SOLID CHOICE
From Epiphone’s new Inspired by Gibson collection to the Gibson Custom Shop, here’s our pick from the incredible range of SGs available now…
Gibson Custom Shop 1963 Les Paul SG Custom Reissue w/ Maestro Vibrola £5,299
Top of the line in ’63 and today, this reissue Custom has been painstakingly recreated using Gibson’s traditional building methods. Sporting a solid one-piece mahogany body and long tenon, hide-glue fit neck, Classic White vintage patina nitro finish, solid ebony fretboard, mother-of-pearl block inlays, and Custombucker Alnico III humbuckers, this guitar was built to turn heads.
Gibson SG Junior £999
Pros and students alike have long favoured the Junior for its sheer simplicity and killer tones, not to mention its comparatively low price. Recently revived for the Original Collection, the SG Junior has been reintroduced with a design that strongly mirrors its original 60s counterpart, including a Vintage Cherry gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finish, mahogany body and neck, rosewood fingerboard, compensated wraparound bridge, single dog-ear P-90 pickup, and hand-wired volume and tone controls.
Gibson Custom Shop 1961 Les Paul SG Standard Reissue Stop Bar £3,399
The model is hand-crafted using old-school Kalamazoo factory methods and materials, with a hide-glue ’board/ neck/body construction and a nitrocellulose Cherry Red finish. The ABR-1 Tune-o-matic bridge has brass saddles and a lightweight aluminium stop bar to maximise coupling between the strings and body, providing greater resonance, sustain and detail in conjunction with a pair of unpotted Custombucker Alnico III ’buckers.
Gibson SG Tribute £799
The SG Tribute from Gibson’s Modern Collection is a stone-cold classic rock machine boasting open-coil 490R and 490T humbucking pickups, and it comes in a choice of two satin nitrocellulose lacquer finishes: a 60s-vibe Vintage Cherry Satin or 70s-chic Natural Walnut. With a mahogany body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, and an aluminium Nashville Tune-o-matic bridge with aluminium stop tailpiece, this faithful workhorse strips Gibson’s classic SG styling back to basics.
Gibson SG Special £1,149
This dual P-90 classic from Gibson’s distinctly retro Original Collection comes in a choice of two 60s-style gloss nitrocellulose lacquer metallic finishes: Faded Pelham Blue and Vintage Sparkling Burgundy. With a mahogany body, a slim taper mahogany neck and a bound rosewood fingerboard, the SG Special’s twin soapbar P-90s provide a broad base of tone with a virtually endless array of further possibilities available via the guitar’s hand-wired volume and tone controls.
Epiphone SG Standard ’61 £399
From the new Inspired by Gibson Collection, the Epiphone SG Standard ’61 harks back to the debut of the SG/ Les Paul Standard with a Vintage Cherry finish and mahogany neck and body. Bolstered by high-quality CTS electronics,the dual ProBucker humbucking pickups found on this model are constructed using sand-cast Alnico II magnets along with vintage correct ‘18% Nickel Silver’ unit bases and covers, delivering quality vintage tone at a lower price point.