Epiphone SG Special

mine was made in the late 90s. this guitar would be a better investment if it had a tremelo (i'm not a big fan of fixed bridges). it has really really crapy tuners, if you get this guitar you should would put way smaller machine heads on it, they are incredibly sensitive. works well with very light sting gauges. Has a very small slightly uncomfortable neck.

pick ups are alright for cheap guitar. suits my crazy solos alright(partly due to lighter gauge strings).

machine heads are crap, as i stated before. good to play standing up (due to small SG body). neck is slightly uncomfortable. fingerboard is not bad

its pretty solid other than machine heads and input jack(mine fell off).

never delt with eppi

i have been playing for around three years and own six guitars. its a good practice guitar or first guitar. But with its lack of tremelo it is not as versatile as other guitars, in my opinion.

2003 model black made in china 22fret bolt on neck don't know what kind of wood don't care tune o matic bridge decent tuners i'll eventully replace decent black plastic nut i'll eventully rerplace rosewood finger board it came with two humbuckers 1 volume 1 tone and 1 selecter switch. i ripped out everything but the volume knob put stickers over the holes and put in a new humbucker in the bridge as soon as i got home so now it's got 1 bridge hb and 1 volume knob before mods it was a 5 now it's 8 because of the nut and tuners after i change them it will be a 10.this is an excelent beginer guitar left alone and makes a great fixer uper for experienced players

i really like the way this guitar sounds AFTER i changed the pickup.stock pickups suck. i put a $35 kent armstrong distortion pickup in the bridge and the result was just the sound i was looking for in your face show no mercy punk fucking rock.this guitar is now awesome the louder the beter. it even sounds good through shitty amps.this is the best guitar/pickup marrige for the money on the planet i highly recomend it for any one who can't throw down $1200 for a gibson.before pikup change 3 after 11.stock epiphone pickups suck.

i got lucky here this had the best action for an sg in the shop better than the gibson models and higher priced epiphones.i was going to get a an epiphone g-400 for $360 but liked this beter very playable.

very solid in all areas ...as for playing with out a back up for $179 each i recomend buying 2.

this is a real guitar very cabable of making real music.i've been playing for 9 years my band is on hiatus but i will use this once we get back together and i plan on useing two of these ...you can drop it and scratch it and paint on it pee on it bleed on it any thing you want and you don't have to worry.i look at this thing as a tool and it makes me smile every time i play it.this guitar rulez for rock, hardcore punk, metal and is cabable of real thrash AFTER you change the pickup...i love this guitar

22 frets, standard out-of-the-box. I haven't done any work to it because there's no point, the wood isn't worth it.

It suits metal.. The humbuckers are standard epi's which, as you probably know aren't good. at all.

Nevertheless its a good sound for a beginner.

I would not suggest this guitar if you are planning to play without distortion. It won't sound good, trust me.

The switch that changes the humbuckers seems to be erratic - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt. I've cleaned the thing out a thousand times but it still happens.

The biggest problem with the guitar is the wood. It is a very cheap wood. I think its plywood, because I can see the ply layers through the laminate. For this reason, you wouldn't bother upgrading the humbuckers at a later time because it won't make much difference to the tone.

It's build like a rock, thats for sure. Apart from the switch. I would not use it at a gig at all because the sound is too... blurara

nope never dealt with em

I've been playing for a year.

If it were stolen or lost, I'd get the shits, but only because I'm planning on selling mine to ebay.

I'm buying a custom made guitar next because all the brandname guitars are too expensive to justify.

It's a great guitar for a beginner. When you get it, it'll look like the most beautiful thing on the planet, and the distortion will sound great. But once you develop more of an ear you'll want to get a better guitar.

Just don't be fooled by the epiphone site, saying its 'laminate maple/alder'. This does not mean it is a solid maple or alder body that you'd get on many more expensive guitars. (Infact, if you like the SG shape, you'd be better off buying the Epiphone SG 400(??), the higher range epiphone guitars are made of mahogany and actually sound really good when you install custom humbuckers in them).

Everyone already knows the features- simple, to the point, and straightforward. But what do you expect for less than $200?

