Junior V Special

fretfinder

Paging our resident expert @IvisonGuitars... ;

DrBob

paganskins said:

Kittyfrisk said:

Misleading thread title.I expected some discussion of these     

Me too, but I got excited about something like this:

That’s a beaut, what is it ?

MichaelWatts

Argh! I too was expecting a single P90 flying V!

I personally prefer Jrs to Specials and in my experience of vintage examples the lack of routing at the neck does make a difference

Kittyfrisk

DrBob said:

paganskins said:

Kittyfrisk said:

Misleading thread title.I expected some discussion of these     

Me too, but I got excited about something like this:

That’s a beaut, what is it ?

Just did an image search for 'flying v guitar single p90' and up this popped 
https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/the-gibson-junior-v-that-never-was.1812421/

p90fool

Kittyfrisk said:

Nice pics  

Genuine unrelated question. If lacquer cracking/crazing is considered to be caused by temperature variations, why doesn't this seem to extend to body cavities?

Because fraudsters don't bother attacking the pickup cavities with a razor blade.


Actually they do a bit, but the cavity lacquer is usually much thicker than on the rest of the body because it's never sanded or cut back in the finishing process, so it's usually a bit more resistant to cracking.  

Kittyfrisk

^ Makes sense. Ta 

sawyer

I've had both but only Junior's remain. Mind I just love single pickup guitars so I'm biased

PhilKing

I have both Juniors and Specials.  I like them both for different reasons.  I think Juniors have a little advantage on the aggression and sustain, but the special is more versatile if I'm using it for a gig.  

OilCityPickups

Brize said:

ICBM said:

There are three major differences:

Special neck tenon routed through - on double-cuts, the difference on singles is only the very end of the tenon.
Magnetic pull of the neck pickup on the Special
Dogear vs soapbar pickup mounting

I owned two vintage ones at the same time, both '57s - the Junior was far more aggressive, sustaining and powerful-sounding - the Special was thinner, brighter and spikier. Unsurprisingly and annoyingly, I prefered the Special's versatility and its neck and middle sounds, but the Junior's bridge pickup sound. Which of the differences was most responsible I'm not sure... if it's the pickup mounting you could fix a Special (though probably not on a 50s one!) by changing the mount to a dogear.

Of course it might have just been the difference between two different guitars of the same model anyway.

For what it's worth, and totally contrary to popular wisdom, both guitars sounded better with an original Leo Quan Badass bridge than they did with the stopbar. (Although I only had one Badass, so I couldn't do a direct A/B comparison.)

I'm not convinced by the idea that the Junior is a better sounding guitar - I've played great and no-so-great Juniors and the same with Specials. The problem is that you never know whether you're just hearing the differences in the individual guitars rather than the presence or lack of the neck pickup pull, for example. People waffle on about the magnetic pull of the neck pickup, but it doesn't seem to be a problem on Bursts.

P90 pickups have two magnets each the same size as a standard single humbucker magnet with their similar (usually south) poles facing each other, so their string pull potential is higher than a standard PAF on a burst. Not twice as much, but higher. Bursts also seldom have alnico 5 magnets (2,3 and 4 being usual) which are all less powerful than the alnico 5 commonly used in many modern P90s (and many vintage ones too. The 'Burst' comparison doesn't hold water I'm afraid.

rlw

Question.  I’ve always been a bit wary of single pickups as I’m not a bridge pickup fan.  Presumably you could put a single pickup anywhere you liked, maybe in a more central position, to get more of a neck pickup sound.
Or are they invariably by the bridge for a specific reason ? 

ICBM

rlw said:

Question.  I’ve always been a bit wary of single pickups as I’m not a bridge pickup fan.  Presumably you could put a single pickup anywhere you liked, maybe in a more central position, to get more of a neck pickup sound.
Or are they invariably by the bridge for a specific reason ? 

It's easier to get a 'pseudo neck pickup sound' from a bridge pickup than the other way round, because the bridge pickup has the most harmonic content.

You generally don't get a real neck-pickup sound from a middle position, it's actually more like a fuller bridge pickup.

There are some single-pickup guitars with neck pickups, and even a few with middle pickups though.

OilCityPickups

By the way, my favorite combo for a 'Special' is alnico 5 in the bridge P90 for growl and attack, and alnico 3 in the neck P90 for it's low string pull and more 'woody' tone.