So I clicked on the link...2005, full thin skin nitro...the best one Edwards ever made. I had read enough reports on these to know if I ever happened upon one I would definitely try to get it. Reports were always of them having a 58 or 59 neck profile.
This one was listed as "needs a cleaning"...in reality, the nitro was badly flaking off of the headstock, but these are very rare in the wild, so I went ahead and signed up for a Buyee account and went through the steps to bid on it. I was the winner at what converted to $650 USD which I felt extremely good about in 2024 dollars. It was another couple hundred in shipping, but a properly made TV Yellow DC Jr for $850 all-in? Okay...sign me up!
The guitar arrived in 3 days which very much surprised me. No damage.
I looked over the guitar...shade of yellow was right, the neck wasn't a 58 or 59 profile...felt more like an early 1960 profile to me. I got out my calipers and it measured: .88" at the first fret and .94" at the 12th fret...yeah...definite transition profile.
I plugged in the guitar and it didn't have the same oomph that my 2018 single cut limited junior has. I opened up the electronics cavity and saw it had 250k pots. I looked at the pickup...Greco Hotliner. So I ordered a Gibson dogeared P90, two 500k CTS pots and an orange drop capacitor. I also ordered a set of locking Gotoh tuners (vintage style...they drop right in with no new holes) and my normal Dunlop Straplocks. Finally, I bought a dark brown tortoise pickguard to replace the ugly stock red tortoise guard. Once all the parts came in, I installed what I could, and then took the guitar to my tech for a complete overhaul.
The Edwards logo AND the serial on the back of the headstock were not usable once the old finish was removed as they both pretty much disintegrated. So I quickly ordered vinyl Gibson and Les Paul TV Model logos from the good folks over at Guitar-Restore.net and, upon delivery, took 'em to my tech. Also, I decided to have a serial number that has meaning to me stamped into the back of the headstock (818603 ... I met my wife on August 18th and married her almost 4 years later on June 3rd).
Got the guitar back last night...and it's just so insanely awesome. I liked it so much I decided to sell my Gibson 2018 Ltd Edition Junior and my 2019 Original Collection TV Yellow special.
Oh...this guitar weighs 6 lbs 3 ounces.
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