I play full-bore rock with some punk and garage sensibilities, and this guitar is SO perfect for this! The low end is really meaty without knocing out the treble, and it really sounds great distorted! (To the folks who say that you can play heavy distortion on anything, I say bullshit!) This guitar is all big fuzzy crashing fun. It's not meant to be a technical guitar, but if you want to get a solid rock and roll rumble brewing, this is the one!

The action and finish were fine. The color (red ) couldn't be more perfect for me. This guitar looks and feels great.

Well, the hardware is a bit cheap, but the guitar seems like it will do just fine live. The strap is LOCKED on, so no worries there. I'd gig with this guitar happily, but I'd be careful about the bolted neck, which does look a little sketchy.

Never messed with them.

I quit playing guitar when my 78 Les Paul Standard was stolen about seven years ago, and this is my first electric since. I think I like the feel and sound of this guitar just as well, if not BETTER than my real live Gibson guitar. With a slightly better hardware, and without the pesky tuning problem, I'd rate this as one of the best guitars I've played. It's perfect for the kind of music I play.

2002 Epi SG Special Pro-line series. I think it's the cheaper of the gothic version because there are no cool inlays or anything like that. It does have the black satin finish (which scrapes off very easily), a cheap graphite-esque nut, 2 epi humbuckers, mahogany with a bolt-on, Chinese made, This guitar is very basic and the features are very cheap. BEWARE OF THE NUT, IT WILL SNAP LIKE A TWIG!

This was a noisy piece of shit. The 3 way switch buzzed to no end, and the pickups were also very noisy. I was running this through a Crate GFX1200 head with a 4x12 cab and it made the muddiest clean sounds. I gave it to my girlfriend to learn on and she even hated the sound of it.

The satin finish was nice to look at but it scratched off easily. The hardware looked very cheap, and the nut was shit. Everything looked spray painted in black and the guitar made lots of creaky unoiled sounds when you turned the tuners even slightly. It was obviously a poor cut of wood.

As far as action was concerned, the guitar buzzed alot on the lowest frets. The intunation was fair when you could get through the mud to hear it. I'm giving this category a 5 because the satin finish was nice looking, but that's the only reason.

I'd never play this without a backup. It would shatter like glass if you dropped it, and I don't think it's mahogany. I think it's particle board or plywood. Cheap hardware, cheap wood, cheap finish, cheap everything.

I sold this before I had to deal with them.

I've been playing for 7 years and I bought this so I could have a backup and my girlfriend could learn on it. This guitar is not worthy of being my coffee table let alone an instrument I would ever play. If you want something cheap and decent, try a Mexican Tele, an Epiphone SG-400, or even an Ibanez Talman. Save this piece for the trash compactor.

2001, Basic low end features, 1 tone, 1 vol, 3-way toggle switch, no pick guard, but what do you expect on a low end guitar?

It's great, I mainly use it to play Sabbath or other down tuned stuff (all the way down to C or C#). I play her with heavy distortion through a Korg PX3, sounds good with wah/distorion too, about average clean, maybe a little lower than average, don't think the pickups like the down tuning clean so much :| but in standard tuning it's more solid.

It's got realativly high action, but that's GOOD for what I want... yea, that's right... because I don't play with a pick, and it's down tuned, so a TON of string vibration, anything less and it would be getting a lot of fret buzz, I had to adjust the truss rod a little, nothing major even a noob could fix it...

Never had a problem with her, I think I got lucky with the toggle switch, I've heard those can have problems. Never dropped or banged it at all, so I can't really say.

Never delt with them

Great first guitar, never had any problems with her, good value for the money, but not as much so as the Epiphone G-400, get that if you have the cash, it's well worth it, but if you can't afford much, this is a really good starter guitar, and you can always save and upgrade later, and then you'll have this as backup or for an alternative tuning.

There aren't a lot of features on this guitar. I think i really just bought it for the purpose of having something simple. It's just a tone, a volume, two pickups and a pickup switcher thingy. There's no pickguard, but what good are they anyway? And no, you can't put a whammy bar on it, but they're overrated.

