Epiphone 50th Anniversary 1961 SG Special

In the early 60s Gibson felt that their Les Paul design was getting a bit long in the tooth. To help compete with Fenders Gibson decided to modernize the design to make it play better and cheaper to produce. In 1961 the new Les Paul came out with the design we now know as the SG. For 7 years if you went to a store and asked for a Les Paul this is what you would have gotten. Lots of people like the original SG design to the newer ones with the larger pickguard. This is Epiphones tribute to the early SG guitars. This is the 61 SG Special in a very vintage color of TV Yellow. It is called TV Yellow because it would stand out better on black and white TV's. This guitar has the early SG bodystyle with the sharper horns and the small pickguard. The neck on this is the 60s slim profile and it is made of mahogany with set neck construction. The fretboard is rosewood with 22 frets. Up top you get some standard tuners. The bridge is a locking Epiphone wraparound bridge. The electronics are a set of P90s for that 60s crunch. The controls are typical Gibson with a volume and tone for each pickup with a 3 way toggle.

UTILIZATION

The SG was originally designed to play better than the Les Paul and it does for the most part. The upper fret access is much better. The necks are traditionally thinner and more playable. This all falls into place on this guitar as well. This guitar has the 60s profile neck which is thinner than what you get on most Les Pauls. The only major playability problem with this guitar is the wraparound bridge. They used an old obsolete style wrap around bridge. There are wraparound bridges with fine tuners for intonation that they could have used but they used an older design straight from the 60s. This means that the guitar is impossible to intonate if you plan on using alternate tunings or different string gauges.

SOUNDS

With the P90 pickups in this guitar you get a classic sound that give you more crunch and edge that a set of vintage style humbuckers would give. The P90 being a single coil has more top end twang and clarity than a humbucker but still has some of the humbucker fullness and body unlike other kinds of single coils. In the neck you get a edgey tone that is when wide open isnt very smooth but is very agressive. When you roll off some tone you can smooth up the tone a bit. The bridge is rough and ready for all sorts of music. With the single coil top end it retains it clarity but you can get a nice drive sound from it.

OVERALL OPINION

If you are looking for a good SG with P90s you should check this out before you go spending big bucks on a Gibson. A guitar like this has 90 percent of the features you would get on a Gibson but at a fraction of the price. The only problem I find on this guitar is the bridge and you can easily replace it with a fine tuner wrap around unit and then the guitar is essentially perfect for what it is.

This is an Epiphone reissue of the 1961 SG special, although then it would have been known as the Les Paul Special because these guitars were still considered the new Les Paul in 1961. This simple SG design with a set of P90s provides great tone and since its an Epiphone you get it at a very reasonable price. This guitar has a mahogany body and a mahogany set neck. The fretboard is rosewood and has 22 frets with simple dot inlays. The neck is fully bound. It has the 60s profile neck which is nice and thin. Up top it has vintage style 14:1 tuners. It has two alnico magnet p90 pickups. The bridge is a old style wrap wround bridge which the originals had. The controls are a set of volume and tone knobs for each pickup and a 3 way switch right next to them.

UTILIZATION

Epiphones SG's are some of their better budget models. I would recommend an Epiphone SG over an Epiphone Les Paul. The neck on this guitar is really nice as it is a 60s slim profile. In the name of tradtionalism they threw in a wrap around bridge. Wrap around bridges can be done right like on a PRS or like the many fully adjustable wraparound bridge but this guitar is a vintage design that was designed to be cheap back then. The standards were different back then. 60s cheap is a lot different than 2011 cheap. The wrap around bridge on this is a pretty bad design and if you are changing tunings and whatnot your intonation will be off. The bridge can be easily replaced with an aftermarket fully adjustable model.

SOUNDS

P90s are great pickups for classic rock. They have a real raw and unfrefined sound that you do not get with a set of vintage humbuckers. This is what made this low end Gibsons so popular back then. Even though they came with the older pickups they worked well for the modern music at that time because they had a great overdriven sound. The clarity and bite of the single coil mixed with the bottom and deepness of a humbucker. This guitar has a great overdriven rock tone because of the P90 voicing.

OVERALL OPINION

This is a good reissue of a classic guitar. There is something wrong with paying 1500 dollars for a reissue of a guitar Gibson sold for like 90 bucks back in the day as their budget model. Some people may be willing to pay a lot of money for what was a low end guitar a few years ago but it doesnt seem too smart. This Epiphone more matches the spirit of what the original guitar was. It was a low cost guitar that would wring out some rocking tones. Beginner guitar players may not know much about P90s but these pickups sound better than most of the humbuckers you get in most other Epiphones. If you are looking for a nice Epiphone dont look past the P90 SG.

Guitar made in China is almost perfect. The violin is superb. The varnish is pleasant to the touch and leaves the wood better reason than the other three painted versions of this model. The handle has a profile D. The frets are "jumbo" is very well put. The mechanical type Wilkinson Melody Maker are accurate and reliable. Both P90 alone justify the purchase of this guitar.

UTILIZATION

The handle is very nice. Access to acute is impeccable. The resulting sound is creamy crunch of desire with the neck pickup and the bridge pickup with sharp. The pickups are not afraid large saturations, their grain is decidedly vintage. The overall sound of the guitar is pretty slamming with beautiful medium. Sounds at once hot and edges are trimmed to the sixties and seventies rock'n'roll but also for the blues tend SRV, HENDRIX, ZZ TOP or CLAPTON.

SOUNDS

This guitar suits my style of rock and blues. I play on a ROLAND XL 40 (amp I recommend the way!. Modeling In: twin reverb and marshall is a killer!

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for a week. I really wanted to have a guitar with two P90 and it is fabulous! The price / quality ratio is amazing especially a superb cover comes with. Only downside, as usual, I recommend changing strings fitted as standard are not really terrible. This copy of SG outperforms all its competitors in the niche copies 1 or 2 P90, as well as the entry level Gibson SG Melody Maker 2 and P90. Try it! you will love.