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Still one of my favorites - super light Korina body blank and RF neck from the early 2000s Gene Baker bankruptcy auction, a killer flame maple billet I had lying around for years, and a NOS 1980 DiMarzio PAF ran through Murkat and Stike to create the Baker Frankenjunior...or whatever you want to call it.

Just the sunbursts. Just the TV’s.

‘58, ‘59, ‘60 doublecuts. Pair of ‘56’s.

Stripped ‘61 Polaris White ‘63.

Here’s my 63 SG Junior. Nothing original but the wood (minus the fretboard - it was replaced too). My best guitar.

Junior-ish. Hamer content, the body was made from an Arlington Heights reject blank.

I enjoy my Rock N Roll Relics as well.

Sorry for derailing this thread!

One Huber, one Hamer Korina, one Grez with old growth redwood.... ETA......One man's discussion of what brings out the magic in a Junior. Yes, I do love Barry's work......

In a search for a cheap Telecaster, I bought a Firefly Thinline that turned out to be really well done - and under $200! Sold it when the T51 arrived: Because it was so good, and being a big fan of the BillyBo, when they came out with the Solstice I had to give it a go: Since I have no green guitars (also comes in black, vintage white, and red), well..... it arrives Friday. If it's anywhere near as good as the Tele, it'll be alright. And right around $280 to the door. https://guitarsgarden.com/collections/ffse

**Thunk** Everything right with the world in those 2 pictures. Wow.

The most striking thing to me about Generative AI has been realizing just how mediocre and uncreative so many people are. So much of what I see people, particularly in business, marvel over, I usually find myself thinking, "That impresses you? Really? Like, you really don't see how superficial almost all of that is and questionable about 1/2 of it is? Wait, you're actually going to base spending money on something based on this?" I've started telling students that I now understand why pie charts are still so ubiquitous. Yeah, if you think the pie chart is the pinnacle of data visualization, then sure, I bet LLMs do blow your fucking mind. And people who produce music with them and then proudly claim, "I created a song!" Jesus wept. I actually question if you have a soul at that point. What a fool I have been. I actually thought most people were doing "just good enough" because they knew it was enough to get by. I never would have guessed so many thought it was actually really brilliant stuff.

Like the old saying goes: 'Garbage in, garbage out.' One thing that strikes me about Generative AI is that 'grunt work' employees are likely to be the least at risk of losing their jobs, because humans are the ones that will probably still end up doing that, at low wages. The jokers pulling in six figures or more, on the other hand...

Update! I am having so much fun playing this bass. All of my years of trying to play chords and octaves on my four string bass to try to mimic this sound. It was enough to get by with but damn it is fun to finally play all these songs and have them sound the way they are supposed too. Gonna Raise Hell is a blast to play again. Still working through the list. Lots to get through with Cheap Trick and King's X and more

I don't worry about tariffs when it comes to music gear. I do what I pretty much have always done...buy used, and try to snag good stuff in the process. If I can't afford it, then I pass.

Some of the stupid cheap stuff is really playable, it's great to have something cheap that you can actually play and don't have to worry about. I'm wondering if there will be any ridiculously cheap Black Friday deals. I might be tempted beyond what I can bear if something like an IYV jr gets even cheaper. One of the good Indonesian or Vietnamese builders would be wise to make a copy of a standard, especially given what Korean examples seem to be selling for, - Firefly or IYV should just make Standard cases to start with!

I have the black version of the Chilly Bo. It’s become my number one gigging guitar. I love it. I did put a powertron plus in the bridge. Otherwise, no changes. I didn’t even have to set it up at all. Finding a case was a pain in the ass though.

Given the amount of rust, the insides have to smell pretty nasty. I sure wouldn't put my 'vintage 1980s Hamer' in it. That's about $490 too much, given the condition.

2000(?) Robin Avalon Sport This guitar was one of the pieces that then Robin employee, Alan Hill, would bring around to different Houston area venues for visiting artists to try out. It had been in the hands of Billy Gibbons, Bob Dylan, and countless others who I have forgotten. A couple of years later I saw it for sale on ebay and grabbed it. I was able to recognize it because of the distinctive head stock chip which had made the serial number unreadable. Hence the (?) after the year. It is currently for sale on Reverb. No affiliation, but if you have any questions about it, please feel free to ask me. 2001 Gibson SH Junior Bought it on a whim (which would account for at least half of my guitar purchases over the years) because I always had wanted an SG and the Junior setup (single pickup, wraptail) was my go to. Loved the guitar, hated how it felt. I don't know, just something awkward about it. Same with the ES-335. It's a Me Thing. 2006 Nik Huber Korina Junior Just one of the many exceptionally built, finely crafted instruments that traveled through the revolving door that was my guitar buying/selling fetish for many years. Notice I didn't write "p-l-a-y-i-n-g." I'd wager the guitar sounded like Jesus weeping, his chiseled abs glistening in the evening sunset. I'd know if I had ever bothered to play it. 2003 Hamer BCR Junior "#13" The lightest guitar I have ever played, and the loudest guitar In the world when not plugged in to an amp. I would even put it against some acoustics. Loaned it to Tommy Williams for a gig or two with the Hooters, so it had its 15 minutes of fame. 1959 Gibson Les Paul Junior TV Saw this on ebay years ago, stripped of paint and serial number, but the head stock face was there. It read "TV Model" but I wasn't convinced until I received it and saw some stray TV Yellow in one of the rout cavities. The original pots were there, too, with 1959 date codes, so I was stoked. Brought back to play-ability by BCR Greg and refinished/antiqued by Peter Florance of VooDoo Pickups fame. I also had him add the serial number "900922" which is my wedding anniversary, putting the year (90) first to stay in the Gibson 1959 serial number range. I was pretty proud of myself for that - haha.