I think it sounds good. In my Jam Session class, we had to play this song called "Watermelon Man" and I think I was able to get a very early sixties sound out of it. And when I played "Helter Skelter" with it, it sounded awesome! Aside from that, I don't know how much variety it has, but as long as I can play what I bought it for (metal and psychadellic stuff) it's cool.

I guess this is all good. The only real flaw was that there were fingerprints all over it.

This seems to have endured plenty so far. The only major thing was when the, mind you I'm not very technical, part you put the wire into broke. Aside from that, it was fine.

I haven't delt with Epiphone, but the guy I bought it from gave me a free strap and some picks with it, so I'll give it a ten based on that. Don't go by this, though.

It's pretty fun and nice looking, I think. Maybe it's not for everybody, but it's for me.

This is a factory refurb second SG Special, Made in 2002, I think in China. This is pretty close to your typical SG, 24 3/4" scale, 2 passive uncovered humbucking pickups, double cutatway in the traditional SG shape, Tuneomatic bridge, stopbar tailpiece, etc. Has 3-piece mahogany neck (epiphone advertises it has maple, but this one is mahogany) rosewood fretboard with dot inlays, and elcheapo tuners. Has some kind of tight-grained body that looks like a low-grade mahogany, I assume plywood (Epi advertises maple/alder, but it's neither), nice shiny finish. Weighs probably 5 pounds less than a "real" Gibson SG slab of solid mahogany. Has one volume and one tone control, as opposed to the traditional SG two of each, and the standard three position "rythym/treble" switch. No pickguard. Came with a cable. I rated 8 for features, what in the hell can you expect for $120.00. This guitar lists for $299 US, but surely no one pays list for a guitar nowadays. Would be a nice guitar at that price, though.

I play mostly blues, and a little of everything else, through a Silverface Fender Bassman 50, and various solid state stuff. Pretty much only use a tube preamp for effects. This guitar, in the neck and "both" pickup settings, fits what I play perfectly. It is extremely quiet, but I expect that from humbucking pickups, even cheap ones. When I bought this guitar, I fully expected to replace the pickups, but was pleasantly surprised at how good the neck pickup sounds. Nice, full bodied, what you'd expect from a decent hb neck pickup. Sounds good on "both" setting, too. Bridge pickup is pretty worthless, though for what I play, I don't use them very often anyway. It will be replaced. There is a definite difference in the three pickup settings, and a variety of different sounds is possible, something that doesn't usually happen with cheap guitars. Pots are very quiet, at least at this time. I give it a "9", it really sounded better than I would expect for the price.

I had planned to have this guitar set up by a tech, but came out of the box ready to play. Action was exactly where I like it on a 24 3/4 scale guitar, low, but high enough to not get fret buzz on higher frets. Intonation was perfect. Came with some cheap strings that were immediately replaced by Dean Markleys. Finish is much better than I would have expected on a cheap guitar, its a pretty deep red color (are SG's any other?) only flaw is the paint is hazy on the headstock where the brand name is, I would suppose they messed it up when they stamped the head with "2nd". Everything tight, no glue around the frets or inlays. Finish is much better than I would expect on a cheap guitar.

I don't play live anymore, but would have no problem doing so with this guitar, seems well built. Have been playing this guitar for a couple of months with no problems. Finish seems durable, time will tell. Bridge and tailpiece seems kind of flimsy, as compared to a real Gibson, but.... Strap buttons seem solid, but I seldom use them. Has elcheapo Asian tuners that will be replaced. Have always hated where neck strap button is located on an SG, right behind the neck, not only is it in the way when playing on upper frets, but they tend to fail, but no other logical place to put it. I would depend on this guitar, I suppose, but anyone would be crazy to depend on any guitar at a gig without some kind of backup.

Has a limited lifetime warranty, whatever that means. Hope not to have to deal with the company.

I've been playing for about 25 years, and have owned various Gibson and Fender products, and have a Tele and Strat now. If it were stolen, I'd hunt the sucker down and make him sorry, but probably would replace it with a prettier model of Epiphone, either SG or Les Paul. (I wouldn't imagine they would be better than this guitar, just more features electronically and cosmetically, i.e. dual tone and volume controls, covered pickups, bar inlays, etc.) I like the sound, though wish the bridge pickup sounded better(though didn't really expect more). I wish it had other than dot inlays (but could have paid more and bought a guitar with them), wish the tuners were better quality (but didn't expect more for the price), wish it had a bone nut (ditto). Overall, a very nice guitar for under 400 bucks.

