1955 Gibson Les Paul Junior Electric Guitar

Talk about holy grails, right? I was very excited to lift the lid of the case on this one! Les Paul Juniors are very hip guitars and, between the volume, tone, and the delicious P90, there's not much they can't do musically if you put your mind to it. This one was made in the model's second year of production and it's superb. It has the bigger, round, 50s-style C-shaped neck, just the right amount of heft, and that stripped-down Gibson-meets-Tele vibe.

The owner of this guitar brought it up on Friday and had me refret it while he waited. I used StewMac wide/pyramid material -- I love the stuff -- and the result was a much more satisfying player. This has the original low, thin stock on it and considering the owner's playing style, it was not a match for him.

Both Les Paul and Chet Atkins signed the guitar at a 1990 concert -- for which there's a ticket stub stashed in the case.

The bridge was relocated a bit by a past repairman and it certainly helped the intonation. Still -- these aren't fully-compensated so if you want to keep things original one has to stuffer a bit of sharp up the neck on the B and G strings.

Mahogany, mahogany, mahogany!