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Theory on 4-digit '58s

montesada

Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2008
Messages
713
Some of the 4-digit '58 Jr.s, including mine, have the square body-edge as well as big frets...
How's this for a leap of logic?... At the very beginning of the '58 double-cut Jr. run, a bunch of body/neck assemblies are made with the neck angle off a little so that when they are checked for bridge height, it is found that the strings would hit the pickup. They are set aside to rework later. Eventually someone comes up with the idea to use a soap bar and to sand down the dogear cover... late in the year, they get finished with big frets. The serials purposely have the leading number left off to make them immediately identifiable for in case of warrantee claims due to the rework...
 

El Gringo

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
5,657
Makes sense to me and it's quite logical , specifically to make them easy to identify .
 

scw59

New member
Joined
Aug 28, 2019
Messages
1
It is a long time mystery. Mine has sharper edges, big frets and both pots dated 8th week of 1958. It has the Soap bar and sanded dog ear cover with only one pickup mounting screw (and only one "vampire bite" to correspond in the cavity). I do think the run was probably the first batch of double cuts manufactured and not later in the year. Nonetheless, it is highly likely that they were not put into circulation until later--who knows, it could have been 59 or even 60 when the demand and the production numbers went up.
 

agogetr

Active member
Joined
Jan 22, 2019
Messages
451
It is a long time mystery. Mine has sharper edges, big frets and both pots dated 8th week of 1958. It has the Soap bar and sanded dog ear cover with only one pickup mounting screw (and only one "vampire bite" to correspond in the cavity). I do think the run was probably the first batch of double cuts manufactured and not later in the year. Nonetheless, it is highly likely that they were not put into circulation until later--who knows, it could have been 59 or even 60 when the demand and the production numbers went up.
seems like they could have just installed a rythm p90 pickup off one of their archtop guitars they were quite a bit shorter than the lead pickup. maybe the guitars werent actually shipped out till early 60 hence the 4 digit numbers? its all pretty interesting
 
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