Gibson Les Paul Junior Tribute DC

andyp

NelsonP said:

I've bought one and it is a great guitar. Sure, it's basic, but that is the whole point of it and I think the simplicity and slightly 'rough around the edges' feeel adds to the character of the guitar. I got it from DV247 for £538, and I think it is great value at that price. The setup is good, the frets are level and nicely finished and it plays brilliantly. And that single P90 sounds fantastic.

I haven't taken the pickguard off to have a look at the neck join though. If i did I would hope that it would look a bit better than the one in the vid.

https://i.imgur.com/GGjuinA.jpg

That’s how I feel about my SG. I’d love one of theses DC’s, the price you paid is more like what I’d want to pay for it. That’s all of a sudden a good deal and I bet it’s a great playing and sounding guitar.

Andyjr1515

It's certainly a case of function over form!  

The irony is that it clearly is CNC machined - but set up to minimise tool changes.

You can actually see where the production engineer has thought through the functional needs and tried to come up with a cheap way of meeting them - and has been given permission to do this with total disregard to elegance or reputation.  Which is fine if that's your market strategy.  It's strong enough and, what's more, it's hidden.

 But you have to pinch yourself to remember this isn't a £150 entry level guitar.  It's a £600+ guitar.  And it influences the reputation of guitars 10 times that cost.  It is, without doubt, an 'unusual' marketing strategy...

p90fool

It's ugly in an underneath-the-dining-room-table kind of way, but it looks structurally sound. 

It's perfectly fine for home hobbyists to spend half a day making a perfect looking neck joint, but they're not building 200+ guitars a day. 

It's a bit like those people who dismiss fantastic sounding acoustic guitars because they found some imperfections using a torch and a mirror after taking the strings off. 

It's easy to lose sight of what guitars are for in all this railway modeller nerdery. 

Andyjr1515

Back to the OP query, as @ICBM says, as long as you are not too close to the joint, it is feasible, although there are a couple of things to check carefully first.

My guess from the video is that the rout at the end of the neck is around 1 3/4" away from the heel and the neck here is doing pretty much nothing extra strengthwise.  You could go closer to the heel - but I agree with ICBM - no closer than an inch from the fretboard end. 

 BUT the very important thing is you MUST check where the end of the truss rod comes to on the neck heel or that could really spoil your day!

ICBM

p90fool said:

Not being funny, but what's the matter with that neck join, other than looking a little ugly?

It’s probably not quite as strong as it could be if the fit at the sides was better. Whether that matters in practice is debatable - probably not unless you’re going to string it with telegraph wires. I agree, it’s mostly just cosmetic - but it really is unnecessarily crude when you look at the PRS SE for comparison. That’s also not an expensive guitar.

IvisonGuitars

p90fool said:

It's ugly in an underneath-the-dining-room-table kind of way, but it looks structurally sound. 

Much like the originals, some of the neck joints on original 50's DC Juniors are rather messy but are structurally sound. And Gibson were knocking out 4000 a year in 58/59. I've not seen any with a void like these new ones though, that is particularly messy/crude.

Andyjr1515 said:

BUT the very important thing is you MUST check where the end of the truss rod comes to on the neck heel or that could really spoil your day!

The truss rod on the DC finishes well underneath the fretboard so there should be no need to worry about that.

If I was going to put a P90 in the neck i'd put it in the 'V2' position like the later '59 Special....hell, they've already done half the routing for you by the look of it!  

Haych

Andyjr1515 said:

Back to the OP query, as @ICBM says, as long as you are not too close to the joint, it is feasible, although there are a couple of things to check carefully first.

My guess from the video is that the rout at the end of the neck is around 1 3/4" away from the heel and the neck here is doing pretty much nothing extra strengthwise.  You could go closer to the heel - but I agree with ICBM - no closer than an inch from the fretboard end. 

 BUT the very important thing is you MUST check where the end of the truss rod comes to on the neck heel or that could really spoil your day!

After looking at the video which shows the neck joint I imagine it's built in much the same way as the two pickup varieties used to be - it's a shame they don't build them any more.  So routing a second cavity should be safe.

That said, I really think the guitar is poor value and I'm reticent to spend that much on a guitar that is so rough round the edges.  I accept that certain corners have been cut to meet a price point but for £699, which most retailers are selling for, I can buy something much, much better from other manufacturers, or on the used market and keep some change in my pocket.

So rather than buy one and try to make it what I want, which in reality it never will be, I'll save the money and put it towards the right instrument as and when it becomes available. 

poopot

p90fool said:

It's perfectly fine for home hobbyists to spend half a day making a perfect looking neck joint, but they're not building 200+ guitars a day. 

Fair point! But... there are quite a few guitar makers that are putting out those numbers without compromising fit and finish!... and using the same sort of kit gibbo would/could have used it took me about 10mins to get a decent neck joint (admittedly after the templates were made).

ICBM

poopot said:

p90fool said:

It's perfectly fine for home hobbyists to spend half a day making a perfect looking neck joint, but they're not building 200+ guitars a day. 

Fair point! But... there are quite a few guitar makers that are putting out those numbers without compromising fit and finish!... and using the same sort of kit gibbo would/could have used it took me about 10mins to get a decent neck joint (admittedly after the templates were made).

To repeat, just look at the joint on the PRS SE - that's a high-volume mass-produced guitar, and the fit is perfect, or as close to it as a small amount of safety room at the corners will allow. There is absolutely no excuse for Gibson to not do it as well since they have access to exactly the same technology.

chris78

With respect, comparing PRS build quality, even at s2 level to Gibson is like comparing vintage Bollinger to £12.99 Tesco champagne. The irony of course being that the PRS is cheaper

usedtobe

ICBM said:

NelsonP said:

Watch this from around 2.40 in

Wow. That neck joint is some *really* ugly workmanship, even by Gibson standards...

Jesus H.. That really is shocking!