Epiphone SG Special

EPIPHONE SG SPECIAL
Red finish, SG alder/maple body, bolt-on maple neck with rosewood fretboard and dot inlays, chrome hardware, two open humbucking pickups, volume, tone, 3-way toggle, and a stoptail piece. Made in China.

I was very impressed with the sound of the guitar. It has a fat, rich tone in all of the settings and sounds good clean and distorted. I play it primarily through a Fender silverface Twin and I get a great 60's garagy sound from it. Guitar was intonated well from the factory and has no fret buzz.
The pickups are great for what was paid for the guitar and in my opinion, better than Epi's higher ranged model humbuckers, because of their fullness and higher output level. We're not talking P.A.F.s, as their not as shimmering and don't bring out as many complexities, but, as I said exceptional for the money.

The action is great. This is a great player for those who want the SG shape and sound but don't want to shell out the bucks or worry about the guitar getting stolen, although if it were I'd probably buy a new one. The finish is pretty good, but a little flawed here and there.

This model seems very durable and solid. This is a tried and true design, which was the main reason that I bought it. I'm not too concerned with how the cosmetics will hold up, but I think it will age fine.

I'm not sure what's covered in the warranty, but I'm not too worried about anything going wrong.

I've been playing for around 20 years, have several other "value" line guitars as well as vintage ones. I have been impressed with Gibson's and Fender's value lines. I primarily play surf and garage so these models suit me just fine. I would recommend the Epiphone SG to anyone looking for great sound and playability for a great price. Note: my ratings are RELATIVE to instruments of the same price point level not to a reissue '61 or something.

My Epiphone SG Special is a 2001 model made in China. You all know what the features are so I'll skip that.

This is not a versatile guitar. It is great for heavily distorted music like punk and metal. I bought it to play punk music with and it works alright for that, but what doesn't? I go back and forth in my opinion of the sound. The pickups are loud and like most people have said here, pretty cold and soulless. I've heard lots of guitars with better tone in the same price range that these sell for. One big plus is that the tone knob provides enough versatility to set up the sound differently enough to play lead. While on the topic, notes above the twelfth fret sound pretty dead on my SG. It's not a good guitar for screaming leads.

The factory set everything up pretty well. I haven't changed anything. I'm about to adjust the bridge to try and get the action down a little bit. Usually I don't notice it, but it is a little high and on some lines that matters.

I lent this to a friend of mine to play live and that's the only time it's ever been on a gig. Like many Epiphones, this guitar will not stay in tune unless you just installed new strings. (I change the strings once a month, and it only stays somewhat in tune during the first week). The finish and hardware are all pretty good. Someone else mentioned their stop piece was crooked and mine is too.

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I've been playing guitar for three years roughly. I am mostly a bass player and play guitar on the side. The next guitar I'm going to buy might be a Fender Fat Strat. I am looking for a guitar that is mostly heavy blues-rock oriented but has the ability to play really distorted rhythm guitar. If you have any suggestions besides the Fat Strat e-mail me.

It was made in the year 2000 in korea. 22 frets and all those things the other guys sad before.I have about 2 years..

Well is kinda my first guitar, but i've played alots of them, and i know a good guitar, and i would say this one is.. fine..
I can do A.H. as easy as i did uin my friends Jackson Soloist ( i wonder why huh?), its FUCKIN noisy, sometimes i got to turn the amp volume all the way down just to stop that, i Plug it direcly in my amp a Meteoro Vulcano, made in brazil. FOr the sound i Like , metel, it's time to change the guitar...

When i got it i didnt even know what acion was so... who knows how it came..i've not even touched the pickup... i prefer not to mess it up.. the octaves are hard to adjust, this fucking guitar never stay tunned, man, i was thinking about changing the hardware an pickups.. but then.. is cheaper to buy another guitar..the switch siometime have a bad contact and the brigde pickup get "thiner" nad have no distortion, i have to flic the switch somethmes until it come bvack to nomal.. and i had a har time making this guitar stop buzzing..

Live playing its ok, but it wont stay tunned... the hardware wears off too easy, the strap keep falling all the time.. i have no option on depending on it...

