DeArmond S67 Seven String Solid Body Guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I'm not a seven string player. Years ago I briefly owned a 7 string Ibanez Acoustic and found that i never used the low B string. I eventually took it off, then sold the guitar.

If I were to decide to try again, i think I've found the guitar I would get. 

This DeArmond S67 is a nicely understated take on an SG style body and to me looks a lot less "metally"or aggressive as many 7 string offerings. 

On a related topic, has anyone here ever tried to string a 7 string with a high A instead of a low B? I suspect much potential for string breakage, but maybe there is something I don't know. What is the thinnest high string you've seen?

R.W. Haller

© 2015, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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1985 Gibson SG400X - the SG that wanted to be a Superstrat

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You just know that this Custom Shop Gibson SG400X has to be a 1980s guitar when Gibson start messing with the tried and tested formula and produce a guitar that appears to be the offspring of an unholy alliance between an SG and a Superstrat. Check out the locking trem (I think it's a Kahler), the SSH pickup configuration and the droopy headstock that was de rigeur in the later 1980s (thankfully it's Gibson's own Explorer-style design and not a nasty pointy effort a la Jackson and Charvel).

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of US $1,450.

G L Wilson

© 2014, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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Gibson Les Paul / SG Special - very rare 1961 three-quarter scale model

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Here's a rare doublecut 3/4-scale Gibson Les Paul / SG Special from 1961. Note the position of the bridge nearer than usual to the base of the body, plus the extrat length of fingerboard beyond the point where the neck meets the body. According to the eBay listing, which in turn quotes the Vintage Guitar Guide, ther were only 61 of these guitars shipped in 1961.

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $3,000.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

One-off Gordon Smith fretless SG guitar, plus Guthrie Govan on a Vigier Surfretter fretless guitar

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If you've ever considering dipping a toe or two into the world of fretless guitar, then you could do a lot worse than snap up this Gordon Smith SG-styled fretless guitar, currently listed on eBay UK with a starting bid of a very reasonable £299 and with no bids at the time of writing (approx 13 hours to go before end of auction). It's a one-off handcrafted custom build from this acclaimed British maker from Partington, near Manchester. What's not to like?

And while we're on the subject, check out the below video by Guthrie Govan in which he answers all the questions you may have had about playing a fretless guitar but were too afraid to ask. It really is an excellent introduction to the subject.



G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

Gibson SG Special 3SC

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Yeah, I know, it's a Gibson SG and it has 3 blade single coil pickups, it exists, it's real, it's the Gibson SG Special 3SC - a 2007 limited edition -, and I show it here just for its plain oddity! 

Well, maybe it's also a good guitar!

Bertram D

  © 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

SG-type guitar from Argentina

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I wonder if vintage South American-made guitars could be the new collectables in the same way that "Behind the Iron Curtain" soviet-era guitars from Russia and Eastern Europe are becoming quite sought after in certain quarters. Here we see a vintage Argentinian-made guitar that has been quite clearly modelled after the Gibson SG. Note that, as on certain other SG-derived copies, the body shape here is symmetrical, but of course on a "proper" SG the body horns are slightly offset with a bias towards the bass-side. I think the eBay seller hits the nail on the head with the following observations:

Did you know Argentina produced lots of superb electric stringed instruments in the 60's? Honestly, we didn't. Argentina suffered in the end of the 20th century a string of political and economic problems before recently recovering, but it was until the 70's one of the world's most advanced nations, with a cultural creativity that had nothing to envy to Europe. Given its geographic isolation, the country could develop a guitar industry all of its own.

These are the most European guitars ever made outside of Europe. They look like coming from a parallel but similar universe. Besides economy models there are highly elaborate artefacts, extremely well made in every detail. Some of them have shellfish-shaped peg buttons that are among the coolest things ever seen on an electric instrument. Who wouldn't want a guitar like that to grace his collection?

