Gibson Custom Shop Wildwood Spec 1958 Les Paul Junior Double-Cut – Gloss

Junior-Induced Joy

Here at Wildwood, we love the simple joys of life: a hot cup of coffee in the morning, sunshine, a cool spring breeze, that sort of thing. But, we have a special place in our collective hearts for one simple pleasure above all others: a slab of mahogany with a P-90 capable of unleashing pure rock and roll anarchy. Needless to say, we were delighted by the Wildwood Spec 1958 Les Paul Junior Double-Cut.

Playing one of these lean, mean rock and roll machines is the musical equivalent of doing a burnout in a '67 Camaro. It's so fun that it should probably be illegal, and it gets your adrenaline pounding! Despite the '58 Junior's preponderance of muscle, it's a surprisingly versatile beast capable of excelling in many genres. So, let's dive deeper and examine the source of its many sonic delights.

P-90s and Mahogany: A Love Story

The magic starts with the aforementioned mahogany body working in tandem with a Custom Shop P-90. Electric guitars with mahogany bodies tend to have a naturally round, warm, midrange-forward tone. You can hear this quite clearly when you play one of these Wildwood Spec 1958 Les Paul Juniors unplugged, because each one has a one-piece body made of solid lightweight mahogany. This helps them achieve huge resonance even when strummed acoustically.

When you do amplify, the powerful chemistry between wood and wire is immediately apparent. Gibson's custom P-90s have powerful, throaty midrange response that matches mahogany's resonance perfectly. They also add in plenty of lush overtones and some warm-yet-muscular bass response. And for P-90 connoisseurs, it doesn't get much better than the custom P-90 that graces the Wildwood Spec '58 Junior's mahogany body.

Can We Take it to the Bridge?

Now, I (Trevor, Wildwood's resident Guitar Scribe) am a bridge pickup junkie, so take this with a grain of salt. But if I had to pick one pickup to use for the rest of my life, it would be a Les Paul Junior's bridge P-90.

The custom bridge P-90 in the '58 Junior is so touch-sensitive that you can coax a variety of different sounds out of it using just your hands. Play softly, and the mids will sound warm and open with glassy highs. Hit hard, and the midrange develops a lethally focused snarl as chiming overtones burst out of the high end. No matter what, the low end remains tight, though it has enough muscle to make striking the low E immensely satisfying.

It's the sort of tone that works anywhere. Through a dirty amp it's got the right combination of sparkle and punch for any variety of rock and roll, it's got enough Iommic power for riff-laden metal, and enough bad attitude for all things punky and garage-y. Through a clean amp, it has enough chime and jangle to please an indie rocker, enough sizzle and sustain to delight a blues player, and enough snappiness and twang to handle business in the country world.

Simplify, Simplify

We are proud to showcase the Wildwood Spec 1958 Les Paul Junior Double-Cut. We invite you to embrace the simple pleasures of life by taking one for a spin and experiencing its singular brand of sonic magic. Once you do, we have no doubt it will bring you a lifetime of joy and inspiration throughout your fretboard journeys.