1969 Gibson SG with striped refinish

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We seem to have been having a bit of a SG fixation on this blog recently, don't we?

Do you think this refinished striped 1969 Gibson SG outdoes the silver glitter SG that Bertam posted about earlier? This one, again, would probably be best suited to a glam rock band. I have to confess I secretly quite like it. Hey, it's even complete with the Gibson Lyre vibrola.

Via Vince Gotera on our Facebook page.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Custom glam SG

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SG time! Sparkling SG! Glam for the people!

One out of 18 SGs by Gibson custom shop in silver sparkling finish, with 3 humbuckers and everything needed to fight the Emperor Ming on planet Mongo!

Bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1970s Hoyer SG

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Yes I'm a little bit obsessed by these vintage German trems lately - that is ironical for someone who has very little use for one when playing guitar (but I still have so much to learn!)

Look at the big chrome trem and rolling saddles bridge of this superb 1970s Hoyer SG in burgundy finish, isn't it he sexiest thing in the world? 

Bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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Racy Gibson SG GT

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So we have to get used to it, Gibson will never create a new guitar any more, the best they can do is to release endless variations of their classics - once brilliant innovations ahead of their time and setting the standards for those who followed.

Unfortunately they are not even good at their current trend and get easily lost in these high-tech gadgets they're busy with lately - the worst being the Firebird X (the non-reverse body is everything but cool, you have to remember that it has been issued first  in 1965 when Gibson was in its worst phase and didn't have the guts to stand for the radical reverse body design of the original Firebird).

OK, enough ranting now, maybe I should have started my post with a more positive tone, like: 'waow, look at this cool and racy SG!' The 2006 limited edition Gibson SG GT is one of the good Gibsons of the last years (for some reason, the SG has been inspirational, I also find the Zoot extremely interesting  (I finally saw one at my local guitar shop but guys were queuing in front to try it). 

Its design (racing stripes and lots of chromes) is inspired by some sport car (I'm French, the only car I can identify is the Citroën 2CV) - this kind of idea had worked too when the Firebird was conceived by car designer Ray Dietrich. I love the big shiny stoptail aerodynamic cover and fitting pickup rings, and amongst the technical improvements, you'll find super hot splitable humbuckers (activated by push-pull knobs), high pass tone filter, locking jack output and dual truss rod.

Bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

April Fool?

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Here's a Gibson SG that has been painted in a psychedelic fashion to resemble Eric Clapton's "The Fool" SG that he played back in his Cream days. The original is now in the hands of Todd Rundgren, but along with George Harrison's "Rocky" and Jimi Hendrix's Monterey sacrificial Strat, hand painted replicas of varying levels of artistic competence regularly turn up for sale on eBay.

The example pictured here has a Buy It Now price of $1,199.99. For the Clapton fan who desires such a replica, a cheaper option would be to seek out the John Hornby Skewes Vintage-branded replica which we already looked at in my London Guitar Show 2008 review.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1972 Gibson SG 200

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This SG 200 looks like a Byelorussian copy from the 70s cut with a chainsaw, painted with tractor oil and mounted with the left-overs of an old WWII Red Army radio found in a barn under two barrels of smuggled vodka - then played for 15 years by a Soviet underground hard-rock band covering Black Sabbath and Motörhead, and finally abandoned in 1991 when its owner emigrated to Israel and managed to buy a real Epiphone, until some Ukrainian eBay seller realized that vintage guitars are valuable also in eastern Europe and revived it.

Well it's nothing of this, it's a real Gibson from 1972, a short-lived down-graded version of the SG from a time when Gibson was loosing control! It has a bigger than standard SG maple body, simplified bridge and controls, and two single-coil pickups, and it looks wild, though it is usually considered as total junk and isn't so far a collectible guitar.

bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Surely some mistake?

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What the...?

I'll leave you to make you own comments!

(Thanks to Brad Olson who found this oddity on Craigslist).

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Hand-carved SG

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In these times when you have to choose mainly between soulless clones of once modern guitars and flashy paint-jobs targeted at uneducated teenagers, it's good to find here and there something mixing classicism, originality and sensitivity - like this hand-carved SG of indeterminate brand (or is it all hand-made?).

This tasteful work is the work of UK woodcarver Nick Hunter, who has a website where I stole these pictures... I just like it.

Bertram

[Additional: It's a Gordon-Smith, made in the UK - GLW ]

NB: There are a lot of blogs STEALING content and bandwidth. If you read this anywhere else but on guitarz.blogspot.com then you are reading a blog that STEALS content. Please support original bloggers!

Gibson in laminated SG shock horror!

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As Bertram stated in the previous post, we don't usually feature new product on this blog, but these particular guitars are wacky enough that I just couldn't ignore them.

This new SG Zoot Suit from Gibson is built from dyed pieces of multiple birch wood laminate which has been compressed and bonded to form a solid block of wood. The colours you see are of the actual dyed pieces of laminate - no paints are used - the guitar is finished in two coats of satin nitrocellulose lacquer.

Gibson claim that the guitar has enhanced sustain and resonance. So, does everything they've been telling us over the years about tonewoods go out the window? This is basically a laminated guitar, and at £1,999 it hardly comes cheap.

I confess that I do quite like the aesthetics of this guitar, although perhaps the slightly more sober-looking black and natural version (below) is more to my tastes.

Thanks to Alan P for the tip-off!

