SeriesGibson Custom Shop SG

I found this rare item on Ebay for about one grand. Two guitars in one, great quality, great color (red). Nothing! Plays great, surprisingly light wieght. Oh baby, this axe is a beast. Two items in one monstrous guitar. It not only appears beautiful, but the sound is exquisite to your ears. When I tell you how great this product is, I'm not kidding. I used in live in concert and it rocks. This foxy axe is undoubtedly the best I have, and it comes close to the number one guitar ever! This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

The Gibson SG almost looks like devil horns if you have ever seen this guitar a red painted version. It has two forms for the body which is very similar to a Gibson Les Paul guitar which it actually is a progression of that guitar but also a little bit mixed in between that any Fender Stratocaster guitar. The body of the guitars little thinner than the Gibson Les Paul sick it's a nice warm tone but a little bit thinner tone and more focused tone. The sound of the instrument is very Gibson and not unmistakable from its other product. UTILIZATION Solid mahogony body Gold hardware ABR-1 bridge, lightweight aluminum stopbar or Maestro tailpiece Neck & Headstock 1-piece mahogany neck w/long neck tenon 22 fret ebony fingerboard Pearl block inlays Single-ply white binding 1960 slim taper neck profile 24 3/4" scale length, 1 11/16" nut width Holly headstock veneer Vintage tulip tuners Electronics & Strings '57 classic humbucking pickups 2 volume, 2 tone, 3-way selector switch Vintage Reissue .010 strings Accessories Includes Custom Shop case, and certificate of authenticity. Dimensions and Weight Shipping Weight: 22 lbs SOUNDS These guitar sound great and most rocket hard rock and metal situations. The sound okay in clean settings they really excel with a lot of distortion and a lot of volume. They have two home book or pick ups installed and the guitar and they just have a very focused tone that is great for overdriven guitar amplifier settings. If you've ever heard any AC/DC music before that you've heard this guitar. Angus Young of AC/DC is use this guitar pretty much exclusive throughout their musical career. OVERALL OPINION These guitars can range from anywhere between $1200 Dollars all way up to $3000 or so. The great instruments and have a great feel and tone overall. One thing I really like about these guitars is that you can reach the higher frets a lot easier you can with the Gibson Les Paul guitar. The cutaway in the center body allows you to solo and reached the higher frets much easier.

This guitar is a replica of the 61 SG that Dickey Betts gave to Duane Allman back when they played together. It is a great tribute to early 60s road warrior SG's. The guitar features a light relicing job to emulate the dings and scratches that the real guitar has. This is basically a road worn early 60s SG. The body is made from 1 piece of mahogany with a mahogany set neck. The neck has a broken in feel to it which is very nice. The guitar has vintage appointments all over. Up top you get the simple headstock with the old style inlays. The tuners are vintage style with holes next to them to simulate where the original had a different set of tuners in it. The bridge is a tune-o-matic with plastic saddles that kind of mellow out the tone and let your strings last longer. The neck has a 22 fret rosewood fretboard with what Gibson calls Banjo fretwire. It feels pretty normal to me. The pickups are a set of custom wound Gibson pickups that have a very PAF type of sound. THe controls are typical SG with a volume and tone for each pickup with a 3 way toggle. UTILIZATION This guitar has a lovely broken in feel to it. It has a very realistic relicing job to it unlike some guitars that look like they have been run over at the factory. THe only usual part of the relicing is the screw holes behind the bridge. This looks like they were trying to replicate the original guitar having a Maestro or Vibrola at some time that was removed. This is pretty cool I guess. The neck profile is a custom Dicky Betts profile which is not very different from a normal one. Its not like his guitar he got in the 60s would have a custom neck profile for him. Overall it has the thin early 60s profile which most people like. It feels like a real SG. The fretwork is perfect like on all high end Gibsons. This is because they use the Plek machine to level the frets. This machine levels the frets better than any human can do. SOUNDS This guitar has a very old school tone. The catalog says the pickups are custom for this model but if you said they were aged 57 Classics I would have believed you. They have a very paf tone to them. The neck position is like butter. You can get a super smooth lead tone or Slide tone if you really wanna be like Betts. The bridge has that loose crunchy classic rock tone that you associate with PAF's. The plastic saddles on the bridge mellow out the tone very well. This was a common mod back then. This guitar was built for southern rock tones. OVERALL OPINION This guitar is really cool and is very close to what a 50 year old SG would be like now. I wish Gibson would put out an affordable line of reliced guitars like Fender does. A light relic on a guitar can really help playability. A broken in neck is usually a lot faster than a brand new glossy neck. Things like these really help playability and some people believe the wear in the finish helps the tone. This guitar is really for collectors and hardcore Dicky Betts fans but this guitar shows what Gibson can do when they want to do something.

