Gibson SG Very Special! (Gibson SG Special)

Member Name: Ian2001

Product:	Gibson SG Special
Date:	25/05/09 (13 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Light, great look, playabilty and sound

Disadvantages: Quite Expensive

Price

I purchased a wine red Gibson SG Special for £500 about 4 years ago. However the price now seems to be ranging from around £600 to £800 at most online dealers. Therefore it is certainly not an ideal guitar for beginners, make sure you will stick at playing before buying one!


Guitar Materials

The main body of the guitar (the wide end that you strum) is made from solid Mahogony, as is the neck (the thin part that you play the notes). The fingerboard where you place your fingers to play the notes, is made from Rosewood attached to the Mahogony neck. These materials used to build the guitar are very high quality, as reflected in the price, and have a great look and feel. Despite the solid Mahogony body the guitar itself is surprisingly light in weight compared to other Gibson guitars such as the Les Paul model, making it a very comfortable guitar to hold for long periods of time.


Guitar Features

The guitar has 22 frets (individual playable sections) on the Rosewood fingerboard. It has a clearly marked 3 position switch to select which pickups are used to pick up the sound, allowing you to have more of a treble sound, a rhythm sound or a neutral sound. It also has 2 volume controls and 2 tone controls so you can set up the tone and volume for both the treble pickup position and the rhythm pickup position seperately. Each control is numbered 0 - 10 for ease of use.


Quality of Sound

The quality of sound of an electric guitar often largely depends on the type of amplifier used, however I have played this guitar through a range of amplifiers from stage quality to one the size of a cigarette box and it has always had a clean, concise sound. It sounds great played clean, and also sounds great when using distortion for a heavier rock sound.


Playability

As the body of the guitar is cutaway at the top and the bottom, it is easier to reach the highest notes on the fingerboard. The neck is shaped like a C so it is comfortable for your thumb and fingers whilst playing. A slight downside for really high speed metal style guitarists would be that the varnish on the neck could be a bit sticky when trying to play 1000 notes a second! However for the majority of guitarists this would cause no problems whatsoever.


Overall

Overall I couldn't be happier with this guitar, I have been playing it nearly every day for about 4 years and the reliability of it has been fantastic. It suits my guitaring needs perfectly and my mates are quite jealous of it which is always a bonus! I would recommend it to anybody that is sure they will stick to playing guitar and will get fantastic value for money as I have.

Summary: Fantastic guitar that I love and would highly recommend!