The Les Paul Standard is an icon, and while their are a few variations the basic guitar shape and layout is pretty standard. Perhaps as you'd expect for something called the Standard. Two volume knobs, two tone knobs, a toggle on the top, a Tune-o-Matic bridge. And most of the variations vary on pretty small things, the biding, the fret board inlays, sometimes the wood the top is made out of. When you say "Les Paul" we all have a picture of that "ur" Les Paul, and it's even used as the logo for the Hardrock Cafe.
But, when you get to the Juniors all standardization pretty much goes out the window, and it collapses entirely with the Double Cut models. Even the name is confusing, as both the single cut and double cut models are referred to as the Les Paul Junior. The "double cut" moniker was not applied by Gibson until relatively recently, perhaps around 2000? In certain years the Junior was an SG shape, but with a single pickup. More confusion around the name.
For a while in the early 2000s, perhaps in response to Paul Reed Smith guitars Gibson tried to meld the fancy maple tops of the Les Paul Standard with body of the Double Cut Jr. It was not a happy marriage, and all such guitars disappeared from the catalog a long time ago. For the last few years the DC totally disappeared out of the Gibson catalog, except of the Billy Armstrong Signature model.
Gibson has issued the guitar with P-90s, a noise cancelling version of the P-90, the P-100 and mini-humbuckers. They come with one or two pickups, the single bridge pickup being true to the original design, the dual pickup version came out a couple years later. There at least 4 or 5 different pickguard shapes to accommodate all the different pickup and control layouts that the Junior DC has seen.
This years 2019 model has the single pickup, but a new weird pickguard and the input jack location has moved from the side (like on almost all other LP's) to the top (like on a Gibson L6-S). Maybe this is to bring costs down, but it's fugly. The damn thing is in the way there, too.
Like the Flying V, Gibson has never been able to decide how many knobs it really needs. The single pickup models seem to have two pretty consistently, but the two pickup models have come with 2, 3, and 4 knobs in various layouts over the years, three in a row, three in a triangle shape.
Bridges seem to alternate back and forth between Tune-0-Matic style and the older one piece, the latter being the one that belongs on the guitar, pretty obviously. But they resist proper intonation.
Regardless of year the colors offered tend to be restricted to heritage cherry, TV yellow and black.
This year the only other LP Junior DC's, besides the fugly budget model, are Custom Shop versions that claim to reproduce the authentic originals. The "1958 Les Paul Junior Double Cut Reissue" is $3,800. The 1960 Reissue has two pickups, and is also $3800. Either can be had in a in TV Yellow or Cherry Red, naturally. I guess maybe they might sell one of these, I don't know. Personally if I was every going to spend almost $4,000 on a new guitar from Gibson I'd be a lot more likely to want something with fancy fret markers, nice bindings, or a killer tiger-stripe maple top. The Custom Shop Flying V is completely over-the-top in terms of gold hardware and stuff, but at least you can see what your $4,000 is buying.
Not that Gibson cares, but my advice to them would be to stick to the layout they have on the reissues, which one assumes is how Les Paul designed them, and really hasn't been improved with the last 20 years of endless variations. They should be inexpensive, but not obviously cheapened. Some great players have used and loved the Junior DC, and it needs to be treated better by Gibson, hopefully the new management will get it together with regards to this classic guitar.
The 1958 single pickup. Cherry Red.
The 1960 dual pickup. TV Yellow.
This year's model: Les Paul Junior Tribute DC 2019 in "Alternate Finish" worn ebony.
Year unknown. The "Single Cut"? With factory Tune-O-Matic
Someone had to. Looks fun!
A year 2000 Junior "Lite" .. P100's and trapezoid fret markers.
Keith.
the late Johnny Thunders of the New York Dolls
Joan Jett
