This is Gibson’s foray into the style known as SG Special – the sharp double cutaway, lighter-weight mahogany body, but in this modern era they apparently feel that it should have humbucking exposed pickups in order to create a volume of force and pressure required to blow apart military bunkers when played, with a heavy gauge flatpick, through a large enough amplifier. Per the manufacturer: the Gibson SG Special Faded has the look of well-worn, well-loved instrument. This classic model features a mahogany back and neck, rosewood fingerboard, chrome hardware, 2 Alnico magnet humbuckers, and much more. What else more? Oh, okay – since you asked – it has a marvelously adjustable and fully capable truss rod, a joint angle of 4.25° (+/- 15 seconds) – we’re not sure what this means but it sounds prurient.
The dotmarker inlaid rosewood fretboard hosts 22 frets, a radius of 12" a nut width of 1 11/16th”; its bridge is the classic Gibson Nashville tune-o-matic and the tailpiece is the chrome stop bar; its strap buttons are said to be aluminum. I thought I heard somebody ask about the pickups. Presenting, in the neck position, an uncovered 490R, and in the opposing corner, in the bridge position, an uncovered 490T Alnico II. Its electronics are of course passive; it has twin volume controls, and (if we understand this correctly and it’s possible that we are merely confused) twin tone controls sporting 300k resistance, and the linear volume is 500k. It has a three-way Switchcraft toggle with a cream colored plastic tip. Can you continue, please? Okay – the frets are nickel/silver alloy; it has no binding on body or neck, the finish is cherry stain sealed with an extremely thin coating of nitro-cellulose lacquer, resulting in a matte or satin texture, not glossy. The tuners are Gibson Deluxe keystone style tuners, in the tradition of the original Kluson Deluxe tuners of the 1950s and ‘60s with pearloid tulip buttons.
In all, this is an extremely fine rock ‘n’ roll performance tool, a sound machine with versatility and suitable for full stage domination. You may recall that Pete Townshend of The Who used a Gibson SG Special as his primary instrument from 1968 to 1972. Some memorable and even timeless music has been created using an electric guitar whose visage appears quite similar to this one. This is an attainable alternative to the player on a budget who wants a USA-made Gibson for a price nearly anyone can afford.