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Gibson SG Special '60s Tribute
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Gibson SG Special '60s Tribute

SG-Shaped Guitar from Gibson belonging to the SG series

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« Classic P-90 tone from an SG »

Published on 07/14/11 at 19:54
Back in the early 60s when the Gibson Les Paul was long gone and when you asked for a Les Paul they handed you an SG you could get your Les Paul/SG in two flavors; PAF's or P-90s. PAFS were the new things on the scene. They were quiet and mellow but some people wanted the noisy snarling P-90s in their guitar. Some of the heaviest records of the time were recorded on guitars with P-90s. From Mississippi Queen to Black Sabbath P-90s were the shoutier choice when it came to pickups. Gibson is now putting out a decently priced tribute to these early 60s SG's that came with the old school pickups. These guitars are called the 60s Tribute SG's. This guitar is great old school SG. It has the early small pickguard that I prefer on my SG's. This guitar has a 60s profile neck so it is nice and thin and fast. It has dual Gibson P-90. Each pickup has its own volume and tone control and are switched with a 3 way switch. It has 22 frets on a rosewood fretboard with trapezoid inlays. The headstock has 6 Gibson Kluson tuners with a 14-1 ratio.

UTILIZATION

One of the reasons this guitar replaced the Gibson Les Paul, along with it being cheaper to make it was also much easier to play. The SG was designed to give much better upper fret access than the Les Paul offered and it does. 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. The neck joints on the new SG have all but fixed this problem. The design still has some quirks that you may not be use to. 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. This can be solved by moving the strap peg to the upper horn like on Tony Iommi's SG guitar. With the P-90 pickups you will get some extra noise from them since they are single coils but this is just part of the vintage p-90s experience. This guitar has Gibsons worn finish. These are just thing nitro finishes that will wear easily to give the guitar a more vintage look. If you are use to poly finishes you will notice that this guitar will age very quickly in terms of looks.

SOUNDS

The P-90 sound has awesome bite. Tony Iommi for years used P-90 style pickups in his guitar and he put out some of the heaviest tones of the era. I think if you are looking to play heavy music on a vintage style guitars the P-90s would be a better choice over vintage humbuckers. These pickups are not just for rocking you can get a great jazzy or blues tone from them. They have the clear bottom end of a humbucker with the crisp top of a single coil. This crisp top is what adds the bite and sizzle to the heavy tones when you are playing heavy music.

OVERALL OPINION

I hope Gibson makes this guitar for a while. If you play mostly lefty like me when a big company comes out with a nice lefty guitar that isnt twice as much as the right handed version it gets your attention. Currently this is the only small pickguard SG they make that they sell left handed, and with the P-90 pickups it just makes it more unique. If you are looking for a very old school SG that has an angry sound this P-90 60s Tribute SG is for you.