| Bob Womack |
12-03-2017 08:34 AM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by fazool
(Post 5556178)
I read an interesting story about the guitar. if I get it right:
Gibson had planned on phasing out the Les Paul. The SG was designed to be Gibson's Solid Guitar (hence the "SG" name). The double cutaway was an improvement as well as the lighter weight body. This was supposed to become their flagship guitar.
The problem was that traditionalists were outraged and too many people still demanded the Les Paul.
|
Yep. In fact, the SG was first issued with Les Paul's name on it. There were publicity pictures with Les and his wife Mary Ford and a publicity tour. There were only two problems: Les wasn't consulted in the design of the instrument and didn't like the long unsupported neck length of the guitar. He felt it made the neck too flexible.
Les and Mary were going through a divorce and needed to separate their money matters including the endorsements.
HERE is what Les thought of the SG. All this stuff brought about the renaming of the guitar. Gibson phased out the under-performing single cutaway Les Paul and went to the SG in '60-61. Towards the end of the '60s Les discovered that the old single cutaway Les Pauls were selling to the blues players for a fortune. He called up the president of Gibson and suggested the restart production of the original Les Paul.
Back to the OP's question, I'd always been interested in the SG but never tried one out. After finally sitting down with one on my own terms I decided I wanted one and began looking at them at the beginning of this year. I eventually tracked down a special run that had been done by Dave's Guitars called the 2016 Gibson SG Standard '61 Reissue Limited Edition.
http://www.in2guitar.com/sg/sgincasesm.jpg
A thread in another forum asked of the SG, "Where has the guitar been all my life?" My answer? "Lost to my personal biases." More about the SG on my web page, HERE.
Bob |
