Junkyard Sons - All Original Blues Rock

Gibson Les Paul BFG

 

Roger and Rod's 'matching' Les Paul twins...

Quite a rare guitar so to find two Gibson Les Paul BFGs in one band is unheard of, but the 'Sons have a brace available to call on!

 

The Les Paul BFG in all its variations has won fans the world over, proving itself one of the most versatile incarnations of the legendary single-cutaway tone machine that Gibson has ever concocted. The addition of a fun and effective “kill switch” in the usual position of the three-way selector puts plenty of new tricks up this BFG’s sleeve, while the inclusion of a pair of pickups that represent the best of Gibson’s innovative history provides a surprisingly wide range of sweet and snarling voices. 

Like every great Les Paul Standard-styled Gibson, the Les Paul BFG pairs the carved maple top and mahogany body that have helped to make the design legendary since 1952, while a glued-in mahogany neck and a 22-fret baked maple fingerboard ensure optimum playability.

 

While the BFG is traditionally a no-frills model with minimal adornments, a set of genuine wood control knobs adds an extra touch of class to this guitar, and beautifully complements the three-dimensional “gator scales” look of the grain-textured satin finish. Grover® tuners, a Tune-o-matic bridge, a wraparound tailpiece, and a PLEK-cut Corian nut keep it all solid and singing with sustain, and translucent control plates round back let you see what’s going on under the hood. 

The hot, beating heart of the Les Paul BFG is found in its ingenious combination of two of Gibson’s most popular pickups of all time. A P-90 in the neck position yields all the biting, edgy, fat single-coil tones that have made this pickup a favorite since the 1940s. In the bridge position, a BurstBucker 2 presents classic PAF-style clarity and depth, with a little extra oomph when you need it, courtesy of slightly overwound coils, which are also wax potted to avoid microphonic squeal at high volume levels. Both pickups are made with genuine Alnico magnets (Alnico V in the P-90, Alnico II in the BB2), and the pair is routed through a network of independent volume controls, master tone control, three-way toggle switch. As a fun bonus, there’s also a “kill switch” mounted in the usual upper-bout selector switch position, handy for dramatic stutter and chopper effects but Roger has modded his to switch out the kill switch for the pickup selector for the moments where a bit of control is lost in solos.

 

So what does BFG actually mean? Well supposedly it means Badly Finished Guitar, it might not look the same as a Les Paul Premium model but thats not what this guitar is about - although still all American made in the same factory as the more refined brethern, the raw finish of this model really echos the ethos of Junkyard Sons, no frills, straight and to the point but definately no sacrifice in quality!

 

This model is very hard to find new - Gibson do bring it back from time to time with a new twist, and there is a Gary Moore version with a slight change to the wiring but essentially the same.

 

If you ever get the chance to try one Roger and Rod encourage you to but you won't get theirs out of their hands very quickly!