Gibson "60s SG Junior"

[gwEm]

http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/SG/Gibson-USA/SG-Junior-60s.aspx

with our favourite full-on baked maple board



i actually have GAS, but I'll just have to fend it off for the time being.

[Philly Q]

I am put off by the slim-taper neck and - yes - the baked maple.

But it's still pretty $%&#in' cool, I have to say.

(I see they're mucking about with knob placement again, though....)

[gwEm]

i don't care about the knob placement (its not as good looking at the original, but its not horrible) or the baked maple, which i even quite like.

as you say its pretty cool! they could have done a better job though. but it seems fairly cheap.

[AndyR]

Does indeed look pretty cool.

Knobs don't worry me too much (I don't actually know offhand where they are on the originals!). The fretboards in the pics on the linked Gibson page look a bit anaemic, but a bunch of the comments there say the pics don't do it justice and that it looks fine.

Doesn't really get my GAS going again though... (much too scared of all the money flowing out of my pockets at the moment) ... but it's the closest thing I've seen to re-awakening the GAS recently... Still, if you guys wanted to club together and get me one for a house-warming present, I wouldn't say no... :lol:

[gwEm]

(much too scared of all the money flowing out of my pockets at the moment)

know what you mean, i'm attempting to go through the house buying procedure myself... mate, i've never felt so poor!

[Philly Q]

(much too scared of all the money flowing out of my pockets at the moment)

know what you mean, i'm attempting to go through the house buying procedure myself... mate, i've never felt so poor!

The only time I've ever been overdrawn was when I first bought my flat.  It is an expensive process!

[WezV]

needs a white/cream version

[Alex]

I examined some of these Gibson fretboards up close on Saturday. They look worse in real life than they do on the pictures IMO. I'm not even saying they sound bad - I'm a fan of maple in general, but the look on Gibsons is just very bad.

[gwEm]

needs a white/cream version

yeah, i was thinking that - with an ebony board

[Philly Q]

I examined some of these Gibson fretboards up close on Saturday. They look worse in real life than they do on the pictures IMO. I'm not even saying they sound bad - I'm a fan of maple in general, but the look on Gibsons is just very bad.

Just in terms of the colour?  I assume the grain is nice and tight like normal maple (unless the "baking" process does something weird to it), so the feel of it should be good.

I think it looks worst on those LP Classic Customs.  I'm sure they're decent enough guitars, but they look like cheap copies with those pale brown fretboards.  They should've used the treated obeche or richlite, to at least get the colour right.

[AndyR]

Sorry if I've missed this before... but this "baking process", is the colour skin-deep or more fundamental than that?

I agree with folks that the "paler" look seems to make us all think "cheap". The comments on the Gibbo page (and Gibbo customers often seem to be quite aggressive in their complaints!) seem to suggest the boards look ok in real life.

But I'm thinking, if we think it looks cheap now, what are we going to think when there are wear patterns similar to nice worn Fenders? Somehow a worn-in Fender looks cool to me, but similar wear on a Gibbo looks, er, not so cool...

[gwEm]

if you scroll the first image to the right, i think it looks pretty close to how it is in real life.

it does look a bit unnatural compared to rosewood, the grain is less pronounced and the colour is very uniform. its a sort of 'light chocolate' colour.

i have seen alot worse looking gibson rosewood than baked maple, but baked maple does look pretty average compared to a nice bit.

i like the feel of it - its hard and smooth.

i think the baking process they use makes it all have the same shade of brown, which is a bit weird compared to rosewood, but (i think) still quite acceptable.

its hard to say how this will change as the instrument ages. but from the instruments i've tried in shops, i'm not opposed to the material as things stand. obviously i'd prefer something else, but i'm happy to get on with it!

[gwEm]

(its interesting that while Fender is going through a bit of a second 'golden age' at moment, Gibson are blatantly cutting costs and being generally below par... still won't stop me GASsing for this SG though)

(would also like to know what baked maple looks like when cut)

[HTH AMPS]

These are a weird proposition I find - the baked fretboards just don't look right, I can't get past it.  The last SG junior reissues Gibson put out at around the £699 tag were miles better looking.

What I can't deny though is that these baked boards play very nice indeed, snappy and resonant - I liked them a lot.  If it was purely on how they play/feel, then Gibson would be on to a winner.

[WezV]

i assume the baked maple is relatively consistent in colour throughout.

with other torrified woods i have seen they have always done it in larger blanks which are then sawn and worked as needed,

they couldn't bake a finished fretboard as it would change shape and size