NGD - 1965 Gibson SG Junior Polaris White

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ifallalot
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Re: NGD - 1965 Gibson SG Junior Polaris White

Post by ifallalot » Sun Nov 26, 2017 6:50 am

Wow :-*

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Re: NGD - 1965 Gibson SG Junior Polaris White

Post by Despot » Sun Nov 26, 2017 8:46 am

So I’ve had a bit of time with this now and I can talk about it a little more. I’ve had a few Juniors over the years (a SH and a LP) and this is undoubtedly the one.

It’s got that slightly narrower ‘65 nut - not as narrow as ‘66 onwards but not the full Gibson width. That works for me - particularly as this has the fattest neck of any Gibson I’ve ever played - it’s huge! It’s a big full C that immediately felt good to me.

The P90 is great too - quite strident but it cleans up well with the volume and tone.

And it’s clean - as clean as the Jaguar that I traded for it - there’s one small chip on the lower rim and some yellowing of the clear coat in places ... plus some lacquer checks on the front ... but otherwise it’s like a new guitar.

This only matters in the context of what I traded for it - which was a super clean ‘67 CAR Jaguar. That probably seems counterintuitive to most - trading a ‘proper’ Fender for a student model Gibson, but I’ve always found Juniors to be more useful to me that Jags (Jazzmasters are a different story).

Anyway ... let’s hope this one sticks around (along with that ES330!)

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Re: NGD - 1965 Gibson SG Junior Polaris White

Post by fortytwo » Sun Nov 26, 2017 10:23 am

First the 330, now this. :derp:

Congrats on the Jr., I'd rather have that one, than the CAR '67 Jag.

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Re: NGD - 1965 Gibson SG Junior Polaris White

Post by Despot » Sun Nov 26, 2017 10:55 am

Thanks fortytwo.

Something unusual seems to be going on with these white Juniors.

Pretty much every Junior I've seen has an unbound neck ... except the whites. Then it's more likely to have a bound neck than an unbound neck. It also appears to vary by year ... I've seen white SG Juniors from 1963 with a bound neck, then 1964 with unbound - mine being a 1965 means that it was either an option at order (given that polaris white was a custom colour I guess people may have also gone for a bound neck too if there was an order option for it) or else Gibson used bound necks randomly.

But here's the thing - Juniors came with the cheap 'soft' cases (i.e. those alligator cases you see on 50s Juniors or the black telex soft case that this one came with) ... a regular case was available as an option ... so you see Juniors sometimes with the same case as a Les Paul or SG Standard. Well - you see them with SGs ... anyone who had an original LP case for a LP Junior will probably have sold it for mad money somewhere along the line.

So who orders a 'custom' bound neck on top of their custom colour ... but then doesn't go for the hardshell case option?

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Re: NGD - 1965 Gibson SG Junior Polaris White

Post by fortytwo » Sun Nov 26, 2017 11:45 am

Someone who ran out of money?

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Re: NGD - 1965 Gibson SG Junior Polaris White

Post by HorseyBoy » Sun Nov 26, 2017 9:38 pm

This might be a somewhat heretical opinion, but I'd take this over the 67 Jag any day of the week. Gorgeous guitar. I do prefer the wider nut width and slimmer neck profile of the 62-64 Juniors but do love the Polaris white finish.
I've seen bound necks on Polaris white juniors before. I've also seen unbound necks that are painted right up to the edges of the fretboard (so they look bound) as well as bound necks that are then painted over. All apparently from the factory.

