Advertised as ‘the fastest neck in the world’ when it was introduced in 1961, Gibson’s forays into the angular took the Les Paul into the new decade with a brave new look. A complete overhaul introduced a lithe, double cut body reducing the weight and giving better access to the upper frets. The slimmer neck made for a faster playing guitar and the sideways trem gave the Les Paul a new weapon in its arsenal.  A step too far for Les Paul, the affiliation with Gibson’s solid body guitar briefly halted, the new guitar was dubbed the SG by the end of 1962 and the rest as they say is history…. 

This guitar certainly looks the part with a gorgeous finish. It has faded a little as you'd expect for this period though there is still plenty of red present. There are a few knocks and bumps but nothing too extensive. The heel are seems to have had much more colour applied than elsewhere though we cannot find any evidence of repair and the lacquer matches the rest of the body and neck. There are no signs elsewhere that the finish has been touched up.

While the quality of the guitar and its finish are of a high standard, we are aware that some of these suffer neck/body joint failure. There is no clear evidence of a repair of this nature however we cannot rule out a possible intervention in the Gibson factory or similar in the guitars early years.

The neck, like the body, has faded. The fretboard shows no signs of wear and has been refretted with a new bone nut. Correct tuners are still present though.

The all nickel parts look very good with little corrosion.

The plastics are in great shape. 

Electronically everything looks to be correct. Both PAF pickups are correct though it looks as though the covers have been removed. No solder joints look to have been disturbed.

The guitar comes with its correct black hardshell case with orange lining.

Tonally, this guitar  really brings quite a unique perspective on the twin humbucker combination. The smoothness of the neck pickup with the bite of the bridge and never too woofy. Like any Gibson from this period and earlier, there is such a scope to the sound.

If you’re searching for an SG for the collection then you cannot go wrong with this one. Grab it before it gets away…