Homage to the 1957 Les Paul Junior... Kolsky Style

[kolsky]

My 3rd Warmoth build.  Started as an unfinished Hombre neck (14˚ radius, 25.5" scale, 6100 ss frets, mahogany back rosewood board) and a solid one piece mahogany slab.  When ordering, I was told I had to have the neck pocket routed on the unfinished slab or they wouldn't sell it... sounds reasonable since it had to fit the neck properly.  When it arrived there wasn't enough wood to carve the body based on the pre cut route.  Spike at Warmoth was the coolest dude ever and understood the scenario and promptly refunded the slab price upon return.  As it happened, this all took place during the NAMM 2018 winter show that I attend every year.  So I found an amazing slab of one piece honduran mahogany at the show for $100.  The goal was to build a junior that looks like it was passed down through 3 generations of guitarists playing the Shazam out of a great sounding rig bought in 1957!  After 6 months of working on this, sourcing parts, luthier assembly/setup and getting MJT Aged Finishes out of Missouri to do the nitrocellulose lacquer relic finish... she's ready to rock!  Dream realized.  :headbang4:

 

[AirCap]

Hubba-hubba!

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Yowza! Very nice! I’m not generally one for relic’d finishes, but that is just outstanding, really tastefully executed.

 

[rgand]

Looks great. Nice work. The relic work is believable, something not many manage to achieve.

 

[Great Ape]

That's VERY cool! Great work!

 

[Cagey]

Nice work! Of all the "vintage" styles, that's gotta be one of my favorites.

 

[Tonar8352]

Nice job. I'm sure it looks even better in person. What pickup did you use? It looks like a Mojo Axe bridge which are exceptional.

 

[kolsky]

Nice job. I'm sure it looks even better in person. What pickup did you use? It looks like a Mojo Axe bridge which are exceptional.

Thanks!!  Yep you're right. It was the Mojoaxe and the pickup is a Lollar standard. Sounds extremely authentic to the Juniors I've played in the past. The big difference is the scale of the neck which is 25 and 1/2. This girl plays like butter and screams.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Time to bring forth your best Billy Squire riffs :headbang1:

 

[BigSteve22]

Looks great. Nice work. The relic work is believable, something not many manage to achieve.

Couldn't agree more. I'm generally not at all enamored of any type of relic job, but that actually looks "old" instead of foolishly damaged. Great job, really impressive!  :headbang:

 

[swarfrat]

I think I just revised my view of relicing from "never ever" to "okay, still not crazy about the dings and whatnots, but finish checking is ok."

Nice!

 

[davegardner0]

Very cool guitar, and nice job on the headstock logo! Your name in "Gibson font", excellent way to go. I'll bet the 25.5" scale really sounds nice and balanced with the Mahogany slab (non-maple-capped) body too. 

 

[kolsky]

Very cool guitar, and nice job on the headstock logo! Your name in "Gibson font", excellent way to go. I'll bet the 25.5" scale really sounds nice and balanced with the Mahogany slab (non-maple-capped) body too.

Thanks man, it absolutely sounds authentic and powerful. I'm a player that works the tone and volume knobs to get that balance between smooth and crunch. This guitar is a dream come true with regards to touch sensitive playing.