55 Junior on EBay

Iamnobody

DrCornelius said:

monoamine said:

wondering if anyone is going to take the plunge and find out for us!

Just done exactly that . The owner messaged me yesterday to follow up on my bid last week and after some mild negotiation agreed on a price. I've just spent a lovely morning just outside Glastonbury at his house playing it and talking guitars . He is a pro player, a total Gibson nut with a house full of vintage gear and the chops to go with it !

To cap it all he is originally from my home town in south London which was a massive coincidence as we both now live probably 250 miles away.

Lovely bloke and the guitar plays and sounds awesome. I'm now hoping my k line and Orville sell or my balls are for the chop :-)

PS  I'm not selling it but it sounded like a few of the guys on here were interested in it from a knowledge/historical perspective. Happy to post some better photos of any bits of it if anyone wants them - just let me know.


cheers

Well done. Do you want my address to send the finders fee?!

We would definitely like to see more pics.

IvisonGuitars

Nice one @DrCornelius! I have a feeling that's a good score. Some photos that weren't taken with a Box Brownie would be most welcome! ;-)

DrCornelius

Cheers Neil and thanks Steve but no need for your address as I had spotted that one in my search for a 57 custom shop reissue !

To be fair though when I first saw it I thought it was bids starting at £2500 so I scooted past it, it's only when I read the thread here that I started to take it seriously.

I bought Dudu's RI last year and couldn't quite keep it in tune so I lobbed it out but regretted it ever since. I then bought a 2015 non custom shop which I liked , was easier to keep in tune because of the robo thing but it didn't 'feel' the same.

As I said last week , if I can pick this up close to the cost of a custom shop it's a goer for me and within reason (ie I want original body/neck/pickups with no breaks) I'm not hugely fussed what else is original and what's not as long as it plays and sounds good (and it does)

All that other stuff though comes into play if I sell it down the line but I'm not going to worry about it till then.

Any particular pics / angles you want chaps ?

streethawk

Nice score. What's the neck profile like?

More heel shots and the pickup would be interesting. 

ICBM

I have to say I'm probably at least 60/40 in favour of thinking it's genuine having seen some of the more recent pics, but I wouldn't have wanted to advise anyone to spend a lot of money on it on that score.

It will be interesting to see what you discover.

DrCornelius

Here are a few more external shots hopefully slightly sharper than the eBay ones (although still camera phone unfortunately)

I'll have a crack at some internal / back of pickup shots tomorrow if that's ok.

From what I remember the seller saying (I was widdling at the time) it's all original except tailpiece (although posts are the original short ones), tuners and controls (originals in case). I forgot to ask him about frets but I'm assuming they were replaced when it was refinished pre 2003 (which is when he bought it)

Neck profile wise it doesn't actually feel as substantial as the 57 RI I had, less of a clubby feel to me.

Ive got no reason to doubt anything he said as he seemed a top bloke but who knows what happened to it before he had it - for example the pickguard is original but someone has scratched a small heart with an arrow through it with a blade at the control end !

https://imgur.com/gallery/DzaRV

https://imgur.com/a/B21FK

https://imgur.com/gallery/Z7tAz

https://imgur.com/gallery/C5uQc

https://imgur.com/gallery/gjTfT