Epiphone SG Special Electric Guitar Review

For many years, the Gibson SG has been the hard-edged cousin of the Les Paul. With a fierce look and feel, it has been a top choice of performers in the hard rock and metal genres, from Angus Young of AC/DC to Tony Lommi of Black Sabbath. It is the quintessential and original guitar for those who want to kick their audience in the teeth with their music. Epiphone, owned by the parent company Gibson, has made its own affordable version of this legendary instrument called the SG Special. Let's take a look at it in a little more detail.

Features: The body of this SG Special is made out of a laminated alder wood, something pretty common in lower-end guitars. This isn't too important, considering resonation off of the wood isn't as big a factor in electric guitars. The neck is bolted on the body and made of maple. Bolt on necks often make it difficult to reach the higher frets, but in this case the deep cut on the lower end of the body all but eliminates that problem. The fretboard itself is made of rosewood, and the inlays are pearl dots. The nut width (which translates to how wide the neck is) is 1.68". This is pretty wide, so guitarists with smaller hands may have some trouble with playing it. The SG Special also features a Tune-O-Matic bridge, which makes it easy to change the strings and adjust their height. On the body there are two switches, one for volume and one for tone. Also there is a three way selector switch to choose which combination of the Epiphone brand humbucker pickups are active.

Playability: As stated in the above paragraph, the wide neck might make it a bit more difficult for players with small hands. On a more positive note, it is commonly said (and holds true in my experience) that this thing simply doesn't go out of tune. This is excellent for a beginning player in that there is less time fiddling with string pitches and more time actually playing.

Sound: Epiphone's SG Special is a guitar designed for hard rock and heavy metal. The stock pickups handle distortion well, especially for how low the price is. But, if you are looking to play a lot of clean music, this probably woun't really satisfy you.

Overall: Epiphone proves again and again that it makes the cream of the crop in beginner's guitars. Decent playability, good sound (depending again, on what you play), and good manufacturing make this a great instrument to learn on. Its simplistic design is durable, and honestly, it looks really mean. You can pick one of these up for about $180.