I bought the February 2000 issue of Guitar World yesterday (January 15/2000), and while reading it last night I came across a few things.

First, my eye was drawn to a full page ad on page 49. Initially, I noticed the headline "With a street price of less than $150 you can get one with the money you find in your couch!" Funny line, and who's the dude holding the guitar?

Oh my goodness, it's Leslie West with his Epiphone Junior!

For my money, Leslie's one of the underrated guitar greats! He and the Vagrants did a killer version of "Respect" in the late 60's, and of course he's best known for his work with "Mountain". Personally, I thought West, Bruce and Laing were an awesome group who deserved a lot more recognition. Finally, Leslie did a powerhouse rendition of "Crossroads" on the "Cream Of The Crop" tribute CD.

Mr. West is looking good in this ad - he's aged better than a lot of his axe-wielding contemporaries!

Anyway, that's what I was thinking as I looked at the ad. I didn't pay a lot of attention to the guitar itself.

A bit later, I went to page 182 so I could read "Playing The Market" which the index describes as "The Inside Scoop on Vintage Gear". What was this month's topic? None other than the Les Paul Junior. To quote the author, "What Gibson didn't know was that ... they were making some of the finest guitars (let alone entry-level guitars) in God's great creation". He also tells us Leslie West used one to record "Mississippi Queen".

Sounds very cool. The author concludes "if you can scare up between $1600 and $2200, you can score yourself a scorching piece of vintage guitar history."

Hmmm ... sounds like a guitar I'd want, but that's a bit more than I'd want to pay for a single pickup axe ...

So I settle down and begin to read the magazine from the beginning. I don't get very far before I'm on page 30, and reading an interview with none other than ... Leslie West.

It's a brief interview, and doesn't ask a few questions I'd like to see answered (to begin, "Leslie, you look GREAT! Weren't you really overweight before? What's your secret, dude?"), but there is this little gem:

"Is there one piece of gear you couldn't live without?"

Leslie says:

"My Les Paul, Jr. Epiphone is about to introduce one with my name on it, which is a great, cheap guitar. ... Now, a kid can get this Jr. for under $200, and it sounds great. You don't need more, because guitar playing is all about tuning up, tone, and vibrato."

Now, after reading all that, why is it I suddenly had the urge to go and check out the Epiphone Junior? I'm not saying the editors at Guitar World intended to help Gibson sell some guitars, but it is curious.

By the way, if my thoughts here helped inspire anyone to buy the Junior, please e-mail me with your thoughts on the guitar at stratomaster@geocities.com.