All user reviews for the Gibson SG Gothic

Bought January 2003 for £475.00 (Pre-Owned)

The guitar is so well made it almost plays itself! The sound quality is fabulous and the build quality very good (in most areas). The guitar can produce a whole spetrum of different tones and just goes absolutely crazy with a large valve stack. It seems an altogether excellent guitar and I would recommend this model to anyone looking for warp factor 9.

The finish; Oh dear. Matt black looks fantastic on anything, especially this guitar, but the lacquer that has been used is completely inadequate. The slightest knock or bump results in a white "bruise". More to the point, the problem is greatest at the base of the machine heads, where the pressure of actually tightening them in during manufacture has caused bruising around each machine head. Not good enough from the world's finest electric guitar manufacturer.

Construction is second to none - no apparent problems. I've owned many guitars and this one has as much quality as any I've ever played, (more in some cases). A proper case would have been nice, rather than the, albeit high quality, gig bag it came with.

I'm a Gibson freak, so I'm (slightly) biased, but I don't regret my purchase at all. I love the little beast. I'm so impressed that I'm on the look out for agothic Les Paul and explorer to complete the new family. Go and buy one now!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought this guitar from Sam Ash in Ontario, Calif., for $850.00 I actually
sold my truck to get the money to buy it! I wanted a real musical instrument
instead of all the usual cheap stuff I had been playin for so many years.

I finally have the real musical instrument I have been seeking.
The first time I picked it up, I felt quality. I felt so much better than any other
guitar I have owned, an I have owned quite a few. The tone. Oh!... The tone!
The guitar sings with resonance. It does what I tell it to do, and doesn't complain!
It was made to be played.

As with every guitar I have owned, it needs new pickups. Factory pickups just don't
give the texture I want. (This is not really a complaint, though. I fully expect it.)
The action needs some work as well, but no factory guitar will be set up perfectly
right out of the box.

Great quality. Best fretwork I have ever seen on a mass-produced model. They
don't need to be touched. I replaced the tone and volume knobs, but just for
cosmetic reasons. Good, solid weight (this gives the guitar more sustain).
The neck is smooth, not too thick, and lends itself to incredible playability.


I intend to buy only one or two more guitar in my life. One will be another Gibson.
Heck, the other one will probably be a Gibson, too. The boys in Nashville know
what they're doing. It's the best guitar I have ever played or owned.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought it at a local Sam Ash. The worker told me that they had messed up an order and were overstocked with The SG Gothics... so he sold it to me for $600. The value of the guitar is $1300, but I have seen it around for $900

It plays really nice. It has a nice thick neck that feels great and the fingerboard is rather comfortable as well. The stock Humbuckers were really nice and warm sounding. The name of the guitar may imply that it is for metal only, but I have found it to be a very warm guitar with nice tone. Nice set-neck construction too.

Well, I use a lot of harmonics when I play... and even though the bridge humbucker was nice, it didnt accentuate harmonics very well. I put a Dimarzio Evolution in the bridge, and I originally planned to put another Dimarzio in the neck, but the Gibson neck pickup just sounded too nice to get rid of. It was better than any of the other neck pickups I looked at. The input is put on a weird place on the body too.

Its constructed very nicely, but is seems to dent very easily. I personally dont care about the looks as long as the sound is maintained... but if you are trying to keep it nice, I would suggest going and buying a hardshell case with it and handling it very carefully. Its a nice light guitar, and once again I must complement on the set-neck construction. This may be old news for some people, but I really enjoy the sound that it produces.

I got a nice deal on this guitar, but looking back on it... I would have easily paid full price for a guitar of this quality. Ive always heard of Gibson having a great reputation, and now I know why. I dont much recommend the SG Gothic to Metal guitar players, basically because its a nice warm guitar that I feel fits progressive and alternative sound better than a screaming metal sound. Also its worth noting that after getting an actual Gibson, I feel it a better choice to go with Epiphone for my next guitar. I'm looking at an ES-335, but I'd rather not spend thousands of dollars on one. The Gibsons are great if you can afford one, but dont bust your bank for one kids.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

The Gibson SG Series Gothic has been used by myself for some blues, I purchased it used for around 550 usd at a local store. I am actually surprised that I got it for that price because brand new it cost over a 1000 dollars. The Gothic models of the Gibson series has a star inlay on the fre board long with a picture of gibson on the back of the head stock. I remember getting this about a year after they came out so around the year 2001. I ended up passing it on to my younger brother who was just starting out at the time.