Gibson guitars is one of those companies that is just as iconic as many of the famous artists who have played them. When you think about bands like Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, The Who, The Doors, and thousands more you can't help but equate the style and look of a Gibson guitar when you see those bands or hear them on the radio. These guitars have revolutionized rock an roll. They took what Fender build and compounded upon it to create a much better and more practical machine for the new age of distortion and overdrive guitars tones. To get the overdriven guitar tones of the 60's and 70's you could not achieve that with a Fender guitar and their classic single coil pickups.You much fort play it with humbuckers and then you need a heavier thicker body and preferably used mahogany wood as your base body wood. This is a guitar to pay tribute to one of the classic LA rocker guitarists from the 60's. He was the man behind the organ, but helped as who could. The man helped to forge a great sound for the band The Doors. He is not as iconic as the lead singer or the organists but he had a fundamental role in the shape of their sound back in the day. UTILIZATION Gibson Krieger Aged/Signed SG LTD Signature Solidbody Electric Guitar Features: * Color: Aged dark heritage cherry * Body: Solid mahogany * Neck: 1-piece mahogany * Neck profile: 1960s slim taper * Scale length: 24-3/4" * Width at nut: 1-11/16" * Fingerboard: Rosewood * No. of frets: 22 * Fingerboard inlays: Acrylic trapezoid * Tuners: Vintage tulip * Hardware: Nickel * Strap locks * Bridge: ABR-1 with Maestro tailpiece * Pickups: '57 Classic (R) and '57 Classic (T) * Electronics: Two volume, two tone, 3-way selector switch * Push/pull treble tone pot makes rhythm pickup out of phase with lead pickup * String gauge: .010 * Includes custom care kit and certificate of authenticity signed by Robby Krieger * Hardshell case included SOUNDS This is an aged guitar so the look of it is worn in and beat. Not beat too badly but certainly looks used. This is a come thing now a days with new guitars to have a pre worn in look and feel to give the appearance that you are good well you really aren't. Or that you have been playing for years when its been maybe a couple. Either way some of the custom shops do a great job getting a better worn in feel to the neck which is very helpful and I would take that any day if I buy a new guitar. I first feel the neck and if it doesn't match up I don't even strum the thing. Then I strum it acoustically to see how it resonates. If that fails then I don't plug it in. Next I plug it in and see how the thing sounds as a clean guitar and then I move to the distortion side. Their are a few riffs that I play that fits my style that I try testing out guitars and amps. This is nice easy road worn custom shop guitar. It has nice feel to it that is unmistakeably Gibson. The pickups are not great as I really have never cared for Gibson pickups. So I think those should be replaced as any Fender pickups need to be replaced as well. If you are fan of The Doors or of Robby then this is guitar for you. If not then this is a big pass. OVERALL OPINION At new these guitars come in right at around $5800. Holy crap that is load of money for a guitar. Unless you are a superfan of Robby or the Doors then I still would not recommend buying a guitar for this much money. This is just stupid. Don't waste your time

Elliot Easton is the guitar player for the band the Cars. He is left handed and has been playing SG's for many years. Gibson has decided to give him a signature guitar that will come in lefty and righty. His guitar is a 61 Les Paul Custom two pickup model with a Maestro tremolo on it. The unique thing about this guitar is that it comes with a cool rare color Pelham blue. The guitar has the Les Paul Custom neck with the block inlays on an ebony fretboard. It has the custom split diamond headstock. The neck and the body are both made of mahogany. The guitar has the super thin early 60s profile neck which Gibson put on SG's at the time. It has lower profile vintage feeling frets. The guitar comes with a set of 57 Classic pickups which I think are some of th best pickups Gibson makes. Each pickup has its own volume and tone control and there is a 3 way switch. It is funny that it has to be a signature model for a left handed person before Gibson makes a lefty guitar that isnt at the bottom of the model line up. With this guitar I think they should overcharge for the righty models since this is a primarily lefty guitar. UTILIZATION These SG's are great and play much better than Les Pauls because they were designed to play better than Les Pauls. They were introduced as the new model of Les Paul and for much of the 60s when you asked for a Les Paul this is what you got. In trying to compete with the strat they had to make the guitar easier to play and lighter. To do this they redesigned it to have a flat top and double cutaways. The SG was designed in such a way to give better fret access than the earlier Les Paul. The neck is not mounted as deep into the body as is with the Les Paul. The 60s profile neck also helps playability. The 50s Gibson neck profile is very big and some people find it hard to play. This design gives it a few problems. The early SG's like this one have weak neck joints. The neck joint on SG models is very weak compared to Les Pauls or even bolt on guitars. This weak neck joint makes some SG's prone to going out of tune. With the neck mounted so far out on the body and the body being so thin and light, SG's are prone to neck dive. When playing an SG standing up you may find yourself holding up the neck due to this awkward balance between the neck and the body. You can fix this by moving around strap pegs. The weight of the maestro tremolo kind of helps the balance. They started putting on maestro tremolos as other way to help compete with the strat. Like the strat tremolo the maestro is no good and will just put you out of tune. SOUNDS The SG sound has more bite than that of a Les Paul. This is caused by the thinner body. The Classic 57 pickups in this guitar help give it even more vintage tone. The Classic 57 pickups are modern day imitation of the classic PAF pickup that Gibson made famous. With the Classic 57 PAF style pickups this guitar is a blues and rock machine. The 57's have just the right amount of sag in the tone so you can really work the dynamics like you would with a set of real vintage pickups. The neck pickup is super smooth and when you throw in some tone knob you can get that sour tone like you have a parked wah on. The bridge pickup has a little more bite and spank to it. With some gain you can get good classic rock tones from the bridge pickup. These pickups can handle more gain than a set of PAF's could. Because of their modern design they retain their composure longer than a set of old pickups could. If these pickups are not to your taste you can sell them and get a set of Seymour Duncans and probably make some money in the process. But on a guitar like this it is probably best to keep it stock. OVERALL OPINION My dream guitar is a left handed 61 Les Paul SG Custom with two pickups and a standard tune-o-matic. Gibson keeps getting closer but they keep throwing the crappy tremolos on everything. Jerry Cantrell has one why cant I? It is cool Elliot Easton is getting a signature model. Lefty guitars are rare and its even rarer that a lefty can get their own signature model and the guitar sold is lefty also. Being a Gibson though they will probably only make these for 6 months and they will all be locked away in collectors vaults. If you are a collector and looking for a rare lefty SG Custom signature model this is probably the only one.