The
Epiphone Les Paul Junior Tobacco Sunburst
exudes the strong character of the Student model with P-90 pickup assembly. The body design follows the authentic Singlecut-Shape of the fifties and presents, with its Tobacco Sunburst finish, a historical classic of the Gibson color range, while the Kalamazoo headstock reminds of historical Epiphone instruments. The neck profile of the glued mahogany neck is also based on the Rounded 50s shaping of the original and offers the coveted feeling of the stronger '50s Les Paul necks. An Epiphone P-90 PRO pickup in a Dogear body produces crisp rock sounds with healthy punch and bite and features a straightforward control system with individual volume and tone controls, while the hardware setup of the Epiphone Les Paul Junior Tobacco Sunburst consists of a Lightning Bar wraparound bridge and voice-stable vintage-style tuners.
Although this is a budged priced guitar you will not be disappointed to this instrument's quality, attention to detail or sound. Visually guitar is simple but beautiful with its semi-opaque TV Yellow colour and classic black/white plastic parts. When arrived, guitar was packed meticulously by Musicstore fellas and to my surprise it was also adjusted well and was playable right away from box.
What was not nice was that guitar (and its cavities) was still covered by quite a lot of wood dust from factory and neck side bindings were dirty (dirt was luckily easy to remove). I have noticed that this is typical to Chinese made Epiphones.
Body is mahogany, this example is made of three pieces as far as can see through quite a thick lacquer. Chunky 50s style mahogany neck got nice profile (this is a matter of taste of course). Vintage-style tuners are very accurate. Fretwork in brown Rosewood looking fretboard is tidy enough but a professional luthier can make fretwork even better with reasonable money. Nut is surprisingly well cut Nubone/GrapTech and much better than plastic one which is typical "Epiphone standard".
P90 Pro pickups are a nice surprise soundwise. All four potentiometers are 500K and CTS-made. "Lightning Bar" bridge is a matter of taste. For my opinion it good choice to this kind of guitar though you never get intonation spot on right. You can easily fix this by buying and aftermarket wrap-around bridge (Schaller or Wilkinson or similar).
Guitar is much lighter than typical Les Paul because this do not have a maple cap over mahogany body. Also body is thinner than in traditional Les Paul but same than Gibson Les Paul Special. Guitar is very resonant even though factory original 10-46 strings are of poor quality. Connected to amp there is no too much hum which it typical to P90s. Pickups are displaying surprisingly wide tonal sensitivity for everything from blues and rock to jazz (I love P90 equipped guitars in general so my opinion here is openly biased😊).
Summa Summarum: this new Inspired by Gibson Les Paul Special is a real steal if you are seeking P90 equipped old school guitar. It is also a great base for modders.