RobinTheHood Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 I pickup up a Limited Edition SG Junior in TV Yellow this weekend. Its a Christmas present for my daughter. She finally decided to learn how to play guitar. She's been practicing on my G-310 for about a month now and has been making great progress. I told her that if she sticks with it and shows improvement that I would buy her a full sized guitar. She has a hard time with the mini. Its even hard for me to play properly. So I've been giving her lessons a few times a week and we have been working on building dexterity in those little fingers. I think I have forgetten just how hard that first step is. But we had a little 2-note jam session this weekend, and I was thrilled. So I took her to GC to look around and try out guitars. She fell in love with the SG Junior and it was a perfect fit for her in terms of full sized guitars. So I went back the next day and bought one on the sly. Of course I set it up and played with it for a few hours. Its a great little git and I love it. -Differences They had two floor models; a TV-Yellow and a Worn Cherry. The floor model was the only TV-Yellow they had and that is ultimatley the one I bought. It was barely touched, and I like that. I noticed some differences between the Yellow and Cherry guitars. Firstly, the cherry was light, as in LIGHT! It felt like a piece of balsa wood. No joke. The TV-Yellow was much weightier and seems to weigh about the same as my G-310. Maybe just a tad lighter due to less electronics. But not much at all...and the G310 is a pretty light guitar compared to my strats. The Yellow also sounded a bit snappier unplugged, but that may be because the strings had less wear on them. EDIT: I pulled the neck on this guitar and it turned out to be a solid mahogany body. Not basswood at all like advertised. I'm pretty confident that the cherry (and most likely the ebony) versions are basswood due to their weight, but for some reason they used mahogany on the TV-Yellow. (pics further down the thread). Also, upon assembly, it seems that they put this thing together while the finish was still a little soft. I had some minor chipping around the neck-plate screw holes and the plate itself was sort of stuck to the finish. The back of the neck heel has a barcode or SKU sticker that reads "Gibson USA". Another difference were the fret ends. The Yellow was nice and smooth like they should be. The Cherry fret ends were a little sharp and very noticable when you run your hand along the bottom of the board. I wasnt digging that at all. The last difference was the neck wood. Both have scarf joints at the 3rd fret. But the Cherry being transparent ,as it were, seemed to have a better match for neck grains. You can see though the finish on the yellow, and above the joint is your typical mahogany grain pattern. Below the scarf joint it is much darker wood with thicker grains. Being that this has a less translucent finish, I am assuming they used a less choice wood for the neck in terms of aesthetics. You can also see this same dark wood grain on the back of the guitar. Obviously the cherry body is veneered, so there is no comparing the two in this aspect. -Fit & Finish The fit and finish on both of them was very good. I didnt examine the cherry model closely, but nothing stood out. The Yellow has a little overspray around the neck pocket, but its not really noticable. The matte finish on the Yellow Jr. makes it look kind of plastic-like as opposed to the cherry with a wood grain veneer that minimizes the plactic look. The beveling on the body is fantastic. It is twice as wide as the beveling on my G-310 and brings the body profile to about 1/2" at its narrowest point. It looks and feels more like a true SG body with this beveling. The frets are dressed nicely and feel good. The matte finish on the headstock looks superb and the TV-Yellow is a nice mild color with the wood grain barely visible...just like it should be. -Electronics The pickup is ok. Typical low-end Epiphone fare. I like them hotter, but again, it is what it is for the money. I think Matiac has a more in depth evaluation of the sound of these pickups in his review. I forgot to check the unplugged resonance compared to my laminated G-310. The potentiometers were loose like we all have come to expect from Epiphone. But they work and they are 500k full-size Alpha pots, so I'm not complaining. This guitar could use a whole electronics overhaul to get the best out of it, and if it were for me, thats exactly what I would do. -Hardware Typical covered el-cheapo tuners. These will be replaced eventually. They hold tune pretty good right now, but I'm not counting on their longevity. Compensated wraparound bridge seems to be intonated decently. I havent really examined it closely with