UTILIZATION

This is a great guitar with a very nice feel to it when your using it. I didn’t really like how the frets where especially with the open E buzzing. But besides that I havent had any issues or complaints about this model. I really love how its all gothic black on black. Its just adds a nice look to it and I got a lot of compliments from other musicians when I as using this years ago.


SOUNDS

There are 22 frets on it and it just feels like a real natural classic guitar. It produces a fat sound that was used in a lot of music from the 80’s and early 90’s. But I really like it with blues it gives that real clean sound that I have grown to love over the years.


OVERALL OPINION

Overall, you cant go wrong with this guitar, it also holds its value. I have seen many of these still be held at a very firm price today over ten years after it was produced. It is also very durable, You can bang it around without worrying about it getting chipped. Just don’t bang it around too much ! But it can take some abuse and not look bad. Its very easy to maintain as well. This guitar is well worth the money, its very stylish , sounds and looks great! Find one and buy it.

The Gibson SG Gothic, is based on the SG Special, then the body thinner than the standard and two microphones 490, and it differs by the ebony fingerboard inlay with a simple star-shaped and moon at 12th fret The matt black (which becomes "brilliant" over the years), the nut is graphite, not bone, and the mechanics are a Grover Rotomatic oil bath (grenn Kluson keys for Special).

Apart from these details, it's still a SG.
Mahogany body
Mahogany set neck pace 24.75 "
Affects 22 cases (ebony)
Two humbuckers type 490
2 volumes + 2 tones
A toggle switch 3 positions

At the finish, mine was bought used and with a few pine nuts, but in the end it's good again There's those who prefer to excess laminating and consistency of finished models machine (PRS, ESP, ...), I'd rather see small defects inners work in hand for me to finish a gibson is still good.

Nothing to say so, just a microphone in a little more Péchu bridge would have a little more fitting, I will replace the 490T with a Duncan Custom 5 (SH14), and for once, the mods will stop there (or almost, see below)

UTILIZATION

For those who would not have understood or even tried, the SG is a near-perfect ergonomics, better than many of the same great strats.
The overall balance is Excellent, access to optimal acute, and the controls are positioned so they can not operate accidentally.
Obviously the fans of sly shredders to violoning knob will not be happy to see them placed as far from chavalet.

The biggest problem is the presence of jack on the table, I personally hate it, it's a blow to the rescue accidentally when using a bent not well made.

Regarding the shape of the handle is a slim tapper, nickel for me, and touched by the ebony is a treat, there is real ebony black with a very tight graining, not cochonium found on beucoup of Asians who want to upscale.

Holding agreement is good, however, I am granted Drop C (C), and it must be admitted that the string of 60 C, well it's hard to solve the harmonic as it should, even with the bridge down to the maximum, there is a pouillème. So I'll eventually get an easel Tone Services in the race longer (Shaller the STM is rather ugly I think).

[edit of 19 Sept. 07]
I finally opted for a Gotoh bridge, almost identical to the original, except it has two precious little mm stroke in addition to the bridges, and there it is set to nickel.

In use, the big highlight of the SG is its lightness, normally scratch my main is to explore, I'm in love. But when I repeated my m'enfile a metal band (the scratch so) and a repeat of my rock band (bass), and although I am glad I saved my back by taking only the SG .

SOUNDS

Well, it sounds SG, what do you, that growl viciously in the lower medium, with a nice potato in the treble, the ebony fingerboard seems to bring a bit of precision with respect to the SG Special base.

I wait to be able to use it right before group say more, but at least it fits much better with my ex Explore my Les Paul Classic, which forced me to completely revise my settings every time.

