The History of the Gibson SG

1960 was a tough year for sales for the Gibson Guitar Company. The Les Paul model was slumping and it was time for a new model. In 1961 Gibson unveiled the SG model or the Solid Guitar model. The SG is made of Mahogany and has a Rosewood or Ebony fret board. The SG has a thinner body and two cutaway horns on the top, which makes for easy access to the neck. This design gave the guitarist three additional frets that could be accessed without having to move your hand over the body.

This model was easier to produce and was meant to compete with the very popular Fender Stratocaster. Gibson did call the SG a Les Paul model at first until the guitarist, Les Paul, asked to have his name removed from anything Gibson including the new hated
Les Paul model (the SG).  This prompted Gibson to rename the guitar the SG which has stuck to this very day. You can see the “Les Paul” nameplates on guitars made from 1961 though 1963, this was because of the overstock of “Les Paul” plates.

In 1966 the SG was remodeled to include what looked like Batwings. This style stayed the same until 1970. In ’71 the SG included a floating pick guard like that on the Les Paul. Also included in the 70s was a tremolo arm which gave the artist more options to getting that freaky sound. The SG was returned to its original pick guard style in 1973 as well as adding models such as the SG-100, SG-200, the SG Pro and the Deluxe. At the end of the 70s the SG model went back to its original body shape.  In 1980 Gibson created the SG-R1 which had a thicker body to accommodate extra electronics that were found on a few other Gibson models. The knobs on the SG-R1 are see through and go from -5 to +5 instead of the 1-10. The SG-R1 was renamed the SG Artist in 1981 and only 200 were made.  

Some facts about the SG:

The SG has such a thin neck that the guitar was dubbed to be the “fastest neck in the world”.  There are a few variations of the SG including the Jr, Custom, the Standard and the new Diablo to name some. The SG also has signature models like the Les Paul. Tommy Iommi and the Angus Young models are some of the most popular.  In addition, Eric Clapton played a SG when he was in Cream; this guitar was called the “Fool Guitar” because of the artist who painted the guitar. The “Fool” found its way to Jackie Lomax (friend of George Harrison) and sold to Todd Rudgren for $500 and then sold to a private collector for an undisclosed amount.