By the end of 1957, sales of Gibson’s popular Les Paul Junior single cutaway model had begun to decrease and the company explored new ideas to keep an affordable, yet fully professional guitar in the hands of young players and amateurs alike.
Using the same $99.50 price point it had for the previous three years, Gibson introduced a revamped version of the Les Paul Junior in July of 1958 that featured a brand new double cutaway design which allowed players complete access to the Junior’s 22-fret fingerboard—an idea that had also been implemented on Gibson’s Modernistic guitars, and the ES-335.
Gibson also introduced several new finishes that sought to take advantage of the rapid development of color television, including a transparent cherry red finish that would ultimately become known as the Heritage Cherry Sunburst finish, and a limed mahogany finish similar to the yellow color of a banana. The idea was to produce a more “lively” finish so that the guitars could stand out on home television screens, hence the origin of the nickname “TV Yellow.” These two marketing moves proved highly successful as sales of the new Les Paul Junior jumped from 2,408 units in 1958 to an unprecedented 4,364 units in 1959.
Gibson Custom Shop 1958 Les Paul Junior Double Cut VOS Features:
Solid mahogany body
Nickel hardware
Lightweight aluminum tailpiece
1-piece mahogany neck with long neck tenon
22-fret rosewood fretboard
Pearloid dot inlays
Early 1950s rounded neck profile
24-3/4" scale length, 1-11/16" nut width Button tuners
P-90 single-coil pickup
1 volume, 1 tone control
CTS pots and bumble bee capacitors
TV Yellow finish
Price : $ 3,527