Intonating Les Paul Jr.
Moderated By: mods
Intonating Les Paul Jr.
Recently I mentioned finding an EPIPHONE Les Paul jr. in a local pawnshop for $75 US. But I see no reason why the intonation tips I will provide would not apply to a Gibson Les Paul jr, or an SG jr for that matter, from either source. I found it necessary to use the hex adjustment screws on the solid bridge in the following manner: on the BASS side, I backed out the adjustment screw completely, thus "snugging" the bridge to the bridge post with no clearance or gap at all. But on the TREBLE side, I found it necessary to tighten the adjustment screw considerably, to the point that only about 1/4th of the adjustment screw remains visible. This creates a considerable "rake" of the bridge, so that the treble side of the bridge is much farther from the neck than the bass side. But doing this made it possible to get very good (though not perfect) intonation. Intonation is good enough in this configuration, that a replacement compensated bridge is not really needed. I should mention that the bridge on this guitar has a sort of "built-in" compensation, with raised parts cast into the metal of the bridge. Actually, it would have been better to have a bridge with no saddles built in. I had a vintage Gibson SG Special once, and that guitar intonated easily. I don't recall using the adjustment screws at all for that guitar. But the Epiphone Les Paul jr. models and the SG jr models use a bridge with preset saddles. If you are frustrated with these guitars and find them difficult to tune, try setting them up along the lines I describe here.
