Gibson Faded SG Electric Guitar Review
Gibson USA Faded SG Review
Gibson has some awesome 6-string hard-body electric guitars. Les Paul, Explorer, Vee, Firebird, and SG. My favorite Gibson? Any Gibson.
The Gibson USA Faded SG reminds me of some of the SGs I played in the early 1970s (sans shiny finish, though). VERY lightweight, mahogany, thin neck, bright rockin’ humbuckers, tulip tuners, fixed bridge, and tons of vibe. Every time you pick it up, you don’t want to put it down. Gibson has brought these things back in a modern-day form.
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Quick Opinion: Like the Gibson Vintage Mahogany Les Paul, grab one. They’ll be gone and you will have missed a great instrument. This is the kind that will sell (30 years from now) on eBay for good bits of money because of the “vibe” and “mojo” of the lightweight, plain SG.
Playability: The experience of playing the faded Gibson SG is a treat. The body is very nicely balanced, very comfortable, and vibrant.
The neck gives a sense of ease – where some necks make you think about them as you play, the neck on the faded SG is effortless such that you forget about it entirely. For you thick-neck fans, this will be an adjustment – it is quite slender and thin. It feels good, and doesn’t have the roughness of many of Gibson’s “faded” guitars.
The body is comfortable, and makes itself comfortable up against your picking arm and your ribcage. The body is very light-weight, almost the lightest solid-body I’ve ever picked up. Incredibly, though, the balance of body to neck is just about 50/50.
I’ve found that the (fairly standard) setup of the bridge, stop-tail, and nut feel good, and are quite flexible. I’ve played one that was set up for slide – strings high, but still playable with fingers. I’ve played several others that were set up for easy action and quick fingering. In both cases, the guitar performed flawlessly with no buzzes or flat spots. (A few of the fret wires had fuzzy ends, but nothing that couldn’t be handled with some fret polishing paper and a little TLC.)
Features: The features of the Gibson faded SG are basic, simple, and uncomplicated. The instrument features a standard 4-knob control: neck pickup tone and volume plus bridge pickup tone and volume. This SG also has the three-way toggle pickup selector (neck, neck and bridge, bridge).
The finish is sort of a satin clear finish on brown or cherry-looking mahogany. Unlike the faded Les Pauls and faded double-cutaway Les Pauls I’ve played recently, the finish on the SG is still smooth, even though it is not gloss-polished. The faded SG feels like an old, comfortable, worn guitar friend.
This instrument is ideal for a double-humbucker split-coil plus phase modification. (Just remember! Keep all the original stuff untouched! The original stuff is pretty sweet. Future generations will appreciate an elderly instrument with its original bits.)
I like the original-style Kluson tulip/keystone green “Deluxe” tuners. They’re not the sturdiest tuners out there – but they feel like the old Gibsons I’ve played as a kid.
Sound: Simply put, this SG SINGS. When you strike a chord or pluck a low string, you can FEEL the sound. It feels like it was special tuned for its setup, strings, and woods. The set neck, unfettered mahogany, and stop-tail bridge give this guitar a VOICE.
It can be played overdriven, over-distorted, clean, reverb-y, warm and jazzy, and lots more. I’ve played several examples at my local guitar stores (I can’t purchase one at the moment – starving artist – so I researched my review with many months of “research playing” at my guitar stores) – and I’ve played them through Mesa, Peavey, Epiphone, Marshall, Fender, Crate, and others. Standing in front of a full Marshall stack (tube head), with everything on 5 and volume on about 4 – WOW – it makes every guitar player in the store salivate to hear the sound.
The Gibson USA 490R and 490T pickups are flexible and warm, but have more output than the vintage SGs around which I grew up. They’re bright without being harsh. They’re easy to push into breakup with a good amp, and they play clean/jazzy with abandon. They’re fabulous.
Value: These SGs are very much worth their street price, maybe more. They’ve been marked down from the $700 range to the $579 range in the past few months. At the new price, they are very much a bargain.
Bear in mind: these do not come with a hard case at this price. They ship with a Gibson gig bag. If you want to preserve your SG, the genuine Gibson SG case (about $129 street) is well worth every cent. If you can’t swing that, at least find a durable TKL or SKG case for it.
As I said with the Vintage Mahogany Les Paul, go to your favorite get-in-trouble guitar store and play an example or two. If you don’t have a git-box store nearby, check out your favorite online haunt and pick one up NOW.