Currently listed on EBay in Italy with a possibly unfortunately optimistic Buy It Now price of €850.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

Northern SG - an all maple Canadian-flavoured guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Guitarz reader Richard Haller spotted this Northern SG for sale on a Canadian classifieds adverts website. Obviously based on the Gibson SG, this guitar features all-maple construction with a vine leaf design carved into the top of the body and (appropriately) maple leaf inlays on headstock and position markers.

According to the website listing:

This is a 1980s Northern copy of the Gibson SG. The Northern brand was offered by North American Music Enterprises, a now-defunct distributor and importer located in Burlington, Ontario. Northern models were made in Japanese factories to specs provided by the importer. They were quality-made copies of popular American guitars.

Listed for sale in Ottawa, ON, for $849 (Canadian dollars, I presume).

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - 10 years and counting!

Framus SG with bizarre tremolo

guitarz.blogspot.com

While in Soviet-era East-Germany, guitar companies were developing new instruments for a new society, based on the lutherie tradition of Markneukirchen, with radically new designs and solid technology, capitalist West-Germany was busy copying successful American models, such as this Framus version of a Gibson SG.

Still this guitar has a bit of German experimental spirit with this strange wooden block on its Jaguar-esque tremolo, though I have no idea of its use, having never seen such thing before... Anybody amongst our readers could explain this? 

Bertram D

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Weird plexi-bodied guitar with 1970s Gibson SG neck

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This guitar is a real oddity. You cant but help noticing the distinctive Gibson logo on the headstock, but the body is totally unlike anything that Gibson ever built - plus of course it's been fashioned out of clear acyclic. Of course, it's not a Gibson at all, well other than the neck, that is, which was taken from a 1970s Gibson SG. It does beg the question of what happened to the original SG, but looking closer at the back of the neck you'll notice that the headstock has suffered a break in the past so it might be a safe assumption to say that the original guitar suffered some considerable damage - perhaps through some ghastly accident or possibly at the hands of a Pete Townshend wannabe.

Although I've got a bit of a "thing" for acrylic bodied guitars, I can't decide whether or not I like this one. The body design is rather mis-shapen; in fact it reminds me of a melting ice sculpture, but maybe that was the intention. Part of me thinks it should have been made to look more Gibson-like in keeping with the provenance of the neck, but another part of me applauds the maker for doing something different with the design.

This guitar is currently listed on eBay with just over a day left before the end of the auction, currently has no bids and a starting price of $499.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

late 1970s Hopf Studio

guitarz.blogspot.com

I love this horned little devil Hopf Studio, I always enjoy a SG line with slightly longer and thiner horns, it makes it look feral and elegant at the same time.

Like most vintage Hopf solid body guitars, the Studio is poorly documented on the Internet, but for what I could find, these are not the original pickups - it should be very German looking single coils -, neither are the knobs.

The jaguar-esque trem and roll bridge are like usually very cool, and the glossy walnut finish reminds me of the furniture in my grandmother's dining room (the formica, more reminiscent of vintage Italian guitars was in the rest of the house, but the dining table was lacquered and polished dark wood). 

Bertram D

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Gibson Custom Shop Copperhead SG inspired by a Stacey David 1967 Chevy pickup hotrod

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Forget gold tops, how about this stunning Gibson SG Copperhead from the Gibson Custom Shop. As another example of the link between cars and guitars, it was inspired by a hotrod built by Stacey David, who says:

The Copperhead SG was the second Guitar that I did with the Gibson Custom Shop. It was built to go with a 1967 Chevy c-10 pickup that I built using the very first, pre-production 572ci Chevy Crate engine. The guys at Gibson wanted to be a little more creative with this guitar so they carved the face of the body with a very cool, snake-like scale look. The name Copperhead was set in the neck with mother of pearl, a small badge that reads "572 ci" is mounted at the base of the neck, and the whole guitar is painted in the custom PPG Copperhead metallic paint that we developed for the project. [...] there was a limited number of 25 of these slated to be built, but I don’t know how many Gibson actually built.

staceydavid.com/guitars

This guitar is currently listed on eBay with a starting price of $1,000, although there is a reserve, but if you really have to snap it up now there's also a Buy It Now price of $10,250.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Lefty Gibson custom SG Elliot Easton

guitarz.blogspot.com

Elliot Easton plays lead guitars in The Cars and happens to be left-handed, that gives me the opportunity to present a lefty guitar - something we can never do enough. So here is his signature Gibson SG about which I have nothing special to say - I can just point at the Maestro tremolo and its long engraved tail piece. 