a tuner yet, but nothing sounds weird and the guitar handles open and barre chords correctly. -Setup A little high from the factory. I adjusted in down to (close to) spec and tuned it up to play in a few quick minutes. No buzzing or high frets and the neck is angled/shimmed properly from the factory. The upper register feels good and I may try getting it a little lower to see how it handles the height. All in all, I'd say this one is a keeper. I'm not sure why there is such a large discrepancy between the cherry and TV-yellow when is comes to the fret-ends and weight. I was told that they had all just arrived last week in the same shipment. I must have gotten a Tuesday-Thursday guitar. Limited Edition SG Junior TV Yellow Front bevel comparison to 1994 G-310 Horn bevel comparison Side bevel comparison Scarf joint wood grains Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grandmaster Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 Looks like a very nice guitar, for $100 its a real steal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted November 7, 2011 Author Share Posted November 7, 2011 $119 at Guitar Center. This weekend they did a $20 off $100+ sale. I bought the 2 year extended warranty, so $125 total. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeweyCox Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 Great beveling, better than on Gibson USA:s… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted November 7, 2011 Author Share Posted November 7, 2011 Great beveling, better than on Gibson USA:s… Wow. I knew it was close or comparable to Gibson beveling, but I didnt think it would be better. The beveling is something we have been complaining about here for years. Its nice to see that they have been listening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brad1 Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 Congrats on the cool find Robin. That guitar looks great. And it must feel good that your daughter is starting to take to the guitar. She has great taste too. SGs are some of the best looking guitars around. Thanks for the great review too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magneezo Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 Have any of you seen the Special II LP ltd ed with P-90's? it's only $129 too. Just saw them last week in the same isle that these SG's were on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaSTuS Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 Great review Rob, that's a fantastic chrissy present, and it's wonderful your girl is starting to take an interest, cheers to you both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted November 8, 2011 Author Share Posted November 8, 2011 Congrats on the cool find Robin. That guitar looks great. And it must feel good that your daughter is starting to take to the guitar. She has great taste too. SGs are some of the best looking guitars around. Yeah, its about time, too. I agree, SGs are real lookers! and.... you're a Good Dad Maybe a little too good. Have any of you seen the Special II LP ltd ed with P-90's? it's only $129 too. Just saw them last week in the same isle that these SG's were on. I must have missed those. LPs were so far off my radar that day, I'm not surprised. Great review Rob, that's a fantastic chrissy present, and it's wonderful your girl is starting to take an interest, cheers to you both. Thanks, Rob. I want a Christmas present like that. I guess I'll have to wait for my income tax refund present instead. I've been thinking a lot about the weight differentces between the two guitars. Then looking at the neck grain and comparing it to the body grain (though they are hard to see), they look almost identical. I'm starting to wonder if maybe the TV-Yellow is mahogany. Basswood doesnt have a dark grain that would show through under the yellow finish...at least not the pics i've seen of it. I know there are different densities of woods to explain the weight difference, but unless Epiphone manually stained a basswood body to show through the finish, you shouldnt be able to see the grain...and it shouldnt match the neck like it does. I think I may scrape some paint out of the control cavity and have a look-see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supersonic Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 Great review and great pics. I love the beveling. That should be a most excellent present for your daughter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted November 8, 2011 Author Share Posted November 8, 2011 Great review and great pics. I love the beveling. That should be a most excellent present for your daughter. Thanks, man. I like the beveling too. After having owned a Gibson, the Epiphone bodies have never looked quite right to me. I hope they follow suit on the rest of their SG line. I've decided that I'm going to pull the neck on this thing to get a really good look at the wood. I'll take pics and let you all have a gander. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