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Re: NGD - 1965 Gibson SG Junior Polaris White

Post by s_mcsleazy » Mon Nov 27, 2017 12:06 am

man, SG's always look fantstic in white. this is no exception.
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Re: NGD - 1965 Gibson SG Junior Polaris White

Post by Despot » Mon Nov 27, 2017 1:10 am

HorseyBoy wrote:
Sun Nov 26, 2017 9:38 pm
I've seen bound necks on Polaris white juniors before. I've also seen unbound necks that are painted right up to the edges of the fretboard (so they look bound) as well as bound necks that are then painted over. All apparently from the factory.
Yeah ... on closer inspection last night this appears to be a bound neck that has been painted over white - there are two small chips near the nut on the bass side that show binding below it. Interestingly the binding isn't the off white colour that we're used to - it almost looks light grey. I'm putting this down to the paint bleeding into the binding over the years, the same way that the old red stain used to bleed into the binding on cherry red finishes.

I guess it makes sense on some level - if you have a dot and bound neck available and you're trying to make this in as cheap a way as possible, paint the binding as it's less work than scraping back the paint. Still it's very neat work.

The other thing that struck me about this guitar was the thickness of the paint! This is almost as thick as you'd see on poly finished Fenders from the 70s where bits have flaked off - there's one small ding on the bottom rim near the controls that's down to the wood - and from that chip ... it's pretty thick. I guess white is an unforgiving colour too and they made sure to have enough on there to be able to buff it without going through.

Still - regardless of the paint this thing is light as a feather. Loud acoustically too - which is bizarre when you consider that there's so little wood on an SG body to give it any volume, and it's set up currently for the short vibrola over the original compensated bridge. I've a Faber compensated bridge to spare that I may put on it (and remove the vibrola string retainer but leave the flat spring attached) to see what that does. In my experience putting a Faber bridge on a Junior always improves them - even when the starting point is pretty damn good.

Oh yeah ... this was just one of three glorious SGs that were in stock in the store at the time - there was also a '67 big guard (also in Polaris White!) and a '69 SG Custom. I'd originally gone in to check out the SG Custom (a big guard SG has been on my want list for a long time ... I never thought I'd come across a later Custom in the wild so I had to check it out). Unfortunateley it was already sold by the time I got in - it had been on the store website for under 24 hours.... just goes to show how rare old SG Standards/Customs are here in Ireland that there are more than a few people who would pounce on one as soon as one cropped up.

I didn't know about the Juniors until I walked in - and then when I saw this one I had to try it out. It took me about 10 seconds playing it to start seriously considering what I needed to trade for it - even before I'd put it through an amp.

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Re: NGD - 1965 Gibson SG Junior Polaris White

Post by HorseyBoy » Mon Nov 27, 2017 11:44 am

Despot wrote:
Mon Nov 27, 2017 1:10 am
Still - regardless of the paint this thing is light as a feather. Loud acoustically too - which is bizarre when you consider that there's so little wood on an SG body to give it any volume, and it's set up currently for the short vibrola over the original compensated bridge. I've a Faber compensated bridge to spare that I may put on it (and remove the vibrola string retainer but leave the flat spring attached) to see what that does. In my experience putting a Faber bridge on a Junior always improves them - even when the starting point is pretty damn good.
If you want to replace the bridge but keep it as "stock" as possible, take a look at the MojoAxe CWT60-A Compensated 60's Wraparound Tailpiece here:

http://www.mojoaxe.com

It's a really great bridge, essentially identical to the original but compensated for an unwound G. I've had one on my 67 Junior for years and love it.

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Re: NGD - 1965 Gibson SG Junior Polaris White

Post by leokula » Mon Nov 27, 2017 11:48 am

Wow man, this thing is just sweet! So right! Congrats!
Jaguar > Jazzmaster :)

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Re: NGD - 1965 Gibson SG Junior Polaris White

Post by Ursa Minor » Mon Nov 27, 2017 8:49 pm

I keep coming back to this one. I know I'd never be able to trade my Jaguar for an SG Jr but damn, its got me thinking. :shifty:
One day I'll be able to have them both! :D
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Re: NGD - 1965 Gibson SG Junior Polaris White

