Gibson USA Lukas Nelson ’56 Les Paul Junior: Classic looks with minor modern tweaks
The new Gibson USA signature Lukas Nelson ’56 Les Paul Junior comes in a fantastic Satin Vintage Sunburst finish and is based on Mr Nelson’s favourite old Junior.
Gibson USA Lukas Nelson ’56 Les Paul Junior
The brand new Lukas Nelson ’56 Les Paul Junior from Gibson is based on the Nelson’s own vintage LP Junior, but with a few modern enhancements. The model looks pretty sweet in its Satin Vintage Sunburst nitrocellulose finish and I’m sure many LP Junior fans will love it!
Gibson USA Lukas Nelson ’56 Les Paul Junior · Source: Gibson
Classic design
The guitar has classic LP Junior DNA, with its combination of a slab mahogany body and a fat 50s-style neck. The one major ‘modification’ – if you can call it that – would be the medium jumbo frets that are loaded on the rosewood fingerboard with dot inlays. These modern frets will make the guitar just that much smoother to play, without detracting in any way from the traditional build. You do get a custom truss rod cover, but apart from that, it looks just the way you would expect an old LP Junior should.
Gibson USA Lukas Nelson ’56 Les Paul Junior · Source: Gibson
Dog Ear P90
The single dog ear P-90 pickup features Alnico 3 magnets, and is wired via a single volume and tone knob. The guitar uses 500k vintage audio taper pots and an Orange Drop capacitor to get as close to vintage spec as possible. I’m a huge fan of single pickup guitars, and LP Juniors, so this formula of stripped-ball works for me.
Other hardware includes a 50s-style wraparound bridge, with a modern compensation contour to improve intonation, and a set of Vintage Deluxe strip Kluson-style button tuners, which is what one would expect on a guitar such as this. It’s a great looking Les Paul Junior, with only a few minor tweaks to help make it more playable, what’s not to like?
If you cannot quite budget the $1600 for this American made guitar, you could have a look at the Harley Benton DC Junior that we covered recently, and comes in at a fraction of the cost.
You can hear Nelson talk about the instrument in the video below.
RRP – USD 1599 – GBP 1469
More Information
Video
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