"If you like an SG, have you tried..."

[la szum]

Just making me want to fill the SG emptiness in my life now.

I have looked at those set neck Epiphones with the P90s and the neck binding.

Lord help me!

 

[EOengineer]

Honorable mention for the lowly Gibson SG Standard. I snagged one on blowout from GC during early 2021 and I lucked out so hard. Big fat neck, 7lbs, no neckdive. It’s becoming one of my favs. I know the batwing guard is a love/hate thing.

That said, IMO the individual instrument matters most over specs or models. Sometimes you pick up a random guitar and it’s the one.

Also big ups for the P90 SG special. Cool guitars.

 

[Eagle]

I personally have a problem with the balance on a strap and the offset position of the neck.
I grew up on a strat .

 

[2112]

PRS Mira always struck me as their take on the SG.

 

[FuzzyAce]

I personally have a problem with the balance on a strap and the offset position of the neck.
I grew up on a strat .

Yep. I sort of feel the same about an ES335 too. My old bandmate played a red '69, it sounded fantastic of course. But whenever I would try it out standing with a strap it just felt so awkward. I guess I could make it work but once you're used to the comfort of an s-type it's hard to change.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Yep. I sort of feel the same about an ES335 too. My old bandmate played a red '69, it sounded fantastic of course. But whenever I would try it out standing with a strap it just felt so awkward. I guess I could make it work but once you're used to the comfort of an s-type it's hard to change.

In the boudoir, we get comfortable when we play. Ample seating, and no need for strapping anything on.

The offset thing took me about two days to fully adapt to. I find it muuuuuch easier to adapt to than the Les Paul ass-sag when seated phenomenon.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Did you consider a vintage one? Those seem “affordable for vintage”…
Idnk s**t about about SGs , but from my experience with archtops: Excellent guitars, if you buy one that’s “not you”….easy sell with got odds for even a little profit.
So, if your “cashflow” can take it, lower costs, but more money “parked into the guitar”.

I actually have thought about this. Particularly with the Special.

 

[metropolis_4]

I personally have a problem with the balance on a strap and the offset position of the neck.
I grew up on a strat .

True, but it balances better than an LP if you’re sitting.

I always prefer the LP for gigs where I’m standing, and the SG for gigs where I’m sitting

 

[Eagle]

True, but it balances better than an LP if you’re sitting.

I always prefer the LP for gigs where I’m standing, and the SG for gigs where I’m sitting

I ended up with a PRS to do my set neck mahogany duties. I just don’t like playing either. I love the way a good Les Paul sounds but I don’t like playing them. I have had a least a dozen but I always end up selling them because I don’t play them enough. I should have just kept the R9. The offset position of the neck on an SG is so off putting I don’t want one. Les Paul felt the same.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

I ended up with a PRS to do my set neck mahogany duties. I just don’t like playing either. I love the way a good Les Paul sounds but I don’t like playing them. I have had a least a dozen but I always end up selling them because I don’t play them enough. I should have just kept the R9. The offset position of the neck on an SG is so off putting I don’t want one. Les Paul felt the same.

ITonally, while I love the sound of other people playing a Les Paul live and on records, I find them to be bloated and muddy when I play them, no matter what I do with pickup height, etc. I'm sure I could adapt to the ergonomics, but I'm not driven by the sonics enough to want to bother and so every LP I've had has been moved on.

A good 335 works sooo much better for me - really close to an LP, but more open in the lower mid.

To me, the SGs I've played sound a LOT different than any Les Paul I've played and once I took ruler to pickups and saw how differently they are located within the scale, the differences I hear made so much sense.

I think the question for me now is "Put in the work to find a reasonably priced used custom shop or is a Gibson USA perfectly fine"

 

[saarangnarayan]

Surprised that nobody's mentioned the Ibanez Artist (AR) yet. I have a cheap-ish (~£450) AR325 which is as good as any Gibson that I've ever tried and feels more like an SG than a Les Paul. My tech/friend liked it so much that he wanted to buy it off me even though it wasn't (and still isn't) for sale. The stock pickups were quite good, but I wanted to try out a "proper" PAF so I put in the Dimarzio 36th Anniversary set in there. It's not much different from the stock pickups but scratched that itch, I guess. The stock pickups, I realise now, are quite PAF-like anyway.

