Intro OK, I know I promised photos, but so far I haven’t had a chance to take anything decent… still, I wanted to give you my first impressions since receiving my latest toy––Gibson’s Guitar Of The Week #37.
First off, while you should never judge a book by its cover, or a guitar by its finish, I have to say that the ‘67 SG Special Reissue P-90 is just a drop-dead gorgeous instrument from top to bottom.
The heritage cherry finish is stunning, with the actual tint falling somewhere between coffee brown and orange. The guitar’s mahogany body shows a fine but subtle wood grain beneath a lacquer finish, and the simple dot inlays give the instrument a classic, bare bones look.
Fit and finish is all top-notch, as I’ve come to expect from Gibson, but unfortunately (as I’ve also come to expect from the big G,) set-up from the factory left quite a bit to be desired.
Nothing that I’d consider a deal breaker, mind you, but my new guitar came with the intonation completely out of whack, and the the factor-installed strings binding badly at the nut, making the instrument nearly impossible to tune.
Still, a new set of strings, a bit of lubrication at the nut, and a few minutes tweaking saddle-lengths at the bridge had me up and running fairly quickly––and with very excellent results.
The Goods The ‘67 SG Special sports a thick but comfy ’60s profile neck, and it is fast, smooth, and surprisingly easy on the hands. I played this thing for a number of hours when I first pulled it out of its case, and I’m happy to report that I didn’t suffer from any unruly hand fatigue at all.
Tone wise, GOTW #37 is a monster… if you like the thick, powerful growl of P-90s then you will definitely enjoy the pickups on this beast.
With humbuckers I tend to stay at the neck position, but I’ve found that with the intense mid-range on the P-90s, the neck position is just a tad too throaty for my liking. Playing in mid-position (with both pickups howling,) serves up just the perfect amount of bite and bark.
In fact, punched into the high-gain input, the red-hot pickups on the ‘67 SG Special throw my amp right into pure, creamy, overdriven tube heaven.
Be that as it may, the guitar cleans up well, and offers a versatile selection of thick tones for jazz, funk, or softer blues.
Of course, it all comes packed in a surprisingly light and petite Gibson hard case––actually, it looks absolutely tiny propped against the wall next to the huge vintage case of my ‘62 Strat.
Anyway, so far I’m quite impressed with my new guitar, and besides the bad set-up, the ‘67 SG Special Reissue P-90 is everything I’d hoped it would be.
I’ll try to get some photos up soon…
- Ordered A New Toy Today: The ‘67 SG Special Reissue w/P-90’s
- Tune In Tomorrow For… EGR’s Great Tele Relic Experiment: Misadventures Of A Neck Surgeon!
- A Closer Look At Guitar Of The Week #37 :: The ‘67 SG Special Reissue w/P-90’s
- EGR’s Gibson Guitar Of The Week Index
- Gibson Introduces Les Paul Special New Century
- Gibson Jumps The Gun, Reveals Next Twelve Guitar Of The Week Models
- Price Drop! Gibson’s SG Special Faded
- Gibson ES335 Reissue
- Leaked! Gibson Guitar Of The Week #48: RD Standard Reissue Silverburst
- Gibson Announces Guitar Of The Week #26 :: ‘61 SG Reissue Classic White
- Epiphone Announces An ES-175 You Can Actually Afford
- Advertise On Electric Guitar Review
March 17th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
You’re giving me serious GAS Cary ;) The guitar sounds great. I’ve often pondered buying an SG…this one looks nicer than most.
March 17th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Great review, Cary. I saw an SG Classic with the P-90s at Guitar Center the other day, but it didn’t have the same finish as yours. How do you like the neck? Does it feel like a Les Paul or is it thinner/thicker?
March 17th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
I’m in a P-90s mood myself, so I bought a Les Paul BFG last week.
March 17th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Looks like you have a rockin’ axe there…I’d need humbuckers though to live out my Fugazi fantasies…oh and a JCM800 half stack.
March 17th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
I wonder if your new guitar - congrats, BTW - has the same neck profile as Classic. I LOVE it. Mine is just a hair beefier than the 60’s neck on my Les Paul. And you are correct, those P90’s growl.
March 18th, 2008 at 3:10 am
You’re right about Gibson sending out poorly set-up guitars. When I received my Flying V Faded Cherry (four years ago now) it was virtually unplayable and needed so much tweaking. Do they expect the set-up to be carried out in-store, I wonder? Otherwise guitar shops will be filled with unplayable new Gibsons and that can’t be too good for their reputation.
March 18th, 2008 at 9:37 am
How are the frets? I’ve seen several Gibsons lately (oddly, the expensive stuff) with weird, awful square frets on them—essentially uncrowned and unbeveled. Very uncomfortable to slide barre chords up. Apparently this is deliberate: on the 1960 LPs reissues I’ve seen, the binding goes up and over these square-ended frets, like a kind of cap. Bizarre.
March 18th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Hmm, I’ll have to take a better look, Maurice, but I do a ton of sliding chords and haven’t had any issues there.
Will need to take a closer look when I get a chance. The frets are wonderfully comfortable though… Medium Jumbos me thinks :)
@ Rick. Yeah, the neck feels a bit chunkier than an LP to me, though perhaps not by much.
Quite comfy and fast for such a thickie…
March 19th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Just curious which amp you used…do you still have the Atomic Space Tone amp you wrote about/bought a while back? If so, and I hope I got that right about the Space Tone, how did you like the SG/Atomic combination? Love the color of your new axe, Cary!
March 19th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Hi John,
Yeah, I still use the Atomic Space Tone (AST,) and the combo of this amp with the SG is absolutely gorgeous.
Punched into the higher gain input I get really smooth distortion that cleans up nicely when I pull back on the guitar’s volume control.
Great combo all around :)
March 20th, 2008 at 7:06 am
I was curious about the frets as well, as I’ve noticed this on a couple of recent SGs. Love the look of those p90s!
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:33 am
Cary,
I have been an avid reader of your site for awhile now. You make me fairly jealous from time to time with some of the equipment you get to play with, but this time I am straight up fueled with envy. I love the wood grain finish on this guitar. I also love P-90s in general so what you have here may be the finest of the guitar of the week series in my opinion. Enjoy it man, you deserve it!