Gibson's Underdog - The SG

[Phil Owl]

Anyone here besides this Owl have a fondness for Gibson/Epiphone SG style axes?

I know some folks can't stand 'em but personally, I thought this was the coolest 6 or 7 pounds of mahogany that Gibson ever put out!

For one, I LOVED the way if felt against my body, easy on the shoulders and it looked soooooo cool, especially the cherry-red ones!

It had a somewhat more "nasally" tone than say, a Les Paul, but it could still roar with the best of 'em and was even capable of great warmth if properly amplified.

Fave SG guys for me:

Tony Iommi
Frank Marino
Allan Holdsworth (in the 70's with Tempest, Tony Williams Lifetime and Gong)
Mick Abrams (original Jethro Tull guitarist, Blodwyn Pig)
John Abercrombie (in the 70's)

What say y'all?

[AstroDan]

I love it, too. My favorites are Angus Young, Iommi and Pete Townsend...

...and Jack Black!

The new Epi SG's are incredible.

This last year has definitely been the year of the Tele and the SG. For good reason.

[sthslvrcnfsn]

i'll gamble here and say that the firebird is my favorite new gibson. it's not as smooth as the LP and SG, but man it's got a hell of a sound. And just look at it. damn.

old Gibson - melody makers are cool. sort of an SG LP hybrid by concept. And give me a an ES-1xx with p-90 in 'em if you can find one, and I will never buy another guitar ever.

jim

[trashy]

We're talking SG's and no one has mentioned Sleater-Kinney?!? Come-on!
Words and guitar, my friends. And the guitar they are talking about is an SG, guarantee it.

Robby from the Doors played one, too.

It's a cool guitar.

[DUC]

P-90's are way cool.

I'd love to try a 50's Les Paul someday.

Used to own a 60's Cherry SG with a Bigsby thingy. Nice all around jazz tones. Warm. Not flimsy, like most SGs. Into a '64 Bassman with 3 15's... wow!

Now I'm into bright, country tones ala Fender maples.

I'm designing a stripped down version of a Telecaster.

[Jay]

I am a huge SG fan. The last show my band played, I had my red SG (with the output jack on the side-- weird!), the other guitar player's yellow SG, and we had a borrowed '60s SG bass. That was probably a little much. But I do enjoy the sound of an SG into a Hiwatt.

[ahmedgarcia]

Mine are a black July '90 Studio SG and a wood grain red February 1999 reissue of a 1967. Two seperate beats. The 1990 I had to replace the original pick-up for a Texas Bar-B-Q humbucker. It kicks ass even better. I had to replace the old one 'cause I had beaten it up and it was desinigrating (sic).

I will post some sounds soon as I am working on a few projects.

[durasoundrecordingco]

I love me some SGs. Like Jay said, an SG into a Hiwatt or a Bassman (DUC) and they just sound sweet. Even into a standard Marshall 800/1960 4x10. Just awesome.

Favs:
Townshsend
R. Krieger
MacKaye/Picciotto - Fugazi
Iommi

What more need be said? They are the shit!

That good shit being said, the guys in my band use the following: 70's Ric 360 / 68 Fender Twin Rev, 70's LP / Marshall 900 & 1960 4x10 (4&16 ohm) & a Travis Bean TB2000 / Traynor YBA-1. Though there are two SG's floating around, this is what get's played live most of the time.

[1\2moog1\2man]

I think the next two guitars I get are going to be an sg and a tele..I have had a bunch of les pauls and some fenders too including my first guitar a 1962 fender jaguar. Because i wanted to be just like Robert Smith. Do you guy and girls know if the necks are bolt on or glue on with the SG model?

[ahmedgarcia]

they are glue on.

[djimbe]

What??? No mention of Mr. Zappa as an SG fan? He was a devout player if the pictures from the '70s are any indication. I know shit about guitars, but I've always loved the extreme double Florentine cutaway look. The devilish horns just say RAWK to me. I like the EB4 for the same reason...

[JGriffin]

Underdog? It's been Gibson's best-selling solidbody guitar almost since they were introduced!!

In case you didn't know department: The guitar was originally marketed as the "Les Paul SG" but Les Paul played the guitar, hated it, and asked Gibson to take his name off it. Interview excerpt follows:

Les Paul: The one I wasn't happy with was the SG. That happened in '60 or '61. When that guitar came out, I told them to take my name off of it until they got it right.

Interviewer: You weren't happy with the sound, isn't that right?

LP: No, I was physically unhappy with it because it would play out of tune if you pulled on the neck or leaned on it. It was very fragile. It was not strong enough between the neck and the body. So what I did was I put the heat on
them until they made a better one. In the mean time, and this is where I think people are getting a little confused, my wife (Mary Ford) and I were going through a divorce, and until the divorce was settled, there were to be no guitars made with my name. Gibson didn't do very well without the name Les Paul on that guitar. There was a lapse between 1961 until I finished my divorce. Then we made a new deal in '66 and started talking about making a new Les Paul guitar. That's what happened. It was a matter of waiting until my divorce was settled.

Interviewer: So the version that came out in '66 was a new design?

LP: It was the same as the old one, but it was a new agreement and contract.
Until that time, there was only one guitar that could be made (by Gibson). That was the SG and could not have my name on it. At that time, any guitar that had a pickup on it, they had to pay me a royalty.

[aurelialuz]

LP: No, I was physically unhappy with it because it would play out of tune if you pulled on the neck or leaned on it. It was very fragile. It was not strong enough between the neck and the body. So what I did was I put the heat on
them until they made a better one.

thanks for posting this. i had always heard that but never from the horse's mouth.

alex

[DUC]

Was watching MTV and noticed this band, Kings Of Leon, playing an SG. They were so weak. And the singer sounded like that teacher in South Park. The one that goes, mmm-hmmm. Musicianship going down the tubes.

SGs are underdogs, but the TV yellow Les Paul Juniors are badass. Expensive, though.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

i like 'em cause they're easy to play with my stubby little fingers.

they don't stay in tune for shit though. at least with the stock tuners.

another great SG player not mentioned yet is Bill Dolan from 5ive style/heroic doses. believe he's playing in the fire theft now...