The Gibson SG is a model of solid-bodied electric guitar.

In 1959, the Gibson company felt that the Les Paul signature model, introduced in 1952, had outlived its usefulness, and decided to change the design. The new guitar was issued in the 1961 model year as a Les Paul signature model, but Les Paul himself disapproved of the change due to what he felt was a move toward cheap construction and a watered-down sound. (The new guitar was, in fact, designed to be less expensive to build than the labor- and materials-intensive standard Les Paul model.) His endorsement contract with Gibson lapsed in 1962, and the guitar was renamed the 'SG,' for 'standard guitar' or 'solo guitar', by the end of the 1963 model year.

Physically, the SG has a shallower body than the Les Paul, and thus is much lighter; the neck profile is also typically shallower, although this varies from year to year and guitar to guitar. The body is made entirely of mahogany, and does not have the curved, maple top section of the earlier design; neither does it have the accompanying binding. Perhaps the most striking visual difference is that the SG is a double-cutaway instrument. The standard SG shares the basic electrical layout (twin humbuckers with dedicated tone and volume controls, three position selector switch) with the standard Les Paul.

The SG series sounds different from the Les Paul series, but not inferior in the least. While the original Les Paul was designed as primarily a jazz guitar, the SG lent itself more easily to the rock 'n' roll of the immediate pre-Beatles era, and later, to the distorted rhythm sound of heavy rock. It's a more woody, yet treblier guitar that has a fine balance of tones. The SG series has remained popular since its introduction, even though the original Les Paul series was reintroduced in the late 1960s.

The standard Les Paul is now seen as more of a lead guitarist's instrument, while the SG is more tempered for rhythm guitar -- although each is suitable for both applications, and some lead guitarists prefer the SG, and vice versa.

Gibson now offers many variations and finishes on the basic SG body style, including models such as Voodoo, Special, Supreme, Angus Young Special, Faded, and Gothic.

Famous players of the SG include Pete Townshend, Angus Young, Keith Richards, Tony Iommi, Robby Krieger, Carlos Santana, George Harrison and Eric Clapton.

External links

• http://www.everythingsg.com
• http://www.gibson.com/products/gibson/sg/index.html
• http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/sg.htm

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