I've never received and response..

I've been palying for about 3 years, but im a gear intusiastic, so i know a little bit of what im talking about.. I wished to have asked if i could get that Ibanez that that sales man sould 1 day before.. damn.. I surrely wouldnt buy it again.. i Love the looks... ant thats about it...Its kinda har to get to the 22nd fret.. they could have made this like the gibsons so the neck would be better... I've played a Jackson Soloits made in USA, and i chosed mine cause was kind 1800 buck cheaper...

Year of manufacture, 2001.Indonesia.22 frets, dot inlays.Maple body and maple neck, bolt on.One volume and one tone, 3 way pickup selector switch.Two Epi Gibson designed humbuckers, passive.SG copy, in transparent red finish.Tune-o-matic bridge, and no-name chrome tuners.24 3/4 inch scale, medium-jumbo frets.

I dabble in everything from jazz to hard rock to blues to progressive, and this guitar covers every base admirably.I still only have a little Peavey Rage 10 watt amp (living room rocker, I am). It handles a huge variety of tones beautifully.Both pickups have great tone, and sound great in clean or dirty modes.They are very quiet pickups, no hum or buzz or crackling. I found it to be very loud acoustically, with a big rich chord voice.Really good for faking a big jazz guitar.That sticky goo that the pickup cover plastic leaves comes off with a little alcohol. I would have liked to have chrome pickup covers on it. I bought some genuine Epiphone ones, but the holes didn't line up :(. I turfed the rhythm/treble thing under the pickup switch, and swapped the black control knobs for some gold top-hats, and the black pickup rings for some ivory ones. Much better. Maybe one day it will get a tortoise pickguard. Very nice light little guiter.Nice meaty neck, very comfortable. I like it much better than my $2000 Signature Aurora.

I always tend to mess with the action myself, but it was very good when I got it.I haven't seen any flaws in the wood or the finish. It has a very fine grain, not too figured, but pretty. It is a nice shade of red, but could be a little darker for my taste, a little more wine colored. The fretting job was excellent, but after a bit of playing could use a tiny bit of filing on the ends to smooth out little sharpies.The control cavity is well done, and shielded.The back cover is well fitted, but a little too tight to get out, with the close fit. They could have done the scarfing a bit more on the edges. The only real obvious flaws in the manufacturing is that the lower strab knob is off center, towards the knobs, and the tailpiece is on crooked. Neither affects playability, and has to be pointed out to be noticed. The nut is well cut, and placed.The volume,tone and pickup are smooth and noiseless. The volume and tone knobs do a nice job of shaping the sound. Fret markers are well done, but on the side the pair at the 12th fret are slightly crooked to each other. The filler on the edges of the fingerboard where the frets were inserted is all but invisible. Ebonized rosewood fingerboard is well done. Nice and dark, even color. I compared $510 Epi g-400's to $1800 Gibson SG's, and the only difference I saw (besides $1290, the headstock corner notches, and the decal), was the poor job done putting the trapezoid markers in the Gibson, compared to the Epi. I don't expect to see that much wood filler at that price range.

I think, as in all guitars, if this is taken care of, it will be a long lasting guitar. I don't see any reason to swap out the pickups, unless you're a tone junkie. The tuners are half-round chromies, not the plastic ones. I had gathered that tuners were the weak point of these guitars, but mine keeps in tune just fine. I disassembled mine and put a dab of grease on the gears, to make things happier, but I don't see a need to change them , except for vanity. The ivory Gibson style do look better in my opinion.But, that's just fashion. The finish was very well applied, I think it will stand up very well. It is glossy, but the neck is slick and fast, not sticky. The strap buttons are solid, but I may swap them for locking in the future, just because i'm used to that. I wouldn't personally gig without a backup, because you never know when a string may break, but I feel that this guitar can be trusted to perform.

Never dealt with them, but I gather that they are good to deal with.