Made in 2002, in an emerging Asian nation (Korea's my guess). 24 frets I think, solid as a rock Alder, simple tone/vol/3 way switching, dual open-coil hums, who knows who made them. This SG Special has the dark red finish, double-cutaway with the tuna-o-matic bridge and stopbar tailpiece. El cheapo tuners and standard neck. This was part of a Gig Pack, which came with spaghetti-wire-gauge cables, a nifty little 10W amp, strap, picks, a video, a third-round draft pick and a player to be named later. Just kidding. If you're just getting into playing an electric, you have the right guitar right here.

My music style is pretty much Beatles/Seven Nations/John Lennon/George Harrison and all over the map from grunge to ballads. I like a lot of diverse music. I've used this guitar with the Epi Studio 10 amp and also with a really crummy Dean Markley 50w that has seen better days. The sound is teriffic. Plenty of punch and volume, quiet electronics (hums do indeed keep quiet on this thing). Lots of sustain, great for blasting or quiet playing. Of course, it isn't for playing unplugged. SG's aren't noted for acoustic tone.

Setup... well, it was my first electric and still is. I didn't know setup from Shinola, and while I'm still not sure about the latter, I do know the former now. The setup was at best ok, strings were super-ultra-can-you-see-these-things? lights from the factory. I managed to snap the high E within minutes of opening the box. It wasn't in tune but I hardly expected that after being shipped and in and out of different temps. Pickups were a bit low, the action slightly high, required a lot of effort for barre chords and such. I use D'Addario XLs and when I moved up to 10s, the action was a major issue. What didn't help was also removing ALL the strings when restringing the first time (rookie mistake) and screwing up the tune-o-matic bridge height (accidentally spun the height adjusters). End result was with 10s, it would regularly snap G and D strings at the bridge. After a pro setup (adjusted pickups, lowered action and adjusted the intonation), it is FAR better. Also seemed to stop the problems with this unit going out of tune (tuner machine heads weren't tightened on the head, only snugged). The finish, by the way, is beautiful. Everything fits and looks great.

This guitar would survive a mosh pit, a stage attack, an intruder in the house and a shove thru the amp and still come out swinging. It's as solid as a baseball bat. A tad heavy. This model does not have a pickguard, and I'm no animal with my guitar, so that's not an issue but if you're rough on equipment, you might want to look for something to keep the top looking good. It's dependable and the strap buttons seem fine, no loosening. It's been gigged with several times and keeps on kicking. Now serves as a backup for my stepson's band (we got him a Casino for Christmas). Gigging without a backup isn't smart under any circumstances. Ya never know...

haven't had to work with Epiphone, but they do have a pretty good website and it's backed by Gibson. I got this from Musician's Friend, and they've been splendid every time I order from them.

I've been serious about playing now for about 9 months, so I'm still wet behind the ears. Also own a Yamaha FG-410 acoustic, which everyone loves (that guitar gets NO rest). If stolen or lost I'd probably buy it again, it's worth the money for a beginner. Of course, if that happens about 5 years from now, I doubt I'd get the same thing... I'd be more inclined to get either a hollow body, or possibly a Schecter or PRS.

Black.3 way switch. 1 volume. I controll. Very nice looking guitar.

This guitar sounds pretty decent. I run it through a fender bassman amp though.. so the amp could be responsible for my favorable impression. Go try it yourself. I'm eventually going to get my fender texas special out of layaway and this ones going under the knife. I'm going to beef it up with some nice pick-ups... maybe prs dragoon 2's

Guitar was set up very nicely. No problems there. I gave it a 9 because if you select ten on this site.. it automatically says the fabulous.. I hate that word.

This is a tough axe. Solid as a rock

dunno

I've been playing for a year. I have a guild d-30 acoustic as well. That's my favorite possession. If this guitar were stolen, I'd probably get something else just because I like to try new things.