You may not be aware that the SG started life as part of the Les Paul range back in 1961, however Les Paul was unimpressed with the look and feel of the instrument and asked for his name to be removed. The body was purposely designed to be thin with double cut-away horns to reduce production costs and therefore make the guitar more affordable.
Gibson re-named the model as the “SG” – short for solid guitar, and the instrument has grown to hold iconic status throughout the industry. The current SG standard model utilises the classic features of the 1962 model along with the sturdier neck joint introduced in the late 1960’s. The body and neck are still crafted from Mahogany and retain the bevelled edges that give the SG its classic look.
The pick-up configuration still uses a 490R Hum-bucker at the neck and a 498T at the bridge position, and these are controlled by a tone and volume control for each pick-up and a 3 way front-mounted pick-up selector switch. The jack input is also mounted on the front face of the body adjacent to the tone and volume controls. The pick-ups are mounted directly onto the body of the guitar and are surrounded by the classic “batwing” plastic black scratch-plate, whilst further towards the base of the instrument lies the tune-o-matic bridge and stop bar tail piece.
The SG fret board is crafted from Rosewood and has cream binding along the edge of the 22 frets whilst using inlaid Pearloid block fret markers. The headstock adorns the Gibson logo in gold lettering and has green plastic tuning keys whilst a bell shaped plastic truss rod cover bears the “SG” insignia. The pick-ups, bridge and stop bar tail piece are chrome plated and the review model was in a Heritage Cherry finish, although the SG is also available in Natural Burst (Brown) and Ebony.