The Gibson SGIncredible as it seems now, Gibson found that their Les Paul Guitars were not selling well during the latter part of the 1950's. The company decided that a completely new design was needed to bring them into the modern times and take some of the attention away from the Fender Stratocasters.
The first step in this path was to completely remodel the Les Paul Special and Junior series, they managed this by giving them round double-cutaway bodies, which was similar to the Gibson Melody maker shape. A limited number of these SG (Solid Guitar)'s were made during 1959. But in 1960 Gibson were having more problems, and poor sales led to - amazing-as-it-may-be- the Les Paul range being discontinued. However, that eventually led them to make the Les Paul in it's now, familiar categories -
The Les Paul StandardThe Les Paul Custom (Black-Beauty)Specials & JuniorsContrary to popular belief, the SG is the original Les Paul (The worlds best selling signature guitar). The SG's solid body was developed by Lester Paulfus himself, and it was not until 1961 when Les Paul had had enough of guitars due to divorce, Gibson removed his name from the guitar and named it the SG.
But when it comes to sounds, the SG drops into it's own league. The SG is about as light as a solid body can get and it is much more resonant than its Les Paul cousin is and as a result, and the sound is not as 'Dark' as most guitars with double humbuckers. The Gibson SG has amazing sustain and as you could expect with a Les Paul it has a Warm rich tone, akin to that of an ES-335. As for cosmetics it has a plain laminated pick guard and oddly for a Gibson guitar a distinctively 'Pointy' body, just look at the picture above!
As with all Gibson's, the guitars have an amazing feel about them, the scale of the neck is short (As opposed to the long scale Fenders) and if you have only been playing Fenders all of your life, the feel of a SG with be rewarding to your fingers. You can fit a set of 0.12 with no real problems! But more importantly for this guitar is its overall feel. If you didn't know, the Les Paul is a brick of a guitar that weighs a painful ton! I couldn't imagine having one slung around my neck for a 3 hour concert (That's what the 335's are for...). Another key feature of the guitar is the very deep double cutaways giving very easy access to the top frets. Even more key features??? Yup, the fingerboard is wide, comfortable and relaxing to play and with the combination of a thin round neck, burning up the fingerboard is not a problem.
The SG is one hell of a guitar, and it's going to be with us for one hell of a long time...
Guitar View By Chris Halfpenny. Please contribute a review.
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