The 1957 Les Paul Junior is a guitar I really love. The most well-known user of this instrument was Mountain guitarist Leslie Westwho was universally beloved for having one of the heaviest guitar tones of all time. But there are many different soundsboth ultra-clean and distortedthat this instrument can providemaking it a perfect choice for just about any type of guitar-based music.

I treat the Les Paul Junior like a Fender Esquirein that you can get a ton of different sounds out of a simple guitar fitted with one pickupone volume control and one tone control. In the case of the Juniorit is fitted with a P90which is a largehigh-output single coil pickup.

Like an Esquirethe Junior works well for country- guitaras demonstrated by the licks shown in Figure 1. This 14-bar solo begins on beats 1 and 2 with a “country approved” phrase based on the A major pentatonic scale (ABC#EF#)after which I bring in C natural as a passing tone between C# and Bas well as Gvia the open G string. The G note sounds greatas it implies an A7 chord (AC#EG) and lends a bluesy feeling to the lines.

In bar 4I switch to the A blues scale (ACDEbEG)initiated by partial barres across the high E and B stringsas well as the B and G strings. In bars 7-9I expand the melodic lines to include F# and F natural.

Bringing in the F# evokes the sound of A Mixolydian (ABC#DEF#G)andin the phrases played hereI use C natural and F natural as passing tones moving up to C# and F#respectively.

Bar 13 into 14 is built from a “rolling” descending line that makes use of the open GDA and low E stringsas I move quickly between my fret-hand index and ring fingers.

If you turn the guitar upthe sound is perfect for root-5th power chordsas I demonstrate in Figure 2. Leslie created many of Mountain’s most iconic riffs from these simple two-note chords played on a Juniorsuch as those in Mississippi QueenNantucket Sleighride and many others.

If you turn the guitar’s tone knob all the way downas I demonstrate in Figure 3you can emulate the “woman tone” Eric Clapton makes use of on Cream songs like I Feel Free and Sunshine of Your Love. These licks are based on A minor pentatonic played up in 12th positiontransitioning down to 10th position.

Back in 1957the instrument was only available in sunburst or “TV yellow,” so named so that you could see it on this new contraption called black and white television.

Gibson and Epiphone both make great reissues of this classic instrumentso no need to break the bank when picking up a Les Paul Junior. Armed with oneyou can rule the world.