double cut juniors or specials

Hootsmon

anyone have any issues with the DC Gibsons....pros and cons?

jd0272

Pro's, lush.

Con's, lush.

Some minor whinges about Special's and body/neck join due to neck pickup route position, but I can't recall a neck flapping off mid-gig cause of it.

Every house hold should have at least one of them.

That is all.

Hootsmon

jd0272 said:

Pro's, lush.

Con's, lush.

Some minor whinges about Special's and body/neck join due to neck pickup route position, but I can't recall a neck flapping off mid-gig cause of it.

Every house hold should have at least one of them.

That is all.

I have heard of this many times but what is the truth of the matter ?

JohnPerry

Can only speak about the faded series LP Special DCs and they are the best bang for buck I've come across Gibsonwise. A bit rough and ready (sharp-edged fingerboards and such) but essentially lovely simple resonant mahogany planks with P90s. I've upgraded some of the hardware, but there wasn't much need to do so tbh. Prefer these to the Custom Shop ones, oddly enough. I had one of those briefly too. Got both of these fadeds for around the £600 mark, which is stonking value

jd0272

hootsmon said:

jd0272 said:

Pro's, lush.

Con's, lush.

Some minor whinges about Special's and body/neck join due to neck pickup route position, but I can't recall a neck flapping off mid-gig cause of it.

Every house hold should have at least one of them.

That is all.

I have heard of this many times but what is the truth of the matter ?

Just be a 'bit careful' with the fuckers, would be my advice.

Vintage ones don't exist for nothing mate.  

Hootsmon

it's a big enough worry with Gibsons concerning the fragile necks ( headstock) to be a worrying myself over the neck joins too!

if they are sound enough I think I will go down the DC road with some nice P90s to boot

jd0272

Reissues of Special's will be no worry. The earlier '50's one's (and I believe this applied the '60's SG Special's) had the pickup a bit too close to the join, thus affected the 'oneness' of said instruments. They rectified that shortly after.

The reissues will be fine.

The Juniors will always be finer.

jd0272

hootsmon said:

it's a big enough worry with Gibsons concerning the fragile necks ( headstock) to be a worrying myself over the neck joins too!

if they are sound enough I think I will go down the DC road with some nice P90s to boot

Anyhoo, FFS, if they break, get some fella in the know to glue 'em back together. IT IS NOT A PROBLEM UNLESS YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE WORRYING YOUR ARSE ABOUT THE FISCAL PROPERTIES OF THE FUCKING THING IT'S A GUITAR FFS.

That is all.

ICBM

hootsmon said:

jd0272 said:

Pro's, lush.

Con's, lush.

Some minor whinges about Special's and body/neck join due to neck pickup route position, but I can't recall a neck flapping off mid-gig cause of it.

Every house hold should have at least one of them.

That is all.

I have heard of this many times but what is the truth of the matter ?

It's only the very early ones that have the problem.

Like this…

http://www.theadditionstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/Gibson_1959_Les_Paul_Special_DC_Cherry_910326_a.jpg

You can see that there's only about half an inch or even less of weak endgrain wood really holding the neck on. Although the tenon does go under the pickup, so much of it is cut away it doesn't have a lot more strength than just to hold the string tension, so it doesn't take much extra to break it.

After not very long, they moved the pickup further away from the neck, like this…

http://www.normansrareguitars.com/images/D/57Gibson 60_61 Les Paul Special03.jpg

Which is much better.

Later still they moved it a tiny bit more, at the same time as moving the bridge pickup further away from the bridge to stop the treble-side post collapsing into the cavity as a few did (you really can't make this up…) so they ended up looking like this…

http://www.vintageandrare.com/uploads/products/31756/764442/original.jpg

Gluing the early ones back together isn't that easy, either - there's just not enough wood there to make a solid joint.

If you're unlucky it might look like this…

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b566/fenflame2/59LPDC_zpse6f5b6da.jpg

ICBM

And if you're really unlucky it might look like one of these!

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p81/dynasonic/LPF/59SpecialBasketCase1b.jpg~original

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p81/dynasonic/LPF/59SpecialBasketCase2k.jpg~original

Hootsmon

^ OMG

jd0272

ICBM;439349" said:

And if you're really unlucky it might look like one of these!

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p81/dynasonic/LPF/59SpecialBasketCase1b.jpg~original

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p81/dynasonic/LPF/59SpecialBasketCase2k.jpg~original

Well, you'd sleep a bit better knowing the joins are secure.

matone

Didn`t know Brunel`s descendants were into guitars.........

Iamnobody

My DC special feels solid. Not that I've played it much...

Blacksheep

Its only the vintage Specials from 58 and 59 that have the weak neck joint issue. And seeing as they are upward of £7k its not something most of us will ever have to worry about.