animalfarm Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 Spotted the Flag from you, Cap'n. DID YOU KNOW that you cannot rcv PMs AGAIN????????? I'm in pain, but functioning - I'll get it in the Review Thread! Excellent Bevelling on this one!!! Me jealous. All-in-all a sweet and cost-friendly grab! WHY won't EPI step up a level or two on the TUNERS? Don't they realize most of us just throw them away? Good grief - I can buy dirt-cheap tuners from Guitarfetish that are superior to those "Gag-o-matic" covered tuners featured on TOO MANY of the "entry-level" Geets. THAT is the GLARING "Weakest Link" on too many low cost EPIs. Lord, I bought my Jay Turser JT200 Pro Double Cut-Away LP (See Review Thread, PLEASE) for the same money, and it's built like a $400 - $500 Epi LP. Rock-Solid. I DID replace the tuners with Gibson Deluxe Tulips, but I AM keeping the original Turser Tuners - would be PERFECT for a Git like Yours. Cheap, but BETTER than the tinfoil covered BLECCCCH that came with it. HEY! Wanna buy some Tuners? (heh-heh). Lovely Guitar, my friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted November 8, 2011 Author Share Posted November 8, 2011 Spotted the Flag from you, Cap'n. DID YOU KNOW that you cannot rcv PMs AGAIN????????? I'm in pain, but functioning - I'll get it in the Review Thread! No big deal, Greg. I posted that to your profile before I knew about the incident...like about 1/2 hour before, actually. Good to see you around and not letting it get you down! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
animalfarm Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 It's in........... Do I have to bring up the "HEY, IDIOTS!!! CLEAR YOUR INBOX" thread again???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted November 8, 2011 Author Share Posted November 8, 2011 Excellent Bevelling on this one!!! Me jealous. All-in-all a sweet and cost-friendly grab! WHY won't EPI step up a level or two on the TUNERS? Don't they realize most of us just throw them away? Good grief - I can buy dirt-cheap tuners from Guitarfetish that are superior to those "Gag-o-matic" covered tuners featured on TOO MANY of the "entry-level" Geets. THAT is the GLARING "Weakest Link" on too many low cost EPIs. Thats a really good point. Most of us just toss 'em to the side. And like you said, better quality die-cast tuners can be just as inexpensive. Maybe the cost of changing the drill bit from 8mm to 10mm is just to much for Epiphone to bear. lol. Anyway, its the same neck as the G-310. Why not just standardize and make them all 10mm die-cast? I know for a fact I'll be changing these tuners in a year or so...maybe sooner? I'm not looking forward to boring out the main hole, drilling pilots and then having unsightly left-over screw holes. If they were die-cast, I'd just leave them. I havent had a problem with one yet. It's in........... Do I have to bring up the "HEY, IDIOTS!!! CLEAR YOUR INBOX" thread again???? Thanks, and yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted November 9, 2011 Author Share Posted November 9, 2011 Well, fellas, it looks like mahogany to me. I think I got a winner with this one. I'll change my review to reflect this finding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matiac Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 Yeah, the beveling is pretty damn close to a Gibson if not spot-on. I was looking at a picture I have of a 2007 SG Standard I had, I side-by-sided the pictures, and apart from the single pickup and the peghead, from the front they were identical. And I was looking at yours next to the 310, and it was quite a difference between the two, the 310 almost had no bevel at all next to the Junior. I said it before, I'll say it again, these little guitars are pretty big bang for the buck, your daughter will be most psyched. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damian Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 Forgive my question.......These are solid, not ply then ??? ( I'm NOT judging, just wondering )....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted November 10, 2011 Author Share Posted November 10, 2011 Forgive my question.......These are solid, not ply then ??? ( I'm NOT judging, just wondering )....... Yeah, probably a three-piece body. The older SG Juniors from the 1990's were ply with a mahogany top & bottom. Most of the LP Juniors are still ply. I believe that some of the Cherry LP Juniors are solid mahogany. There is a thread about it on here somewhere. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.