Special Delivery

These very different takes on Gibson’s strippeddown Junior and Special ‘student’ guitars are still valid some 60 years after they were introduced

- Richard Barrett

Gibson first introduced its Les Paul Junior and Special models in 1954, aiming at players on a budget who aspired to trade up to the pricier Standard or Custom at a later date. The company certainly didn’t realise what lasting appeal these instruments would have beyond this ‘student’ market, particularly the start-up Junior, which found its way into the hands of Johnny Thunders, Mick Ralphs, Bob Marley, John Lennon and Leslie West to name a few.

Our two review guitars call to mind differing aspects of the Junior and Special’s legacy. Both are styled after the single-cut version (rather than the post-’58 double-cut ‘revamp’) with simple controls and traditional passive electronics. Interestingly, both also address the traditional ‘single-cut’ issue of limited-upper fret access with similar offset, contoured neck-to-body joints (glued-in, of course), with 22-fret bound-edge rosewood ’boards and medium jumbo frets.

The similarity between the two models ends there. Schecter’s Solo II Special has a highly sculpted body with a slim C profile three-piece mahogany neck, which all looks very smart but functional in its matt Vintage White Pearl finish. Even the black headstock face is finished in matt. The AXL is a different story with its double-bound mahogany slab body resplendent in glossy Orange Sparkle; its one-piece mahogany neck is chunkier and features a kitsch 50s-style headstock logo. In the way that Fano has created a hybrid of Gibson and Fender styles with its SP6, for example, this AXL mixes in Gretsch twists to the hallowed Gibson formula, with a Bigsby vibrato and Power’Tron pickup. This is going to be interesting…

Feel & Sounds