[edit 23 June 07]

Well, I changed the 490T for Duncan SH14 (Custom 5), this is not the day and night, it is anyway not what I expected, but keeping low in the notes ( C my grave among others) is much better, and generally the sound distortion is better defined, perhaps a little singing too, we feel that this is naturally a little mics dug in the meds with acute low aggressive but present.
I would say this sounds like what I expected.

OVERALL OPINION

I think I almost made the rounds, I like its lightness, its handle, its growl.
I find it a little less pleasant than the Explorer to play sitting, and I feel a little worse also because of its lightness, but I am overall very pleased.

This was Gibsons first attempt at making a metal SG. Back then Gibson thought if they painted a guitar black it automatically became metal. Not really but it looks cool anyway. This SG Gothic is pretty much an SG standard with a black finish. The later Gothic models actually came with good pickups to give it an actual metal sound. With this guitar you get a mahogany body with a set mahogany neck. The neck has an ebony fretboard which only has a single inlay at the 12th fret. You get 6 non locking tuners with a non locking tune-o-matic bridge. Standard SG pickups with standard controls. But it has a black finish.

UTILIZATION

This guitar plays decently well. The black finish is a bit smoother than a fully gloss finish so the neck and body feel fast to the touch. The ebony fretboard is nice and smooth. No inlays may hurt some players but there are always side dots. The guitar is pretty neck heavy like most SG's. This is because the neck is set so far out on the body. This also gives good upper fret access..

SOUNDS

With the average pickups in this guitar the tone is pretty average. Like I said this is an earlier model. Later models come with active pickups, some even had EMG's which are many times better than these pickups for metal. These pickups do not have a metal voicing. They have more of a classic rock tone than anything else. The bridge is a bit crunchy and has a bit of gain to it but is pretty insufficient for metal. It is not very smooth either so it does not have the best clean tone. The neck pickup is a little better in the realm of a clean tone but it can get a bit muddy. It is smoother for lead playing and you can get some bluesy and even jazzy tones with it. If you are getting this guitar for metal like it is intended you will probably want to swap out the pickups for something with more output.

OVERALL OPINION

There is nothing really gothic or metal about this SG. It is just a black SG standard. If you were to swap in some metal pickups than it would be a great metal guitar. If you are looking for a metal SG I would recommend the Gothic 2 or the Gothic Morte guitars. Both of those come with active pickups specifically designed for metal. If you can get a good deal on one of these get it but know that they do not have a sound that matches their metal image.

My Gibson SG Gothic was made in the USA and was made in 2001. It has two humbucker pick ups that can be individually controlled with the volume and tone knobs. I believe it has 24 frets, but I'm not 100% certain on this. I'm pretty sure that this guitar is very similar in make up to the standard SG, but I'm not certain on this.

UTILIZATION

One of my favorite things about this guitar is the feel and the action of the guitar. It has a fluid feeling neck and it is easy to slide from place to place. It is as easy to play high on the fretboard as it is low, granted that your guitar is fairly new and has been keep in good shape. Since it is an SG, it has the patented SG shape which to me is as cool as any shape of guitar that I have seen. It isn't too heavy, but isn't the lightest guitar I've played either. It definitley has the signature SG sound as it is easy to get a fat tone, great for playing big rock songs and power chords.

SOUNDS

The Gothic SG isn't my only guitar, but it is great to pick up and play when I want to get that huge rock sound that the SG is known for. I use it with my 76' Fender Twin Reverb amp and a few distortion pedals to get a nice and fat crunchy guitar tone. It also sounds really good for lead tones and is nice with a Boss CS-3 compression pedal, some distortion or overdrive and some delay. While it is a great sound for rock, it wouldn't be my first choice for a guitar if I was playing jazz or something that requires more of a clean tone.

OVERALL OPINION

I've had this guitar since I bought it new eight years ago in 2001. The things I like most about it are that it has a great feel and a great thick tone. As it is a Gibson guitar, you know you are going to get a nice guitar that will be able to hold up over time. It also has a really cool all black finish with a silver moon on the 12th fret. For the price you are going to get a well made SG guitar that not only feels great, but also sounds great. I love having my Gothic SG around and I would probably get another SG (standard, if not Gothic), if mine ever got lost or stolen.