Wishes: I only have two simple wishes: I wish they came with a Gibson hard-shell case (I personally think every Gibson deserves to live in a Gibson case). I also wish that the 490 pickups in this guitar came with German nickel humbucker covers. I’m spoiled by the looks of the old ‘70s SGs.
P.S. Gibson, if ever there was a Gibson sponsorship for "really great Bears who review guitars", this would definitely be one of the ones! wink wink wink nudge nudge
Labels: bear, electric guitar, epiphone sg, Faded, gibson, review
The Epiphone SG Special Review
Epiphone SG Special Electric Guitar Review
Bargain instruments are prolific in the modern instrument-sales market. There are large numbers of manufacturers, and there are a huge range of choices for the consumer. Generally, the competition and diversity of designs give consumers a wide range of choices for getting started with electric guitars.
About two years ago, my son wanted to go from using one of my instruments to having a guitar of his own. We talked about what kind of music he was enjoying the most, and what he liked in guitars. I played a fair number of beginner’s guitars (in the less-than-$150 range), showed him several pictures online, and took him to the guitar store a few times to play a range of different instruments. He settled on the venerable Epiphone SG Special (sometimes called the
Epiphone SG Special II because of its dual humbuckers.)
It was an excellent choice – one that is still serving him well two years later. He still enjoys it, and I enjoy borrowing it from him from time to time.
Quick Opinion: The Epiphone SG Special is very light, well-balanced, and has respectable sound. It has reasonable intonation capabilities, and the craftsmanship is at or above par for instruments in its price range.
As an all-around instrument, the SG Special competes very well on quality, price, features, and looks. This is a high-value instrument that is very reasonably priced.
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Playability: Playability is the Epiphone SG Special’s strongest suit, next to its price.
The neck is typical Epiphone, slim but substantial, smooth painted, and medium width. It is a shallow “C” profile (in my opinion). It is very easy to access the entire fretboard with this guitar, largely due to its faithful rendition of the classic SG body design.
Whether you like your strings high up (for slide playing, and those with extremely strong hands), or your strings low – this neck serves very well. The frets are a little thin for my tastes, but they do get the job done in a reasonable way.
The balance of neck to body is excellent, particularly when standing and using a strap. The guitar is light and airy in the hands, but is
surprisingly resonant when it is played. I was amazed at how much the body rings with the notes. The light, thin guitar body is unobtrusive to the player’s picking arm, although it is not contoured for ribcage and pick arm rest.
The SG Special came fairly well set up from the factory. The frets were average-dressed for a guitar in this price range. There weren’t, however, any truly bad frets, sharp edges, or major string buzzers (a few spots on the neck, but MUCH less than the typical bargain-priced guitar).
Features: The Epiphone SG Special electric guitar is almost par for features in its price range. It is thoroughly average, and has some things that outweigh others in terms of their value.
The body is great. SGs are fun and easy to play, and are a great all-around choice. The neck is a bolt-on affair, with a shallow pocket in the body to accept the heel of the neck. The feel of the neck and the feel/balance of the body are the strongest positives for the SG Special’s feature list. These items, coupled with this guitar’s sound, make the SG Special a good choice for most beginners.
The tuners are below average in quality. Most Squiers come with much better tuners. However, many bargain manufacturers use the same type of tuners (maybe even the same manufacturer? Not sure, they look the same, though). I think this was the first thing we did to mod the SG… we put Grover Rotomatics on, tuned up some new strings, and have seen significantly better tuning stability and accuracy. The Grovers made it much easier to do alternate tunings with thicker strings… the OEM tuners did not hold up well with rock-style thicker strings.
The SG Special has two potentiometer knobs, one for tone on both pickups, one volume for both pickups. The pickup selector switch allows the player to choose neck only (Rhythm), both pickups (a little more punchy and a little louder), and bridge only (Lead) for more clarity, growliness, and grind. The neck pickup is best suited for smooth sounds. The bridge is fairly hot/loud, and serves rock styles very well. The pickups are average in quality for this price range, perhaps a little more than average. They are largely quiet, and are the open-face (no cover) variety.
The pickups are easily adjusted with standard screw setups. The frets are a little on thin and shallow side, but work adequately well in the lower positions of the neck. Towards the body, the frets are a little small for my tastes – I like seeing taller frets for cleaner high notes.
Sound: The Epiphone SG Special sounds great through a nice amplifier. It holds up surprisingly well against guitars that can cost almost twice as much.
