The Gibson SG

Jerry Garcia playing his SG

The Gibson SG is one of those guitars as iconic as the Strat, Tele, or Les Paul. While Jerry was certainly more well known for playing his custom built Irwin and Cripe guitars, many of the early Grateful Dead recordings and bootlegs I listened to featured him playing the SG, and this no doubt attracted me to them. And who can forget watching Santana tear into his SG at Woodstock? 

I also remember in college a friend of mine used to house sit for a guy who had two vintage SGs and he'd have me over and let me play them... there was something about those guitars that seemed magic to me. 

After years of contemplating purchasing one, I finally decided to get an Epiphone G-400 in worn brown. It was a cool little guitar but it was no Gibson, and all it really did was wet my appetite for a real one. I swapped out the tuners, changed the pickups, and re-wired the whole thing using better electronics and parts. Despite being a screamer, it just never spoke to me like the classic Gibson models. I really missed the look of the neck binding that the Epiphone was lacking. I eventually sold the guitar and began hunting for a Gibson.

I seriously considered the Gibson SG Standard, as it seemed to feature all of the elements I was looking for but at the time, Gibson had made the switch to the baked maple fretboards and I really wanted rosewood. Then Gibson had their big sale at the end of 2012 and I discovered a Derek Trucks Signature model at Wildwood Guitar. I was taken with the Lyre tailpiece and didn't mind the absence of the pick guard. The price was right and I pulled the trigger.

Now, supposedly this model is just a '61 Reissue with no pickguard and a Lyre tailpiece but the contours seem even more pronounced to me than the '61 RIs. 

I've been contemplating adding a pickguard to the guitar, as well as a "Les Paul" truss rod cover to give it more of the appearance of an early 60's SG. However, it's not high on my list of priorities right now and I'm torn on whether or not I want to cover any of the beautiful finish with a pickguard. 

Quite by accident I eneded up with a second SG in a matter of weeks. This one was an ebay score. I placed a lowball bid on a 2003 '61 Reissue that had a broken knob and some wear and tear on the body. There were also a few minor dings on the headstock and one of the plastic pickup rings was cracked. I lost the initial auction but the seller sent me a second chance offer for the bid I had placed and I jumped on it. $680 with the original case.

                               

When the guitar arrived it was clear that it had been played, and played hard. The finish was fairly scratched and it was filthy. There was also a swath of scratches on the pickguard below the neck pickup from some heavy handed chord work. I removed all the parts and hardware and hand polished the body using automotive scratch remover (the stuff in the orange bottle, NuFinish). The finish came back to life, as did the fretboard after a few applications of lemon oil. I replaced the broken plastic parts with Gibson parts and she was really looking quite nice.

Upon closer inspection I noticed two cracks around the neck pocket, one on each side, and my heart sunk. Had my great deal gone bust? SGs are renowned for their somewhat delicate neck pockets. Where the neck tenon is glued to the body is under a great deal of stress because of the deep cutaways featured on the SG. I frantically searched the web for information about cracking in the neck pocket and thankfully, the cracks seem to be only in the finish, though I do still find them slightly disconcerting. The guitar remains in tune just fine, but like all SGs, if you manhandle the neck while playing, you can achieve some dangerous vibrato. 

With all that said, it was still a screaming deal. This is the SG I would gig with if I was going to, not my Derek Trucks model. The DT has a slightly flatter neck but the feel and sound of both guitars is fairly similar (they both have '57 pickups) and I can jump back and forth between the two with ease. The only other real difference is the body contour. The DT has a much deeper and smoother contour. I'd suspect that these bodies are all hand sanded so perhaps  they all vary a bit. It's hard to say, and I'm no expert on the nuances of every model of SG. What little research I've done has not provided me with any insight into the differences in body shape between the two models.

I think Gibson has done a great job reinventing the SG. The new Standards are back to using rosewood boards and using the small pickguard again... no more batwings. I was never opposed to the larger style pickguard but it is a shame to cover up that beautiful mahogany with black plastic IMO. They are very close (with the exception of the smaller headstock) to the '61 Reissues which I believe have been discontinued. The new SG original is also a nice nod to the vintage SGs of the early 60's but it's a lot of extra coin for the addition of a Lyre vibrato. 

Santana gettin' after it at Woodstock on his SG