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Mon Nov 27, 2017 9:34 pm

VERY nice!! I've always been tired of seeing SG's in that same typical cherry red. This is fantastic!! I've heard a few players talk about the magic of single pickup guitars, especially when they're a P-90, and also especially when they're P-90's on this era Gibson. HELL of a score!!
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Re: NGD - 1965 Gibson SG Junior Polaris White

Post by Despot » Tue Nov 28, 2017 1:11 am

I know what you're saying Nick ... and I've tried to love Jaguars over the years. I find really nice ones and I love how they look. It's fair to say that I almost always fall for a Jaguar purely on looks. But whenever I want a Fender sound I will always reach for a Jazzmaster or Telecaster first. The only sound I love on a Jaguar is the neck pickup - and even there, as nice as that sound is, I actually prefer a tele neck pickup or JM pickup over it.

On the other hand I love single pickup guitars. They force you to find other ways to vary your sound rather than just flipping pickup position. They make you consider your tone settings and to vary how you hit the strings, or where you pick to change the brightness. They're the opposite of limiting, even if you need to think a little differently about how you play them to get different sounds from a single pickup guitar.

And I'll be honest ... I took this one down to try it out because it was a super clean polaris white SG ... but if it had been heavy, or dead sounding ... or had a neck that I didn't bond with it would have gone right back up there. I've had a few old SGs over the years and I know the neck profile that I want/love - it's that big old tree trunk round '64/'65 neck. It's even bigger feeling than '59 necks I've tried. This is Gibsons least 'carved' neck - it's the Gibson equivalent of the '52 Telecaster baseball bat neck, just with a C shape compared to the big old U of the Telecaster. It sits into my hand perfectly - every time I've tried out one of these thicker neck SGs it's always felt right. This one isn't nearly there, or 99% right - it's absolutely perfect. If I was carving the thing myself and testing it for feel until it was just right this would be it. On Fenders it's that '63 shape - the full round C. On Gibsons it's these SG Junior necks. The only other time you get necks exactly like this is in '50s Juniors - I forget the year but I know I've played one that had the same profile - a big old bat of a neck.

At the moment I've a few different models and years of guitars from Fender and Gibson - the thinnest necks are the '66 Tele, the '62 ES330 and '62 ES345 (which have identical necks). The medium neck is the '62 Jazzmaster. The thickest is this SG. I know some people talk about a neck being too thin ... I've only ever found one guitar that was too thin for me to be able to play - that was that '61 ES330T (the single pickup one) - that neck was blade thin, and while I could play it I never bonded with it (and I worried about how flexible that neck was when playing it - you could easily bend it out of tune with just the least bit of effort!).

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Re: NGD - 1965 Gibson SG Junior Polaris White

Post by Despot » Tue Nov 28, 2017 1:17 am

Shadoweclipse13 wrote:
Mon Nov 27, 2017 9:34 pm
VERY nice!! I've always been tired of seeing SG's in that same typical cherry red. This is fantastic!! I've heard a few players talk about the magic of single pickup guitars, especially when they're a P-90, and also especially when they're P-90's on this era Gibson. HELL of a score!!
Thanks Shadoweclipse.

I actually love cherry red SGs too - especially before they brown out when the red stain fades under sunlight. I think that if I were looking for an SG Standard (which is the final guitar on my GAS list now) I'd prefer one in cherry ... it would have to be a large guard late '60s SG too - I'm a fan of small guard Juniors but large guard Standards (if that makes any sense!).

As for Juniors - the all time perfect Junior for me would be a Pelham Blue Junior, but those are silly money and rare to find in Ireland. Hell ... Polaris White is rare to find in Ireland! But PW is a very close second to a PB one ... and PW is a lot less expensive. This wasn't priced all that much above what I'd expect an equally clean cherry one to go for.

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Re: NGD - 1965 Gibson SG Junior Polaris White

Post by shadowplay » Tue Nov 28, 2017 1:04 pm

I really don't like how SG's look but that one is as nice as I've seen.

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