It’s only once in a very long while that I come across an authentic, American Made Gibson SG selling for anywhere near this price range, so I thought this offer was pretty much a no-brainer for our “Price Drop!” series.
Music123.com has actually dropped their prices on a whole slew of Gibson guitars recently (perhaps they’re making way for new Christmas inventory?) but the one that really caught my was the paltry $579 they are asking for the Gibson SG Special Faded.
Unlike Fender, Gibson isn’t known for producing low-priced instruments under their popular ‘Gibson’ brand name––they save these for Epiphone––so it’s fairly unusual to find an SG in anything less than about the $900 to $1,000 price range.
The Gibson SG Special Faded is notable for its “faded” finish (meant to simulate the look of a guitar that’s been around the block a few times,) and for its true American heritage––they’re built in Nashville, TN. The instrument also sports a mahogany body & neck (rounded profile,) a rosewood fingerboard, “Green Key” tuning machines, and a pair of 490 Alnico Humbucker pickups.
Three-way pickup switching and dual volume & tone knobs (one set for each pickup) are pretty standard across the SG line, and the Special Faded is no exception. It also comes with a gig bag, and is available in both “Worn Cherry,” and “Worn Brown” finishes.
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November 12th, 2006 at 7:07 pm
My Faded SG was one of the first 300 to be made, and sports crescent moon inlays in the fretboard and what i beleive is an ebony fretboard to boot. I highly reccomend trying to find one of the first-run instruments. I recently played one of the newer ones, and i could very easily feel the difference in the fretboard (though i might suggest, the original one may have had higher-quality rosewood, dyed dark to look like ebony) and the finish was less uniform (looked more beat up, as apposed to simply age faded). Give it a good setup and its a fantastic instrument. The stock pickups aren’t the greatest, but with the right amp, still produce a rich dark tone, great for blues and hard rock. Highly reccomend the original run (not sure if crescent inlays are available on the newer ones, or solely dots) with the darker fretboard and better finish. Still, for ~600 dollars, its definately worth the money (though finishes vary greatly with ‘faded’ instruments, be wary buying online).