DESCRIPTION:
This super rare 13-inch-wide, electric solid body TV Junior weighs just 7.10 lbs. Solid mahogany body with the original 'TV' light-washed mahogany finish on body and neck. One-piece mahogany neck with a nut width of just over 1 11/16 inches, a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches and a wonderful thick 'baseball-bat' profile. Brazilian rosewood fretboard with 22 original thin frets and inlaid pearl dot markers. Black-faced headstock with "Gibson" logo and "Les Paul TV Junior" silk-screened in gold. Single-layer black plastic, bell-shaped truss-rod cover with two screws. Three-in-a-line Kluson Deluxe 'single-line' 'no-name' strip tuners with oval white plastic buttons. Serial number inked-on in black on the back of the headstock. Single-layer black plastic pickguard with three screws. One P-90 pickup (in the bridge position) with an output of 7.73k. Black plastic pickup cover stamped on the underside "UC - 450-1 / 2". Two controls (one volume, one tone) on lower treble bout. The potentiometers are stamped "615 2632 518" (ROC, May 1955). Original "Grey Tiger" capacitor. Black plastic bell-shape "Bell" control knobs. Original combination wrap-over bar bridge/tailpiece with two intonation screws. There is some overall finish checking and a few surface marks and indentations, mainly on the top, the edges of the body and the back of the neck. When we removed the truss-rod cover on this guitar we noticed that the nut on the end of the truss-rod had sheared off. We sent the guitar to our expert luthier Scott Lentz who has professionally restored the truss-rod to full working order. Overall this all original fifty-nine year old, very rare Les Paul TV Junior is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition. Housed in the original Gibson three-latch softshell 'Aligator' case with brown felt lining (9.00). There are two examples of this rare finish featured in The Early Years of the Les Paul Legacy 1915-1963 by Robb Lawrence (p. 181). "Two extremely rare 1955 Les Paul TV models with the unique light-washed "natural" finish."