Gibson Elliot Easton SG

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.