BIG IN JAPAN

In 2016, I was looking for a Les Paul Junior. I naturally avoided the harshly criticised 2015 robot-tuner-brassnutted-baseball-necked ones that Gibson had released the year before, even if listed relatively cheap online. I ended up on the website of a famous Brighton-based retailer where a mysteriously named ‘Gibson USA 2016 Limited Les Paul Junior (Vintage Sunburst) available for the Japanese market only’ was for sale, brand-new.

The LPJ in question looks like a ’57-spec model with wraparound bridge (not compensated). Here’s the only specs I’ve been able to find out: mahogany body, mahogany neck, nut width 1.69 inches, fingerboard width at 12th fret 2.06 inches, neck thickness at 1st fret 0.81 inches, neck thickness at 12th fret 0.89 inches, vintage white machineheads, single P-90 pickup, and fitted brown Gibson USA hardshell case.

To this day, I have never regretted my choice and this guitar is a proper beast and a favourite in my ever-growing collection. This whole story makes me wonder how it could be possible in this age of the internet that not a single page or review on the world wide web was dedicated to this guitar, even on US or Japanese websites or video streaming channels.

Is this normal practice for Gibson? Is the Japanese market so important and huge that some models are issued for that market only? And how, in this case, this particular model made its way to the UK market, being sold as a brand-new guitar?

Marco Lima, via email

The Japanese market has, as you say, been treated to some really special Japan-only models over the years, especially Gibsons. And yes, its size and consumer tastes mean Japan warrants this treatment. At one stage, it even had its own Japan-built, Gibson-derived electrics in the guise of the Orville (as in Orville Gibson) brand of instruments, which has a cult following. How did it make its way to England? We’d need more info to guess how it came to be sold new here, but the retailer might be able to put you in the picture. Perhaps it was the guitar equivalent of the so-called grey imports found in the car world, where specialist Japan-only products are brought into the UK outside of the normal distribution network. Has anyone else got a rare Japan-only electric that readers might like to see? Or any good stories about bringing back nice guitars from Japan?