between the special and 100s.

 

Well, Special IIs and -100s are just Epiphone models, they have no equivalent, per se, in the Gibson world... althogh Gibson made some really crappy SGs once such as the SG-200; these were somewhere between a Special and a Junior. The Epiphone LP-100 (and the G-310) are kind of like Special IIs but with the full complement of knobs... and maybe better construction i.e. solid wood bodies instead of plywood, but that has varied over the years.

 

Basically the Epi hierarchy is something like this for the Les Paul:

 

LP Black Beauty

LP Custom

LP Ultra

LP Prophecy models

LP Standard set neck

LP Standard bolt neck (no longer available)

LP Studio & Studio goth

LP Special (LE)

LP '57 Reissue (LE)

LP-100

LP Special II

LP Junior

 

...plus a whack of Signature models and miscellaneous discontinued flops.

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RotcanX

RotcanX

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PS - RotcanX' date=' Yes they are hard to come by. I love your Special. That's a Japanese LQ limited isn't it? Post some more pics, and tell us some more about it. [/quote']

 

Yeah... and I just ordered a pair of Seymour Duncan P-90s for it, a SP90-1 for the neck and an SP90-2 for the bridge. I'll post some photos once I get 'em in.

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