I've been dabbling on and off for 10+ years. I have owned 9 other guitars, including currently a Signature Aurora, and this is one of the best that I have ever owned.Right up there with the excellent Les Paul copy, and '72 telecaster that I traded away. Siggggggghhhh.If this were lost or stolen, i would replace it, or maybe step up to the G-400 set neck. Real sg's are cool, but the price difference is ridiculous.These are fabulous guitars, and a steal at this price. I love that it does exactly what i want it to do; look cool, play well, sound good and not break the bank. Originally I wanted a black one that was fitted with a white pearl dog-ear pickguard. But it got sold, and I grabbed this one instead. Just a great looking, versatile, rockin' little axe. Do yourself a favor and check them out. I think you'll be very surprised.

22 frets,1 volume knob 1 tone knob & 3-way selector, H/H configuration,Tune-O-matic Bridge w/ Stop bar Tailpiece (really cool), ebony finish

Pretty darn good for the money. Looks really great. SG's are cool.

This is my 2nd guitar(my 1st being a Yamaha EG 112) and I've been playing since December 2000. I play a (extremely crappy) little Rogue 30 Watt w/ a 10" speaker, but its all I can afford (Im only 13 ya know, so lay off!). I play anything from grunge and pshychedelic (Nirvana and Pink Floyd) to classic rock (Zeppelin & AC/DC) and heavy metal (Ozzy and Tool). I will be using this guitar for heavy metal and classic rock style music, and I have to say that I am not satisfied with these "stock" humbuckers. I guess they put out some pretty good distortion, but they got no soul. You can get some good warm bass tones out of the bridge hummer, but its just not what I'm looking for. I'm saving up to replace them with a Duncan SH4 JB on the bridge and a Duncan SH2 Jazz Model on the neck. It sounds good, but not GREAT.

I havent had any problems whatsoever. Good, sturdy axe. There are a few minor problems, like the sticky paint on the back of the neck, and the stupid little knob on the pickup selector busted(grr), but nothing major. Pickups were just fine. It scratches pretty easily, but what are you gonna do.

I think this will withstand live playing. The strap buttons are great, the strap hasnt fallen off one time yet. The paint isnt the greatest, I don't expect much from it, but I can depend on this guitar. I've only played live once and had no problems, but I'm not going to play live without a backup ONLY because I'm afraid of breaking a string :)

never dealt w/ um

Once I get those Duncan hummers & maybe a BOSS Metal Zone pedal (drool) this axe will shred like there's no tomorrow. If it was stolen, I'd probably buy a little bit better model (G-400) , but overall I'm really enjoying this guitar. I highly suggest it (if you are looking for something inexpensive OR are willing to replace the pickups. This axe is a real monster. Rock on.

check my earlier post

still exprimenting. now its quite good

I did install metal mounting rings (the one on the bridge is on the exsisting black plastic one)
looks great, I saw that on warmoth's website, as a tip, works!

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I did change the machine heads, scratched the sticky paint off the neck, and refinished it with tung oil. Changed the pickups, now it is

DiMarzio X2n on bridge
DiMarzio MegaDrive on neck (it is a high output bridge pu, yet goes very very good with X2n which happens to be the most powerful (output wise) PU on the planet earth.
both ceramics, so did not expect to perform very good in clean (for that you ought to go for alnico II magnets)

This guitar is now sounding very very good, not kidding. The wood and is what makes it good + the pu's obviously. Did lots of modifications though, one that I did not mention (because I did not do it at the time) is that I did change the vol pot to 500K decent ones.

CAn get the tones (not exactly though fairly close) on the back in black. but that's it, pretty good with semi and high gain, but not good at all (in comparison to my 95 gibson les paul standard with seymour antiquities) in clean.