Although the pickups certainly aren’t on par with Gibson high output humbuckers or Seymour Duncan humbuckers, they are actually quite nice for a $150 guitar. The stock pickups can do the distortion thing pretty well, and can even pick up enough signal for pinch squeals and slap-plucks. The output of these pickups is pretty good, if not above average. They lack the smoothness and dynamic capability of better pickups – but they do well for beginners.
I was able to set the intonation of this instrument to very nearly ideal. The neck/length/scale is good for basic set up, but isn’t quite perfect. However, I’ve seen bargain instruments that don’t even come close to the SG Special’s tune-ability.
Value: Brand new, out of the box, the SG Special was ready to be played. I just tweaked the intonation and string height at the bridge, tuned it up, and it was ready to go. The SG has simplified tone and volume controls, and is very easy on the hands… Given the overall quality of the instrument, and the sound it makes, this is an instrument that is in the $189 range for
street value - one that you can get for significantly less at your favorite brick-and-mortar vendor or local guitar store establishment.
Overall, the SG Special II is a bargain – one that will last a beginning guitarist for a decent amount of time.
Wishes: I do think this instrument could use two volume and two tone controls. I also wish it was offered in other colors (in addition to dark red and black). The tuners could have been nicer cast-metal tuning machines.
Labels: electric guitar, epiphone sg, epiphone sg special, guitar, instrument, sg, sg special
Epiphone Thunderbird IV Reverse Bass Guitar Review
Epiphone Thunderbird IV Reverse Bass Guitar Review
I’m lucky enough to have a couple of basses at my disposal for recording or playing. I enjoy my Jazz Standard and fretless – they’re flexible and timeless.
But, sometimes you need the noiseless, punchy, crunch of a bass guitar with a big body and humbucking pickups. I went in search of just that very thing over the past year. I played tons of different instruments from several well-known (and a few unknown) manufacturers. I started out looking exclusively at 5-string humbucking basses. I had trouble finding a 5-string in my price range – in a bass that also had good sound and playability. I couldn’t find a bass in my target price range (sub-$400) that had sound
and playability
and humbuckers
and five strings…
I had to open my search to four-string basses – which brought several great instruments into my price range. One of my long-time favorites has been the Thunderbird. The Gibson 4- and 5-string Thunderbirds are fabulous neck-through instruments. However, most musicians I know are on budgets, and/or need to have more than one bass at their disposal.
The Epiphone Thunderbird IV Reverse offers a fantastic balance among cost, function, and sound.
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Quick Opinion: The Epiphone Thunderbird IV Reverse bass guitar is cool-looking, medium-weight, low-cost, and sounds fantastic. A bass player gets a ton of guitar for her/his money with the Thunderbird.
Interestingly enough, you don’t see Thunderbirds flying around on the stages of music acts very often. Part of the allure of the Thunderbird is its "different-ness." Each and every time someone (even non-musicians) sees my Thunderbird, they remark that they really like its looks. When they hear the bass, they are struck by its flexibility and depth of sound. Part of the mystique is furthered by the fact that you don’t often see Thunderbirds in local guitar stores. The few that arrive in stock generally sell quickly enough that the floor is clear of them during most of the year.
Snag a Thunderbird. You’ll be glad you did. If you can afford the Gibson issues, get your paws on one. If your budget is tighter, you won’t be doing yourself a disservice with the Epiphone.
Playability: The Epiphone Firebird IV Reverse plays like the Les Paul of basses. The neck is wide enough to be comfortable in string-width, but is slim and tapered enough to make it easy to navigate the full range of the neck. The slick finish of the neck and the neck’s shape make playing up and down the neck a breeze. I tend to treat my bass parts as a melodic element, so I spend time on nearly all the regions of the neck – my Thunderbird’s neck really makes my bass playing more enjoyable.
The frets are nicely done, although they weren’t polished and tipped like a Gibson. The overall effort needed to press a note to the frets is a great balance between buzz-elimination and strength required. It’s easier to get a clean note from this guitar’s neck than with many other basses.
The body weight is just right. It isn’t too light (it has miles of sustain in sound as a result of the body mass), but isn’t so heavy that it makes your shoulder sore after only a half-hour of jamming. I find that my Thunderbird is as comfortable as my Standard Jazz from a weight point of view. It lacks the body contours of the Fender basses, so it’s a bit hard-edged (like most Gibson electric guitar and bass products).
