"The guitar I most cherish is my 1959 ~Gibson Les Paul "TV model" Junior which was made in 1959. It's a fantastically simple instrument, mahogany neck glued to a flat mahogany body with a Brazilian rosewood fretboard glued onto the top of the neck. There's only 1 pick up, a Gibson P90 and only one of each volume and tone control. Screwed onto the top of the body is a tortoiseshell coloured scratch plate and THAT'S IT! When these guitars were first designed, they were meant for the student market as "proper" Les Pauls were incredibly expensive for the time, but these gave people the chance to own a Gibson without having to remortgage the house to buy one. The words "TV model" on the headstock indicate that it was finished in a limed yellow colour which shows the wood grain through the paint and apparently it would show up better on a black and white television. Over the years, Les Paul Juniors have been popularised by the likes of Keith Richard and Johnny Thunders who bought them in the 70's because they were cheap which left him more cash to spend on drugs. The simplicity of the guitar is what I really love about it plus of course the sound. When you crank it up through an old valve amp, you get lots of natural distortion and because the neck and the body are glued together, the level of sustain is incredible. Nowadays unfortunately these guitars have been priced out of the hands of most people but Gibson do make new Custom Shop models which are quite affordable and are probably just as good."


Tony Morrison, guitar collector and one of '79 originals from 'Long Tall Shorty' on his favourite guitar.