Possibly the first Sustain Block Junior (2005)? Inspired by a 1958 3/4-size Gibson from 25 years prior. Light, resonant, and rips!

The Way Cool Junior...

early 1957 Junior, 2008 (I think?) Historic Jr, 2024 G-USA Special Sorry, I know you said Juniors. 1962 SG/Les Paul Junior WIDE thin neck. Never encountered anything like this on a Gibson before or since. I've had this damned thing 22 years now, and only have two or three photos of it for some reason. 1960? Junior ex Billy Rowe, traded to BCR Greg for a Robin Fleetwood. 2003 Historics, both traded in search of R9s. I know you said Juniors only, but I just got the DC special on the right last Wednesday. 2025 GUSA LP Special TV DC

I'm stuck at home ill and bored. I love junior style guitars (wish I would have discovered this when I was younger). Let's see em. Here's a couple I own or did own

Ace Frehley-autographed ‘Smoker’ guitar up for auction https://share.google/KQmo63BeWAzPoJDPw

I've been paying for since GPT 4.0 was released because I wanted to be familiar with what I was criticizing. Universities are in a panic to look hip with the times, so we're unquestioningly shoving this into everything right now. I instinctively thought it was kind of bullshit, but I am a bit of an iconoclast by nature, which means I am also aware sometimes I'm let my skepticism turn to unwarranted cynicism. I wanted to bring some actual experience into these departmental arguments about possibly playing a role in a hype-cycle that may end up hurting a lot of regular people if it's a bust. How do we engage with this in a way that makes it look like we're both serious but not selling out? I just had an adventure with it last Friday where it kept losing a word doc, and then when I got around that, it couldn't give me a word doc back. When I got around that, it completely ignored my prompt to "only edit this for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. Do not edit for clarity or add content. Stop at the reference section." What I got back out 10 times was a completely different paper with entire sections on topics I never even mentioned. It would apologize each time and then do it again. My deal with it is that it will make some tasks more efficient, provided you are already well acquainted with anything it is summarizing or expounding upon. Because it still makes up all kinds of stuff and isn't particularly good still at separating stuff it learns from Reddit from actual legitimate sources. It also has a poor understanding of how date of publication can affect reliability of data. I've had it pull stuff from 20 or 30 years ago and pass it off as recent. But all that aside, it does save time for some things. BUT!!!! It's also being heavily subsidized. I'll spend $20 a month to save a few hours on a week's worth of PowerPoint slides, but that $20 a month doesn't come close to covering what it is costing them to do that. Nor does the $200 a month tier from what I've heard - nowhere even remotely close to profitability. I wouldn't spend $200 a month for that as is, and certainly not even more.

Damn, I knew you guys would deliver. This thread is pretty epic already.

I've been using the paid version of ChatGPT (5.1) for a couple of months. The paid version ups what you're allowed to do with files and such. What has impressed me the most so far is how utterly incapable it is. It will promise, "yes, I can do that" and then it churns, sometimes overnight, and never does what it says it can and will do. Most of what I have fed it has been simple, repetitive stuff in Excel or a PDF that I can delegate to people, but it's terribly boring and repetitive - exactly what an AI should be tasked with. I'm going to give it another month or so and if I don't get better (or improved) results, I'm pulling the plug (so to speak). ETA: regarding the tariffs, for me the issue hasn't been the added cost (the only thing I personally import is tea from Japan), it's been the holdup in Customs since there no longer remains a de minimis - everything must clear. My $150 box of tea is piled in with every single thing coming into FedEx Memphis (see previous rant about Memphis in the USPS thread). Meanwhile, they haven't seen fit to add personnel to Customs, so I pay for FedEx overnight and receive the package a week to ten days later. [/amended mini-rant]

People on here use videos to change strings????

There is no crying in Baseball.....................and no more smoking in bars.😉

Mine too.

Yeah. Now I know where they all went.

He doesn't play on stage, so why would he need to tune up?

Looks like, "Someone left my cake out in the rain."

We don't need schools, instruments or talent. AI will take care of all of that.

Here ya go!.. that aint going anywhere😃

How it's done: and what a horn section!

My '55 when it arrived at my workshop ... My '55 after me (treble wraptail post blowout repair, intensive refret, custom pickup, electronics, etc.) and HEL Shannon (spraygun wizardry) did our thang ...

Saw your video with it, Kirk. Sounds good even with the missing string!

Email sent, Geoff!

Easily rectified:

"All Washed Up" was released on the 14th. Listening now and I like it. Zander is an alien. The voice persists. Unimaginable. Who'd they get to play guitar? The only note on additional personnel is: ETA: I liked it. Sounded like Cheap Trick to me.

It would be nice to have that guitar, but how many times do you set off the smoke before you start thinking about how it stinks up the house too much?

I can do you one better! I am really only replying for the benefit of international HFC members and others who may not be aware that Junior Samples was a character on the long-running tv show Hee-Haw, featuring Buck Owens and Roy Clark.

Nice thing is gibson finally decided to sell the plain juniors in proper colors/layout as a standard model this year. Seems like such a missed opportunity of them all these years it's only been available as a Gibson Custom model. @Hackubus How's that new special? Color looks great

Play it and the finish might not matter anymore. I still want a Talladega.

The market is so soft nowadays, but i'm going to say around $2.5K-ish... maybe $3k on the high side 🤔