EDIT: Just saw that they are now $599 on Sweetwater! That's a bit steep but the quality is truly there. This can go up against guitars worth twice that number and still come out on top because of all the tonal options.

 

[Eagle]

Surprised that nobody's mentioned the Ibanez Artist (AR) yet. I have a cheap-ish (~£450) AR325 which is as good as any Gibson that I've ever tried and feels more like an SG than a Les Paul. My tech/friend liked it so much that he wanted to buy it off me even though it wasn't (and still isn't) for sale. The stock pickups were quite good, but I wanted to try out a "proper" PAF so I put in the Dimarzio 36th Anniversary set in there. It's not much different from the stock pickups but scratched that itch, I guess. The stock pickups, I realise now, are quite PAF-like anyway.

EDIT: Just saw that they are now $599 on Sweetwater! That's a bit steep but the quality is truly there. This can go up against guitars worth twice that number and still come out on top because of all the tonal options.
View attachment 22605

I like old ones but these feel like toys compared. Good value but too many corners cut for me.

 

[saarangnarayan]

I like old ones but these feel like toys compared. Good value but too many corners cut for me.

Yeah ngl, there are a few plastic-y bits on these, but those are all mostly replaceable. The back of the neck is a bit too gloss for me so I just took a good ol' scotch brite to it and now it's perfect. The bones are all pretty solid tho. Sounds good is good, plays good is good, at least in my book!

 

[metropolis_4]

ITonally, while I love the sound of other people playing a Les Paul live and on records, I find them to be bloated and muddy when I play them, no matter what I do with pickup height, etc. I'm sure I could adapt to the ergonomics, but I'm not driven by the sonics enough to want to bother and so every LP I've had has been moved on.

A good 335 works sooo much better for me - really close to an LP, but more open in the lower mid.

To me, the SGs I've played sound a LOT different than any Les Paul I've played and once I took ruler to pickups and saw how differently they are located within the scale, the differences I hear made so much sense.

I think the question for me now is "Put in the work to find a reasonably priced used custom shop or is a Gibson USA perfectly fine"

I think SGs sound closer to 335s than LPs. Both SGs and 335s feel more… open… to me than an LP.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

I think SGs sound closer to 335s than LPs. Both SGs and 335s feel more… open… to me than an LP.

I agree on that, but find the gap between the LP and 335 to be smaller than the gap between 335 and SG. Though, to be fair, I'm basing my LP/335 on decent amount of experience with both types of guitars loaded with antiquity hum buckers while my only real long term SG experience is with this Epiphone that from what I can tell has "Alnico Pro" pickups? What I read about those on the itnernet, however, doesn't really match my 7.5k measurements. Maybe if I put some Ants in the SG it'd get closer to the 335. Though the 24-fret-like neck pickup placement makes me think the SG neck pickup is always gonna have its own thing going on.

 

[metropolis_4]

I agree on that, but find the gap between the LP and 335 to be smaller than the gap between 335 and SG. Though, to be fair, I'm basing my LP/335 on decent amount of experience with both types of guitars loaded with antiquity hum buckers while my only real long term SG experience is with this Epiphone that from what I can tell has "Alnico Pro" pickups? What I read about those on the itnernet, however, doesn't really match my 7.5k measurements. Maybe if I put some Ants in the SG it'd get closer to the 335. Though the 24-fret-like neck pickup placement makes me think the SG neck pickup is always gonna have its own thing going on.

Yeah an Epi with Epi pickups VS a Gibson with antiquities isn’t really a fair comparison. Epi pickups have gotten much better, but I still don’t they’re very good. The new ones still sound a bit flat and dull to me.

Even just a standard Gibson SG with the 490T/R is going to sound closer to the 335 than the Epi.

But 335s of course have their own thing going on too that is always gonna be different from an LP or SG

 

[ucnick]

Just making me want to fill the SG emptiness in my life now.

I have looked at those set neck Epiphones with the P90s and the neck binding.

Lord help me!

They are really good! About 2 years ago, I bought an Epi 61 reissue "Les Paul" SG in white, it came with Gibson hummies, I pulled them out and stuck in a pair of DiMarzio Fantom 90s, and the guitar plays and sounds great!