G L Wilson

NB: There are a lot of blogs STEALING content and bandwidth. If you read this anywhere else but on guitarz.blogspot.com then you are reading a blog that STEALS content. Please support original bloggers!

Epiphone G-400 Xtreme

Similar process than on the Peavey Mystic, but applied to a SG instead of to a strat, this is a quite rare Epiphone G-400 Xtreme model that I never heard of until 10 minutes ago!

Though I like the idea, I feel that these back horns don't really work here - but it's actually hard to tell because the 'industriel steel scratch plate'™ ;) spoils it completely... I would like to see this guitar with a classic 'worn' finish and see how it feels... Am I too old to appreciate a guitar targeted at teenager gothic wanabees?

bertram

Maestro Sideways Vibrola

The question about Hetfield's SG strange vibrato has been answered - thanks to Andy, Ron and Pappy. It's a Maestro Sideways Vibrola with its cover removed, and it looks pretty cool like this! This kind of vibrato was apparently not unusual on SGs in 1963...

On the other hand, Robb Flynn's baritone Gibson Flying V stays a mystery - but we are pretty sure that it is a baritone from the size of its neck... The question keeps open!

Something else, on Iconic Guitar blog there is an excellent post about the pretty nice Guild S-300 - I couldn't do better, so it's worth having a look there!

Bertram

a couple of questions about some guitars...

Isn't it very arrogant to post for a guitar blog and offer to the world some information that mostly I got myself a few hours before? Now I will humbly ask our readers to help me solve some guitars mysteries (mysteries only for myself of course)...

On the cover of some French guitar magazine, there is a picture of James Hetfield (yes, the guy who said that he's proud that Metallica's music has been used to torture people in Guantanamo) holding a Gibson SG with this strange vibrato, could anybody tell me more about it?

Question 2: in the same magazine there is a picture of Robb Flynn (Machine Head) with a Gibson Flying V and it's said somewhere that it's a baritone. Does such a thing exist or is it a mistake (never heard of a baritone Gibson Flying V, but it would be so cool)?

Thanks for your answers!
bertram

Sigur Ros upholstered SG

Here's a 1991 Gibson SG formerly owned by Jón þor (jónsi) Birgisson of the Icelandic band Sigur Ros, and which rather bizarrely has been upholstered in velvet fabric.

The funny thing is that the colour looks right on this Gibson which judging from the back of the neck looks like it was originally a cherry finish.

(Thanks again to Gary for bringing this wonderfully strange guitar to my attention).

On a related note, here's another fabric-covered guitar.

A window into the inside of an SG

Here's what must likely be a rare Gibson SG. It features an extended pickguard recessed into the front of the body and which is made of perspex through which you can view the guitar's inner workings in all their glory! I'm guessing that the guitar must be a promotional model for sales shows, etc. Prospective buyers may like to know that the guitar comes with a second pickguard with a white marbled finish (and not at all transparent).

UPDATE: I'm told that it's a former Gibson "Guitar of the Month" limited edition on which someone has switched the pearloid scratchplate for one of clear acrylic.

The Mystery Guitar Identified... (sort of...)

Hey, you guys are great. Ask a question, and a couple of days later there comes the answer!

Another Guitarz reader, Paul Roub, very cunningly went straight to the source and asked the folks at the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, and they told him that the SG with the Flying V headstock belongs to Tim Sult of Clutch.

The picture here shows the Gibson logo quite clearly on the head (note also the Les Paul style pickguard), but I still don't know if it's a one-off custom jobbie or a "frankenstein". Perhaps now we know whose guitar it is, a little more digging might answer some of these other questions.

Thanks, Paul! Nice one.

We Need Your Help: What Is This Mystery Guitar?

Guitarz reader Paul Alvarez has contacted me with a mystery, and it's one dilly of a pickle. It concerns a mystery guitar that he'd like identified. The photo to the left shows an exhibit at the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

Please note, that the mystery guitar is NOT Kurt Cobain's Fender Mustang in the centre of the picture. That one we can identify.

No, the guitar we are interested in is the one on the right-hand side of the picture. It appears to be a Gibson SG equipped with a Bigsby and a Flying V neck - check that pointed headstock. Does anyone know the identity of this guitar and the story behind it? Is it a one-off, or was it part of a limited edition? Also, who played this guitar? Anyone we should know of? The fact that it's on display in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame would imply that it's a famous guitar or was at least owned by someone famous.

If anyone could tell us what the plaque beneath the guitar in the display cabinet actually says, we'd love to know! There must be a story about the guitar - look - it's got much more info on the plaque than Kurt's guitar has.

Is there anyone in Cleveland who can help, or perhaps someone who's recently visited the exhibit?

The History Of The SG: Sharp Points And Radical Departures: A potted history of Gibson's classic guitar from the folks at Epiphone. I notice they skip over details such as why it was renamed from Les Paul to SG (i.e. the man himself didn't like it).

Epiphone Offers a Wide Range of SG Guitars: something for everyone! Even 13-year old goth girls.

Also up for auction at Cooper Owen is the remnants of one of Pete Townshend's smashed Gibson SGs. I always feel sorry for guitars like that - if it got into my hands I'd say bugger the historical significance and give it to a luthier to rebuild.

Designer Gibson Guitar Auction to Benefit Breast Cancer Research: unique SGs featuring artwork by the likes of Sheryl Crow, Rod Stewart, Ellen DeGeneres, Melissa Etheridge, David Carradine, Mick Fleetwood, Joe Perry of Aerosmith and Brian Johnson of AC/DC.