Junior

I'm now the proud owner of an Epiphone Les Paul Junior.

Very exciting, and it's another one pickup guitar. I think I can do pretty much everything I'm trying to do with one pickup, like my little Squier Bullet. (Mine has a real Gibson humbucking pickup in it, courtesy of Mark Bryan. Mark's got a new album coming out shortly so please go to his site and give it a listen.)

The Epiphone, too, will have a real Gibson P-90, thanks to Bob Northcott, my Little Diesel bandmate and lifelong friend. Here's a link to Bob's current band in Atlanta, Loose Change.

I firmly believe that Epiphone has the right idea about Juniors still being affordable good quality guitars for a semi-reasonable price, which was what the Gibson Juniors were all about to begin with. I don't mean to disparage Gibson because I know the high level of quality of the work they do in all their guitars; I merely point out that the Epiphones can be had at half the price, give or take, and they're six strings, a single-coil pickup and a couple of knobs on a plank of wood. They do approximately the same thing as their more pricey counterparts and might make a doubtful parent wince slightly less when Junior asks for a Junior.

That said, I bought this one on eBay. I saw the picture, remembered the finish and had to have it. And now I do, and you'll see it this summer somewhere probably.