SG ANNIVERSARY: CELEBRATING IN STYLE

To commemorate 60 years of its longest-running solidbody, Gibson started from scratch to recreate the first two Les Paul SG models. We speak to Gibson’s Head of Product Development, Mat Koehler to find out more

When it comes to modern Gibson guitars, you’ll often hear vintage-guitar aficionados using the phrase, ‘they don’t make ’em like they used to’. Yet slowly, over a period of decades, Gibson has got closer and closer to recreating the ‘real thing’. However, it is modern technology that is paving the way for a new level of accuracy, not least in Gibson’s ability to digitally scan original instruments down to the smallest detail.

“We got this technology about three years ago and it was instantly a gamechanger,” explains Mat Koehler, Gibson’s Head of Product Development. “Before that, it might take six to eight hours to simply scan a neck with the laser process we used. And that data wasn’t always easily transferable as opposed to scanning it in 3D and already having it in a CAD format. So it was huge. All the process really requires is waving a wand over the instrument, front and back; the whole process takes around 30 to 40 minutes and you have all of the geometry, which we then clean up and streamline to make sense for production.

“I usually tell people it’s an ‘easy’ 900step process…” he continues. “In reality it was probably a little over a year working on this project before we had the pilot run ready, and there were many twists and turns along the way. Obviously, recreating the sizeable Sideways Vibrola had its challenges because, well, the original design had its challenges!”

“There were many twists and turns along the way – recreating the sizeable Sideways Vibrola had its challenges because, well, the original design had its challenges!”

Let’s face it, history hasn’t been kind to that original vibrato – and even Gibson engineer at the time, Jim Hutchins, is quoted as saying, ‘We called it the Sidewinder. It never worked.’

“Well, I’m not sure I agree with that,” says Mat. “I’m a vintage guitar enthusiast – I used to have a vintage guitar shop – and I’ve probably handled 2,000 early SGs, and have them in my personal collection. But my take has always been if you use that vibrato correctly they were great: that’s the critical point, it’s a side-pull vibrato. The second you start using it like a Bigsby or a Fender vibrato, it’ll throw the whole thing out of whack. If you pull sideways, as intended, it achieves the correct result.

“Basically, the new scanning process revealed that the side-pull tremolos we had used at Gibson USA, which were supposedly exact recreations, would literally not fit on the surface of the historically scanned body geometry. So, yes, we had to redevelop this vibrato from scratch again, just for these models. It was pretty much the biggest of those twist and turns of this model’s introduction.”

Both the Standard and Custom use the exclusive Custom Shop Custombuckers, which are, “in the same ballpark as the Burstbuckers but developed separately.”

Mat continues, “The Burstbuckers were designed with unbalanced coils, various magnet types: a PAF-style pickup. But, Custombuckers were originally developed for the Jimmy Page Les Paul. We did all sorts of sonic testing for that guitar and listened to a variety of PAF pickups, which was when we learned they had any number of different Alnico magnets – it was almost the luck of the draw.

“We found Alnico 4, some Alnico 5 and some Alnico 2. Then, when we were doing the sonic testing, we were drawn to Alnico 3. This was a bit of a surprise, but when you consider how modern magnets are probably more efficient than old magnets, it kinda makes sense. So we all agreed on Alnico 3. We actually just repeated our tests recently to make sure we still all liked Alnico 3 the best. So, for us, it seems to be the one that captures that ‘bloom’ and sound of the original PAFs.

“One of the very cool things about this project is that, finally, we got to pay homage to the creator of the SG – and who also happens to have been the creator of the Les Paul: Larry Allers. He was a Gibson foreman and engineer at Kalamazoo [for most of the 50s and 60s] and he rarely gets credit for these designs, but he was definitely the man behind them.”

2 The middle pickup is outof-phase with the neck and bridge on the original Customs, but not here. “When customers want an out-of-phase sound, it’s often on a Lemon Burst Les Paul that may or may not resemble Peter Green’s…” says Mat

1 “The SG was always designed to have that side-pull vibrato, so the guitar’s balance is fantastic with it, but the SG became more popular with just the stopbar tailpiece, and then you see a little bit of neck dive. The original design with that vibrato helps to balance the guitar,” explains Mat

3 The redesign of the SG retained the individual volume and tone controls for each pickup, although they are more closely spaced, and the toggle selector switch was moved to join them

4 These all-mahogany 60th Anniversary Les Paul SGs are the most accurate reproductions of Gibson’s longest-running solidbodies. Along with the Sideways Vibrola, both feature an ‘Authentic ’61’ thin-profile neck, Kluson tuners, an ABR-1 tune-o-matic bridge, two custombucker pickups, CTS vintage-taper pots and ‘Black Beauty’ capacitors. True to style, the Cherry Standard has a bound Indian rosewood fingerboard with aged cellulose nitrate trapezoid inlays and aged nickel hardware. The Polaris White Custom differs with its bound ebony fingerboard and block mother-of-pearl inlays with aged gold-plated hardware. The 60th Anniversary 1961 Les Paul SG Standard With Sideways Vibrola in Cherry Red VOS costs £4,399, the three pickup Custom, in Polaris White VOS, is £5,899

5 The case candy includes a repro of the original advert: ‘Solid Hit: The Les Paul Guitar’ featuring, of course, Les Paul and Mary Ford. The description includes the words: ‘Beauty in gleaming white or cherry red that must be seen. Wonderfully clear bell-like tone that must be heard. Fast action that should be tried… soon’