I was wondering why the typically Gibson pale blue finish - their response to Fender's 'Lake Placid Blue' - is called 'Pelham Blue' and I found out that it's based on a Cadillac finish from the 1960s - but now I don't know why Cadillac called their blue 'Pelham'...

Bertram

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

11 on 11/11/11: #5 - Gibson SB300 cheapo bass

OK, it's the 11th November 2011, that is 11/11/11, and as such today has been designated Nigel Tufnel Day. To celebrate this day of Maximum Elevenness, we here at Guitarz - for this day only - will be posting an unprecedented ELEVEN blog posts! So, keep tuned throughout the day for eleven weird and wonderful guitars!

You know already the Gibson SG200, the early 1970s budget version of the SG - well worse than budget, a big flaw in Gibson's production from a bad phase era. Here is its bass equivalent, the SB300. I don't have more to say about it, but I see more and more of these guitars showing up on eBay and sellers starting to ask vintage prices for them, so I thought I should repost the comment that our reader Teh Gav posted about the SG200:

"I've played dozens of these crude, downmarket '70s SGs over the years, hoping to find one that had potential. I found nothing but sadness and humility. They are bad guitars.

I say this as a huge fan of Melody Makers and pre-Japanese Epiphone solidbodies. It's not a snob thing. It's like, "Oh my God, this guitar feels like it's nailed together from leftover firewood and finished with slapped-on shellac. Uh, let's see how it sounds..."

That is where the sadness generally comes in. The humility has come from watching the numbers on the price tags rise from the moderate three-figures and move steadily toward a thousand dollars. Someone is buying these things, and it makes me feel like a cranky old guy who can't stop himself from wagging an index finger and telling 'back in my day' stories.

Because see here, back in my day, if you needed a guitar and were stuck with a hundred and fifty bucks in your pocket, you would step straight on top of one of those suck-Gibsons whilst making a straight path through the music store to the wall where the used Cort, Fernandez, Hagstrom, and/or Aria Pro II guitars were hanging.

These had no cachet or 'mojo' at all, but for God's sake, at least they freaking worked properly -- and at least they didn't make you feel shallow and vaguely dirty for playing a guitar purely because of the name painted on the headstock.

Seriously, these guitars suck. They have caused many people to experience pain and confusion. Not worth it -- really."

I won't deny that there is a certain wild beauty in this bass's crudeness, but guitars are still meant to be usable for music playing, aren't they?

Bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Monstruobot - Presidente Electro

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Monstruobot - Presidente Electro from boxerinlove on Vimeo.

Miguel Cámara of Monstruobot writes:

Nobody has ever found out which guitar model I'm playing so I just thought it could be interesting for your blog. Guitarz is the only guitar blog I follow and I don't think this is useful for anybody else. I enjoy reading every single post, even when I dislike the picture, and I wonder what'd you say about this one.

I think it's quite easy to find out which was the original model (which was bought new and used in the band for many years before its modification).

Several guitars have been played in Monstruobot: from Fender with single coils to Gibson Firebird with mini humbuckers, but the sound of the guitar in this band is 100% effect pedals and the best result came out after accidentally a luthier in Tenerife helped me finding those pick ups, modifying the body and painting it white.

So don't miss the pedalboard which is cheaper and easier to carry than those heavy rockcases... I just put it into my skateboard bag and that's it :)

We will take these "things" to USA and Mexico after summer as Monstruobot has this 3-week tour from New York to Tijuana!

Best regards from the Canary Islands and congratulations for such a great blog!

Miguel.-
www.decaucho.com

Thanks for that, Miguel. Despite being a guitar enthuiast I am unashamedly a fan of electronic music, so Monstuobot certainly appeal to me musically.