The balance is slightly biased towards the neck. As with most basses, the Thunderbird can neck-dive when you take your hands off the neck. The simplest solution is to grab a wide suede leather strap (or a good strong fabric, non-nylon weave) to do a better job of holding position on your shoulder. Some players relocate the neck-side strap button further forward or even on the back of the body to help compensate. I like to be sure my guitar mods are reversible, so, I went the wide strap route. Bear something in mind here: my Jazz neck-dives about the same amount…
Features: The Epiphone Thunderbird IV Reverse bass is standard with what you would expect with most basses. It has decent sound control and tuners. The Thunderbird has a fabulous neck and excellent pickups.
It has a volume knob for each pickup and a single tone to control the sound of both pickups. The knob closest to the neck controls the volume of the mid pickup. The knob in the middle controls the volume of the bridge pickup, and the knob closest to the instrument’s tail controls the tone-shaping pot (potentiometer). If you want warmer and rounder sound, turn up middle pickup’s volume and the bridge’s volume down. To make a more growly, biting sound, do the opposite. To get the big wide sound at full throttle, turn both the volume knobs all the way up.
The Thunderbird IV comes with EMG humbucking bass pickups. This detail of the guitar is one of the key reasons I settled on a Thunderbird. These pickups are no slouch, and are phenomenal as a feature for a bass in this price range.
The tuners and neck are extremely well-done and function superbly. The tuners are stabile throughout a gig or recording session. The bridge mechanism is very versatile and has an overall height adjustment that doesn’t require tinkering with the saddles – I really like this bridge.
Quality: Not all of my reviews have a
quality heading. For the most part, I cover quality throughout the body of the review. However, the Thunderbird I purchased really needs to have its own explanation of quality.
The finish is bar-none just about perfect. It looks great, the finish feels great, and there are no bugs or flaws anywhere.
The pickup and wiring system are well above-par for Epiphones in this price range. Generally, I have to tinker with electric bits on my Epis to get what I want. With this Thunderbird, it was great – right out of the box.
The set-up of the neck and the bridge adjustments were just right when I got my bass home. I didn’t have to tune or intonate the bass at all.
Overall, this is one of the highest quality electric basses I’ve ever played in any price range.
Sound: The Thunderbird has earned its name. It sounds wonderful. What humbuckers do for the Les Paul or SG sound, the EMG humbuckers do for this Thunderbird. This bass sings, crunches, growls, and thunders.
With many basses, the sound comes through in a way that “reds-out” the VU meters/recording meters when you crank them up enough to punch through the sound of the band. This is a fairly common problem. I often play my basses through a nice tube preamp (before pedals, amp, and/or recording interface). I get lots of nice sound this way – especially more punch. However, I need the preamp much less with the Thunderbird. It has respectable output power, and is harmonically more rich than it’s near-the-same-price competitors.
In particular, you can dial in a sound that works very well with acoustic guitar sounds – with the mid pickup and a little tone-down. But, the same instrument can be dialed up to rock hard with even the most demanding of musical varieties.
I prefer my fretless Jazz for the ultra-mellow sounds – but the Thunderbird can be really smooth and inviting as well.
You can punch, crunch, and growl with this bass. It also lends itself very well to effects such as reverb, chorus, flange, and even compression or gain distortion. The breadth of its harmonics makes it very flexible and versatile.
Value:This is an extremely excellent value bass. It is worth more than its street price, probably in the $400 to $425 range in
actual value. You get a lot for your money, and Epiphone has just lowered its Epiphone Thunderbird prices by $100 for its non-Goth models. The Thunderbird is now offered in some neat colors, too (alas, no white this time around!). You can purchase blue, traditional brown sunburst, gloss black, and a metallic red. I chose to purchase the sunburst – it was too wonderful to put down.
You get lots of sound and great electronics in this bass. I’ve not seen this level of sonic capability in any bass under $550. Only the bolt-on neck aspect separates the Thunderbird from the more costly instruments.
Wishes: I really can’t complain about anything with this bass at this price… really. If I were to offer a custom model, I’d want a few things different – even if it meant going back to the previous street price ($399).
My little wish list:
White (please!);
At least a glued-in neck (if the neck-through-body construction of the Gibson is too costly to mass-produce);
The very same bridge, but with lots more mass;
Schaller strap lock buttons!;
Would love to have two tone controls in addition to the two volume controls…
Labels: 4 string bass, bass, electric bass, epiphone sg, epiphone thunderbird, passive bass, thunderbird
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