Gibson Review: SG Special Faded

History:

Purchase: About three years ago, I was searching for a great guitar at a reasonable price, (which is nearly impossible nowadays) and I heard of a guitar store in downtown portland oregon called apple music row. I went inside and looked around for about two hours or so. I repeated this pattern about five or six times and eventually I had had about 650 dollars saved up and had a list of guitars I really liked. One of these was a gibson SG in a really cool brown color, I wasn't sure of it's model or anything like that because I was not as keen on the world of guitars as I am now. But i eventually bought it for a fairly reasonable amount of 600 dollars, and with some bickering, i got some strap locks as well.

What I Like About This Gibson SG Special Faded: I really like this guitar because of the look and feel when you play it. You look and feel like a tough dude with a tough guitar. The body shape is really cool looking and adds a lot of character to live performance especially if you play harder music like rock, metal, or punk. I purchased the faded brown finish (but you can also get the faded cherry). It sounds kind of hokey because brown isn't color normally used to project beauty or greatness, but it REALLY works well for this guitar. As a matter of fact, it has kind of a redish tint to it that adds more of a "high price finish" look.The really great thing that I like about the finish on this guitar is the fact that it DOES NOT get fingerprint smudges. The sound has a nice vintage sound to it that is perfect for the player that is into classic rock,(you can get away with blues and jazz) or rock that isn't super heavy because of the output levels of the pick-ups.

What I Do NOT Like About The Gibson SG Special Faded: As hard as it is to believe. This guitar is the absolute cheapest solidbody with the gibson name on it. With this cheap price, there are things that don't quite live up to it's more expensive brothers and sisters. I really wasn't a fan of the gibson deluxe tuners, they were like a greyish green and put off a nice vintage look, but thats not what I was after. The finish doesn't protect the wood on the guitar very well either, it is VERY easy to scratch it because the finish isn't very protective. The pick ups do not put out enough power for my tastes (which is metal output levels). I think my biggest problem with it was probably the fact that the pickups were screwed to the pickgaurd, when I pulled off the pickguard, i was stunned, All i wanted to do was clean it and i ended up doing all of the work to take the pickups out and put them back in.

Gibson SG Special Faded Quality Rating: this is a very high quality guitar, especially for the tiny price.it feels very solid. My particular guitar has been tested. One night I played a show at a park and i went to swing my guitar around my hsoulder when my strap broke at the button and sent the guitar flying into a street and tumbling all over the place. the result: only two broken tuners and a "scab" on the body. no intonation problems, no funky sounding pickups, nothing wrong with it.with this level of quality construction, it is a great choice for the working musician. There weren't any real flaws about this guitar when i walked out of the store with it. mahogany body rounded mahogany neck rosewood fretboard dot inlay (pearloid) chrome hardware tune-o-matic bridge stopbar tailpiece black knobs (2 volume, 2 tone. 3 way switch) green key gibson deluxe tuners 490R alnico pickup(neck) 490T alnico pickup(bridge) came with gigbag

Review Summary: very much a great guitar. If you don't want to spend a great deal of cash on a standard or custom SG, i recommend buying this one and upgrading it over time. thats what I am doing, (for less money you can make it contour to your style, and have better quality than the expensive ones). Lets be honest though don't buy this guitar expecting it to be the most incredible thing you have ever played, it is NOT a 100,000 dollar '57 les paul. it's a big bang for your buck deal, buy it if you don't like anything else better..

Rating of this Gibson product: 4

This Gibson SG Special Faded Electric Guitars Review Submitted By: Coty and his Kustom SG

Review Date: 2004-11-11