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Post your modded Juniors...


antwhi2001

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  • 2 months later...

Thought I'd add my pride and joy to an old thread rather than start a new one...

 

By the way, hello. I'm new here. I've been lurking for a couple of months now and taking in all of the info I could about modding Juniors, but finally registered a few days ago and wanted to post a couple of pics and info about my Junior and it's couple of mods.

 

My Junior was a bone-stock 2010 Indonesian Sunburst, with the Epi humbucker, plastic nut, and crappy tuners. I bought it at Guitar Center back in February, when I decided to fill a hole in my life and actually learn how to play guitar correctly (after 32 years of playing "adequately"; that story is reserved for another post). Anyway, this Junior was the first one I pulled down and played. I didn't even know what the price was, and it felt so good in my hands that I had to have it. I absolutely LOVE the neck on this thing, and after having GC set it up with lower action and Regular Slinkys, it was perfect for me. I was pleasantly surprised that it was only $120.

 

It sounded ok through my Microcube (my only amp at the current time), but the humbucker left a lot to be desired. I wanted it to have a little more "growl" to it's sound; a gritty, blues tone that I've heard on Firebird and Gov't Mule albums (Bill Steer from Firebird, my favorite guitar player, had some influence on me picking a Sunburst, as he plays a couple of real '57s). I had some problems with my B string staying in tune after a few bends, the same string, as well as the high E was also a bit lower on the neck than it should have been due to a badly grooved plastic nut, and the humbucker had too much of a muddy sound when playing on a classic or brit combo setting (it was fine on the rectifier setting, but that's too much of a metal sound for me). I did a lot of research on various sites, YouTube, and this forum, and did two mods to it today. I am VERY happy with how it turned out; I've got VERY close to the tone I want, and I can't wait to hear it through a true rig (a Marshall Class 5 and 2-12 cabinet are on my list).

 

Based on info mainly from this forum, I snagged a Graph-Tech Tusq nut in white (off eBay for $8), and a GFS Dream 90 pickup (locally off Craigslist for $20!) with a chrome cover, and installed them today. Here are the pics:

 

jr1.jpg

 

jr2.jpg

 

jr3.jpg

 

The nut was extremely easy to sand to fit and install, and I only lost a very small part of the finish when popping the old one off (on the left side of the headstock, next to the truss rod cover). Since I've got lots of experience fixing pinball machines, juke boxes, and various other pieces of coin-operated and computer equipment, the pickup was a no-brainer as well. After restringing the guitar and playing for a few hours, it stays in tune a whole lot better than it did; a couple of strings going very slightly flat, but that could be from the new strings needing more stretching and wearing time. I just love how the Dream 90 picks up (no pun intended) how light or hard I attack the strings, has a very nice top and bottom end sound now, and has much of that grit I was looking for.

 

I'm super happy with how these mods turned out. Who knew that such an inexpensive guitar could sound so good with just a few minor tweaks? My next mods will be new tuners, pots, and input jack to complete the transformation.

 

Thanks to ALL here who have contributed their modding experiences and have greatly inspired me to upgrade my Junior.

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Wow, some really nice looking JRs. here!

 

Not mine any more, I sold it a few years ago, I'm just not a P90 guy, I have tried, but I don't like them. I took out the P-100 and put a GFS P-90 in it, along with some other modifications.

 

Juniorwithmodsbasementfull.jpg

 

Juniorwithmodsbasementbody.jpg

 

57JRRITuners.jpg

 

I've been trying to locate one of these locally, but to no avail so far. I should have snagged one years ago when I bought my Ibanez RG120. Oh well... someday...

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OK it's been 5 weeks. Wassup?

Oho, I totally forgot about this thread. I actually ordered a Lace Alumitone Deathbucker for my Jr, but it got lost in oblivion for about 6 weeks after I got the 12-day shipping option. <_<

 

deathbucker.jpg

 

Used that, and a push-pull for coil-tapping (real coil-tapping too, not splitting like 90% of mods called 'coil-tapping'!)

 

In addition, I had an awesome box of crackers in the background. [thumbup]

 

I'm looking around for a Nanomag to put on this thing too.. [glare]

 

AND I tried some of those vinyl inlays on it, they held up pretty well, but they annoyed me whenever I bent a note over one, so I binned them.

