Should I Buy a Gibson SG?

After 10 years of being a Les Paul man, and both lately and historically being a Fender Stratocaster devotee… Why am I gassing for a Gibson SG?

So should I buy a Gibson SG? I’ve never owned one, and over the years I’ve justified that decision with many reasons, both from experience and from the grapevine:

It’s a Gibson Les Paul light, right?

Construction-wise, at least, the Gibson SG has a thinner body and lacks a maple cap. It was designed as the ‘new’ Les Paul in 1961 (when unbelievably, Gibson couldn’t sell Les Pauls), so obviously the result is the Gibson SG doesn’t sound or feel like a Les Paul. The Gibson SG is far lighter and mid-focussed with a much narrower frequency response, making it sonically less versatile. Why would you want that?

Les Paul himself didn’t want his name against it.

In fact, he hated it so much, that he was willing to give up his dollar-a-guitar royalty to have his name removed from the new Gibson Les Paul, which was (very unimaginatively) renamed the Gibson SG (Solid Guitar).

The controls are too cramped and fiddly.

Just look at any images of the Gibson SG to see this obvious design flaw. As a player who loves to ride the guitar volume and experiment with tones, the Gibson SG makes this a chore, with the controls being both further away and closer together than even a Les Paul…

That front-facing jack.

…and the above issue is compounded by the output jack which both necessitates a right-angled lead and is far too close to the tone pot for comfort. This and the control layout have always felt rushed and lazy on behalf of Gibson’s design team. What is the benefit of laying out the controls and jack this way?

Pickup contrast.

A 22nd fret neck join necessitates that the neck pickup is closer to the bridge pickup than on a Gibson Les Paul, meaning less differentiation between the two, resulting in less tonal versatility as well as a narrower tonal response described in a previous point.

Neck dive.

Another design flaw, and the result of the same(ish) neck, attached to a lighter body at a different point. Who want’s neck dive? Was the Gibson SG a rush job by Gibson to try and get sales going again on the back of the Strat’s success?

Gibson SGs feel weird, like a long plank of wood attached to a body that almost isn’t there.

I’ve had a Gibson SG Standard in my hands before. It felt very strange. The neck felt too long (although it’s the exact scale length of a Gibson Les Paul), and not at all stable or reassuring. more like a a floppy inflatable guitar In fact, it feels like it’s just a guitar neck, with the body stuck on as an afterthought… with that awful jack socket and control layout to boot.

Did I mention the strap button?

The fastest neck in the world Gibson said. 22 fret body/neck join. Perfect playability and fret access right? Well, not when the strap button is located right on the heel under your hand it isn’t.

It’s Gibson’s answer to a Fender Stratocaster… when I already own a Stratocaster.

Having a double cutaway, a lighter body, and better ergonomics than a Gibson Les Paul doesn’t make it a Fender Stratocaster. As I’ve said a thousand times, design-wise at least, the Fender Stratocaster is the perfect electric guitar. The Gibson SG isn’t even in the same game.

It’s not exactly a looker is it?

The Devil guitar or the Batman guitar doesn’t really sell it for me. I’ve always thought the Gibson SG to be a little School of Rock cheesy-looking. The horns are just too severe, It makes too much of a statement, but at the same time is uglier than an Explorer or a Flying V which both make more of a statement. It’s all a bit odd really. I can’t sum this up more than Angus Young in his shorts. I dunno, it’s all a bit cringeworthy.

Gibson SG Players.

Compared to the Gibson Les Paul and the Fender Stratocaster/Telecaster, the roster of famous SG players is lacking. Angus Young, Toni Iommi, Frank Zappa, Kelly Jones(Stereophonics), and Derek Trucks to name just five. Other players have dabbled (Hendrix, Clapton, even George Harrison), but never elevated it to their guitar of choice, for obvious reasons. That lack of endorsement has played a major factor in my, and many others buying decisions.

That’s quite a convincer for never owning a Gibson SG. However, I still want one. Let me try and make some sense of that statement for you.

The Gibson SG is the perfect alternative to a Gibson Les Paul.

