1956 Gibson Les Paul Jr
Having relied mainly on the recently modified three-pickup Les Paul Deluxe as backup in April, Ace showed up in early May 1975 with a Gibson Les Paul Jr. Gibson produced this version of the Jr, with a Les Paul-style single-cutaway body, from 1954 to 1958 but based on the knobs the one Ace played was most likely from the 1956-1958 range. (That said, as noted below there were some minor changes made to this guitar and it's not unreasonable that the knobs may have been changed.) It first shows up on May 3 and for about two weeks or so Ace seems to have been fond of it as there are several photos of him actually playing it on stage. The last such photo is from the show at Cobo Hall on May 16, 1975.
Ace retained the original dog-ear P90 pickup but there were a few minor modifications made. The tuning pegs were changed to Schaller M6 and the bridge was replaced. There are precious few photos that show the replacement bridge with any real detail and as of yet I have been unable to identify what it was. An educated guess would be a Leo Quan Badass bridge which seems to have been a favorite during this period. (But the photos available don't show the characteristic adjustment screws of the Leo Quan.)
The most interesting thing about the Les Paul Jr is that it was actually part of the show on May 16, 1975, that was recorded for Alive!. As the suite of photos below show Ace had it on as the band were walking towards the stage, played at least one song with it (and we can see the 1973 Les Paul Deluxe standing in the back), and lastly taking up position as a backup on Ace's side. Based on the hand-written recording notes for Alive! it's highly unlikely that the Les Paul Jr is actually featured anywhere on the album—almost nothing from the Detroit recording made it onto the finished product—but there is at least a possibility.
During the second half of May there are a few scattered photos of the Les Paul Jr standing side-by-side with Paul's backup Gibson Midnight Special on Ace's side of the stage but it doesn't appear to make it into Ace's hands after Detroit. It is last seen in Long Beach, California (below). There is, however, a void in June 1975 where there are no photos that show any kind of backup guitar for Ace.
In the 1977 Music Life Special there is a photo showing parts of Ace's guitar collection. In the front stands a 1955 Gibson Les Paul Jr but it doesn't appear to be this one. Even though the "Music Life Jr" has had the original wraparound bridge replaced, it still has the original tuning pegs.
Even if the previous Les Paul Jr. hadn't quite worked out, Ace liked the budget Gibson models. But it looks as if he learned his lesson with regards to the P90 pickups. The relative failure of the Les Paul Jr. at Cobo Hall, coupled with the—at least probable—success of the humbucker-adorned Epiphone Coronet, probably resulted in this Les Paul Jr. There is a very short period in February 1976 when this Jr. seems to be something of a favorite. Since we have comically few photos of this guitar we can't say much about it. The bridge is unknown but could potentially be the same type of bridge that was on the previous Les Paul Jr. But we don't have photos that are good enough to compare them. The pickup is most probably a DiMarzio Super Distorsion and the tuners could be Schaller M6. The knobs look like gold top hat knobs.
One thing I do think we can say for sure is that this was not the previous Les Paul Jr. that had gotten a makeover. The dark edges of the burst finish don't extend as far into the body as it did on the 1975 Jr. Once Paul had gotten his Ibanez Destroyer and Ace too a shine to it, this Les Paul Jr. disappeared completely. It's possible it remained in some sort of backup capacity but we have no photos of it after February 16, 1976.