Now the guitar. Obviously it's Gibson SG-inspired. I was trying to work out what brand it might be from the shape of the headstock and truss rod cover. I think Epiphone, although the obvious guess, is out of the question. I did wonder if it could be a VS6 from John Hornby Skewes' excellent Vintage brand, but the headsock shape is wrong. I think the same goes for Tanglewood's SG copies.

Would our other readers like to hazard a guess?

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1979 Gibson "The SG" with partially reversed body!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's a Gibson "The SG" from 1979 which at some point suffered some body damage so that the bass side of the body split away. The owner has stuck it back together again but reversed the top section for a certainly quite distinctly different look. You almost wonder why Gibson didn't think of it themselves, considering some of their recent design tweaks.

Gibson's "The SG" was a partner to "The Paul"; both were walnut-bodied budget-conscious versions of Gibson's two best-loved solidbody designs and were produced between 1978-1982.

Thanks to Colin Brown who suggested we look at this guitar via our Facebook page.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1969 Gibson SG with striped refinish

guitarz.blogspot.com:

We seem to have been having a bit of a SG fixation on this blog recently, don't we?

Do you think this refinished striped 1969 Gibson SG outdoes the silver glitter SG that Bertam posted about earlier? This one, again, would probably be best suited to a glam rock band. I have to confess I secretly quite like it. Hey, it's even complete with the Gibson Lyre vibrola.

Via Vince Gotera on our Facebook page.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Custom glam SG

guitarz.blogspot.com

SG time! Sparkling SG! Glam for the people!

One out of 18 SGs by Gibson custom shop in silver sparkling finish, with 3 humbuckers and everything needed to fight the Emperor Ming on planet Mongo!

Bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1970s Hoyer SG

guitarz.blogspot.com

Yes I'm a little bit obsessed by these vintage German trems lately - that is ironical for someone who has very little use for one when playing guitar (but I still have so much to learn!)

Look at the big chrome trem and rolling saddles bridge of this superb 1970s Hoyer SG in burgundy finish, isn't it he sexiest thing in the world? 

Bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com

Racy Gibson SG GT

guitarz.blogspot.com

So we have to get used to it, Gibson will never create a new guitar any more, the best they can do is to release endless variations of their classics - once brilliant innovations ahead of their time and setting the standards for those who followed.

Unfortunately they are not even good at their current trend and get easily lost in these high-tech gadgets they're busy with lately - the worst being the Firebird X (the non-reverse body is everything but cool, you have to remember that it has been issued first  in 1965 when Gibson was in its worst phase and didn't have the guts to stand for the radical reverse body design of the original Firebird).

OK, enough ranting now, maybe I should have started my post with a more positive tone, like: 'waow, look at this cool and racy SG!' The 2006 limited edition Gibson SG GT is one of the good Gibsons of the last years (for some reason, the SG has been inspirational, I also find the Zoot extremely interesting  (I finally saw one at my local guitar shop but guys were queuing in front to try it). 

Its design (racing stripes and lots of chromes) is inspired by some sport car (I'm French, the only car I can identify is the Citroën 2CV) - this kind of idea had worked too when the Firebird was conceived by car designer Ray Dietrich. I love the big shiny stoptail aerodynamic cover and fitting pickup rings, and amongst the technical improvements, you'll find super hot splitable humbuckers (activated by push-pull knobs), high pass tone filter, locking jack output and dual truss rod.

Bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

April Fool?

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's a Gibson SG that has been painted in a psychedelic fashion to resemble Eric Clapton's "The Fool" SG that he played back in his Cream days. The original is now in the hands of Todd Rundgren, but along with George Harrison's "Rocky" and Jimi Hendrix's Monterey sacrificial Strat, hand painted replicas of varying levels of artistic competence regularly turn up for sale on eBay.

The example pictured here has a Buy It Now price of $1,199.99. For the Clapton fan who desires such a replica, a cheaper option would be to seek out the John Hornby Skewes Vintage-branded replica which we already looked at in my London Guitar Show 2008 review.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!