I want a break from Les Pauls, and I currently have the Strat itch scratched with my Fender Player Stratocaster. So for my fix of thick double humbucker action, I started to look at Les Paul alternatives: The Yamaha Revstar, Gibson Les Paul Juniors, and Paul Reed Smith. But there’s a no-brainer right under my nose that’s been in Gibson’s back catalogue almost as long as the Les Paul itself, which even carried the name Gibson Les Paul between 1961 and 1963. That guitar is the Gibson SG.

The Gibson SG has The World’s Fastest neck.

I’m not gonna lie. I love Gibson necks, and Its USA models boast plekked fretwork, meaning no issues with uneven frets. This, combined with the floppier scale length, 22-fret double cutaway body join and a neck radius that doesn’t choke out is getting onto ultimate playability. Could Gibson’s claim be true?

Do I really care about the Gibson SG design issues?

When push comes to shove and you’re in the moment making music, does the location of the controls really matter that much? After a few days/weeks could I get used to the strap button location? Is it really that much of a bother to get a right-angled jack and a grippy guitar strap? Some argue that the SG is designed to be an all-out rock machine to bash away at, zipping across the fretboard at speed, with nothing so trivial as controls to get in the way. I get that.

The Gibson SG is exceptional value for money.

At the time of writing, you can gain access to the real McCoy, a no-compromise Gibson USA Standard instrument for £1500. That’s less than an American Pro II Fender Stratocaster and a LOT less than a Gibson Les Paul Standard, with the only concession being, you get a very nice gig bag rather than the case. There’s just something about owning a USA standard, and the Gibson SG Standard represents the lowest barrier to a piece of history than them all.

Would I take a £2k Gibson Les Paul Standard to the dog and duck to leave on its stand at a gig? No way. But I’d feel a lot more comfortable gigging this.

The Gibson SG is a cool guitar.

Yeah I know I mentioned the SG was cheesy, but guess what? School of Rock and AC/DC are yesterday’s news. Nobody plays SGs anymore, and they’ve become overlooked and underrated, which makes them a little niche, left-field, mysterious, and ultimately interesting and cool again. In these eyes at least they’ve become more attractive, especially in the classic cherry finish.

The Gibson SG is a great compromise between a Fender Stratocaster and a Gibson Les Paul.

For many, their Holy Grail guitar would possess the ergonomics of the Fender Stratocaster with the rich, powerful tones of the Gibson Les Paul, and to a large extent, this is what the Gibson SG achieves. Sure, it doesn’t have the flawless design of the Strat and can’t do many Strat things, but the lightness, the body curves, and the upper-fret access are present and correct (indeed, upper-fret access is even better on an SG). On the other hand, it isn’t quite a Les Paul for tone either, but for many, it’s close enough.

Adding at least some Strat elements to the beloved Gibson tone could be a game-changer. the one-guitar-to-rule-them-all answer.

Gibson SG Tone.

Who said a mid-focussed mahogany-bodied, twin-humbucker tone was a bad thing? Check out Anderton’s Les Paul vs SG vid in which an SG Standard goes against a Murphy lab Custom shop Gibson Les Paul Standard. The Les Paul seemed, dare I say fizzy at times, and lacking the mid-range push of the SG. Also, although the Les Paul has more low-end, is this something you’d want to use, either recorded or live? More often than not, you’ll be shelving those frequencies anyway.

What is clear is that the SG lives in and owns that guitar-friendly, mid-focussed tone spectrum. Isn’t that all that matters?

The Gibson SG looks are growing on me.

Objectively speaking. The Gibson SG is still one of the four classic guitar shapes, along with the Tele, the Strat, and the Les Paul. It’s definitely growing on me, probably because I’ve never owned one, and I’ve spent quite a bit of time oggling them lately.

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Should I buy a Gibson SG?

I’ve laid it out all the pros and cons, gone around in circles, and contradicted myself as only guitars can do (I hope). So should I buy a Gibson SG and why? Do you own one? Do you like them?, or have you avoided them so far as I have? Please let me know in the comments below.