2007 Gibson SG Special Faded

  • Body: Mahogany
  • Neck: Mahogany/”Baked” rosewood fretboard
  • Hardware: Kluson keystone tuners, Nashville Tune-O-Matic bridge, Guitar Fetish “X-Trem,” chrome plated pickup covers
  • Pickups: Stock Gibson AlNiCo 490R and 490T

A good friend had to move his studio to another location after the roof caved in after a storm, and the landlord refused to accept responsibility. He needed to sell off some gear to finance the move and contacted me to see if I was in the market for anything. I told him I was not. “Are you sure?” he asked. Yes, I’m sure. “Do you have an electric 12-string, or semi-hollow jazz box?” Yes I do! “How about a Gibson-scale, solid body, humbucker-equipped Rawk Hoss?” Er…no.

He pulled that age old trick pet shop owners have been using on harried parents for decades, “take it home, if you don’t like it you can return it!” Yeah, right. One final caveat: “Listen, if you do return it, and my wife asks, just say its yours and you’re loaning it to me…she doesn’t know how many guitars I have!” Ha!

“Listen, if you do return it, and my wife asks, just say its yours and you’re loaning it to me…she doesn’t know how many guitars I have!”

Name Withheld

Originally introduced as the “Gibson Les Paul Solid Guitar (SG)” in 1961, it replaced the vaunted single-cut LP with a lighter, thinner, single layer double-cutaway body to reduce production costs…all done without the knowledge or approval of Les Paul himself, who hated it and demanded they remove his name. Still, its gone on to become a favourite for a lot of heavy players, including Angus Young (AC/DC), Robbie Krieger (The Doors), Pete Townshend (whose nickname is “Towser,” btw), Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Jeff Tweedy (Wilco), and many, many others. George Harrison got one early 1966 and used it on much of Revolver and many other significant Fab recordings — like the solo on “Hey Bulldog” — until he eventually gave it to Pete Ham of Badfinger, who used it himself on many of their records.

So far I’ve recorded with it on a handful of sessions, and its been a solid player, with a 24.75” scale length, worn-looking nitrocellulose satin finish, and a glued-in 22 fret 12” radius set neck made from quarter sawn mahogany with an unbound rosewood fingerboard. It has an angled headstock with a rounded ’50’s profile, so it doesn’t get rubbery and shift around like some of the thinner-necked SG’s. I left it pretty much stock, including the Corian nut, and Gibson’s “Modern Classics” humbuckers (similar to PAF’s but with AlNiCo II magnets and a bit more output), but with added pickup covers because I hate the open coil look. I also added a GFS X-Trem vibrato with a somewhat stiffer spring. Loaded with D’Addario NYXL .10-.46, it is indeed a Rawk Hoss. Unfortunately out of production, because…well, because Gibson. Insert eye-roll here.