I don't want to imply that a modified EPi SG will be able to give the holy grail tones that we hear on CDs, yet it is very good to play high gain hard rock (ACDC or some sngs like beer drinkers and hell razers from ZZTOP, not all though), and not care about if somebody were to spill some beer on it, or crack the finish and things of this sort. when something happens top my dear LP I do get disturbed!

what should I say for rating, do not mean much huh?

it was made 96 i think in korea it'is 21 frets it is a laminated top whit one volume and one tone a 3 way selector two humbuckers i think its the standard pickups acktive eldektronics the body is of alder and the neck is of maple with rosewood fretboard the finish is nice black the body style is sg the bridge is stop tilpiece and the tuners i dont know the neck is wery easy to play on i think the frets are thin

i play punkrock and van halen style it fits my style perfekt i am using a old roland cube 60 and a dod 250 overdrive and ibanez cs9 delay it is not so noisy all sorts of sounds i can play any kind of musik on it i like the sound of the humbuckers but it is not so easy to slide

it loles nice the only thing i have to do was to screw a screw a bit harder the pickups were perfrkt not anything wrong there were som paint that were rubbed of on the head

i think it will stand live playing not all my life but like ten years more the finish is not so good i think i will wear it off
the strap buttons is good yes its my strap that sucks yes

a year i think

i have a fender u.s strat a falcon signature strat a washburn akuistic a yamaha bb300 bass a schaller fuzz and wah wah
i think i would buy a more expensive sg i love the sound and its not so heavy to

(this is a follow up)
damn thing is beginning to fall apart on me, the volume knob is falling off( I've fixed it twice already at band practices) finish is scratching kinda easily now.

still sounds good, except the pickups get a lot of feedback when playing at at a "hear yourself over the drums" level.

still a good inexspensive axe. if you're in need of a good first guitar, and you don't want a p.o.s. strat, get this.

This is a suprisingly incredible guitar!
when I bought it from a local music store, I thought it was just one
of those "discount" models that was good for just starting out, but I found it quite nice. It's in ebony (black)with chrome hardware standard sg styling (without pickguard though) it has the standard gibson or epi. tune-o-matic bridge and stop bar tail peice. the neck is smooth, had to get the action lowered. tuners are good quality.

I play a variety of metal and this thing has incredible sound for such an inexpensive guitar. It has dual "epi" open coil humbuckers with a three way selection switch. I currently use it on a fender 25 watt pratice amp and a line6 100w. this thing sounds amazing through a good distortion pedal ( I own a dod fx 86 death metal) sure it's not up there with a prs or a gibson but it's the best sound for under $300!

like I mentioned before, I got the action lowered, but other than that, everything from the fret board to the setting of the pickups was great!

this is a very solid guitar. the finish stays, it's not easy to scratch, it would stand up quite well while on a gig,(but I always bring a back-up simply for broken strings)

haven't had to deal with them because this is one well made axe!

overall I loved this guitar, if this got stolen, and I was on a tight budget, than sure i'd get a new one. but if I had some actual money,
I have my eyes on a B.C. Rich or a les paul of some sort.
I compared this with a yamaha pacifica, and it blew it away!
I love the smooth body and curves, but the ebony finish gets really
dirty easily! (fingerprints and such) I love this thing so much, i'm gonna put some good emgs in it and use it as a backup!

SG Special 90, made in Korea (this model also made in China). Red plywood body (also available in black or purple, maybe other colors, too), semi-transparent finish. Volume knob, tone knob, 3-way pickup switch. No pick guard. Body is pretty light in weight, so the neck hangs down when you let go of it.

By twiddling the controls on the guitar and my amp (Peavey Blazer 158 practice amp), I can get a pretty good variety of rock sounds -- from clean & bright to some fairly heavy distortion. Only major complaint is that the guitar tends to de-tune rather quickly, but whaddya want for 100 bucks?

I looked at several of these in the showroom before I found one that didn't have noticeable blemishes on the body. Imperfections in the finish can be seen in the one I bought at certain angles. Love the action; most other makes I tried in the price range (Brownsville, Squier, etc.) were a bit soft for my taste. Little bit of fret buzz on the A string was easily adjusted away.

Again, tends to go out of tune quickly. The nut for the cable plug fell off once while I was playing. Other than that, the hardware seems solid for the price.

For the price I paid (I got it on sale; looks like it's normally retailing for around $190 these days), this is a decent guitar to learn on, which is what I'm doing with it. I liked it better than the other sub-$150 guitars I looked at. Not something I want to keep forever, though. If this hadn't been on sale, I probably would've gone into the $200 range and bought a Hohner Birmingham or Ibanez GAX70.