1964 Gibson SG Junior Electric Guitar

Above: demo video

Above: a quick jam with Todd playing

My friend Steve sent this guitar up for sale and I immediately fell in love with it. This is pretty-much an ideal electric guitar for me -- I like one-pickup instruments, I like one-piece bridge designs, and I like the balance and lightweight build of SGs and the ridiculous fret access. It's also got a finish that has faded to a deep red-brown from its cherry beginnings and it's just about perfect, now.

Fortunately for me, local buddy Kerry decided to snag this before I could start thinking about grabbing it myself. He agreed with me that it might be nicer to run the bridge as a normal wraparound load and yank the Vibrola whammy off the top and stash it in the case, so that's why you see it in these photos with the Vibrola removed despite it being on the guitar in the videos. Yes, tone is a little cleaner and fuller with it off. Yes, tuning stability is much, much improved. Yes, Vibrolas are cool but perhaps not the most practical whammy ever made.

It appears entirely original (save a replacement, retro-style bridge -- the original is in the case) and is in good order. It only needed a level/dress of the frets and minor setup work before I hung it out in the shop.

One huge advantage of SG Juniors over their normal siblings is that the neck tenon is nice and long and sturdily glued. These don't tend to get the joint destruction that the ones routed for a neck humbucker tend to have when they get bumped hard.