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Welcome to the forums SR, and grats on the JR, glad to see your so happy with it, and a nice lot of mods too, HNGD.

 

Thanks! Glad to be here.

 

It turns out that I sanded the nut down a little *too* far, and had to order another one. After I set the Junior up and it sat for a couple of days, I was having some problems with the strings touching the first fret, and there was no way to fix it without raising the action to an uncomfortable height. Putting the original nut back in fixed the problem. This was after doing innumerable adjustments to the truss rod and bridge.

 

Oh well... live and learn. That's what projects like this, and natch, life, is all about :)

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Here's Julia.... A modded Gibby Satin Junior ....

 

Yes... very nice. You've definitely nailed that one perfectly.

 

I've got serious GAS from playing a Gibby Junior over the weekend, but I'm saving for a Marshall Class 5 head and 2-12 cab at the moment, so it'll have to wait...

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It turns out that I sanded the nut down a little *too* far, and had to order another one. After I set the Junior up and it sat for a couple of days, I was having some problems with the strings touching the first fret, and there was no way to fix it without raising the action to an uncomfortable height. Putting the original nut back in fixed the problem. This was after doing innumerable adjustments to the truss rod and bridge.

Try using the method explained in THIS post on getting your nut height and neck relief setup correctly.

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Try using the method explained in THIS post on getting your nut height and neck relief setup correctly.

 

Your method is quite similar to mine. My problem is a simple case of taking too much off of the bottom of the nut; it's very close to the original nut, but just low enough to throw everything out of wack. If I adjust it to the action I truly want, I get dead frets after the 17th or so. With the original nut, I don't have those problems. I'll just have to await the replacement and take better care in sanding it down to fit...

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Man! I just love the look of Lennonized Jr's…

Just out of pure curiosity, where do you get those neck pickups?

 

Thanx man!!!

 

It's a vintagevibeguitars CC-Rider pup in the neck position.... Here's a little demo I made with the neck pup....

 

(Sorry to the members that have to endure this demo again [blush]

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2Auuq3LPZc

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Not mine, but found this pic while checking out the web for other modded Juniors, and thought it was kind of neat. I'm posting it here in case someone can find a little inspiration in it...

 

bdjr.jpg

 

(If I was wrong to post this here, please accept my apologies)

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  • 1 year later...

Hope I wont get flamed for resurrecting an old thread as my first post, but I really like a lot of the guitars and modifications that are shown in this thread. I just recently purchased a couple of used Epi Juniors myself and plan on modifying them a bit. The nut and probably the tuners to start.

Also, I noticed the necks and fretwork seem really nice on these guitars and was wondering.. how low can you get the action on them? I'd like mine really low if possible, they're kind of medium in height right now..

 

SSPX0086.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

$49 (with HSC)for this POS. It was falling apart, had a big gouge in the back of the body. So I stripped the rattle-can "finish" and went to work.

oldgit1.jpg

 

For a total outlay of $100, and some elbow grease, I ended up with this.

IMG_3633.jpg

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Not mine, but found this pic while checking out the web for other modded Juniors, and thought it was kind of neat. I'm posting it here in case someone can find a little inspiration in it...

 

bdjr.jpg

 

(If I was wrong to post this here, please accept my apologies)

 

 

Sold the silver Jr but have been busy modding the sunburst: So far have added knockoff vintage Gibby tuners, oil & paper cap, tusq nut & swapped the stock PU out for an Epi Dot 57 bridge PU. More still planned..

 

P4144154.jpg

http://i1212.photobu...11/P4144152.jpg

http://i1212.photobu...11/P4144157.jpg

 

 

$49 (with HSC)for this POS. It was falling apart, had a big gouge in the back of the body. So I stripped the rattle-can "finish" and went to work.

oldgit1.jpg

 

For a total outlay of $100, and some elbow grease, I ended up with this.

IMG_3633.jpg

 

All good ones that I'd be happy to own. Here's a group shot of the latest gaggle of Jrs:

 

P1070188_zpsc580f49c.jpg

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Thats a really nice double cutaway Jr, Tweed. Beautiful job on what was almost a throwaway guitar to start with. And nice collection there, Brian. I really like these Jr LPs, so simple yet play & sound really nice. And cheap. You can really make a great player for very low funds. :)

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