Epiphone SG Special

This is a bog standard cherry Epi SG special, somebody has correctly identified it as a laminate...I know this is the case as I sawed it up to make it rectangular, filled some of the chamferred bits, and re-styled it in a kellogs frosties box... partly in homage to the fairport convention "Cornflakes" model but mainly to establish my "comedy" presence... see myspace.com/glennyvee. I think the fingerboard is actually a dyed cheaper timber than rosewood. the bridge is quite nifty and doesn't fall off ala gibson, the pick-ups twin humbuckers are epis and are ...OK, the machine heads are ....OK

hmmmm I bought this guitar to chop up....before I did, I will say this...My main stage guitars are gibsons, Flying Vee and tv yellow doublecut... my only experience of SG's was about 17 years ago when a fellow bandmember imported at VAST expense a '61 re-issue. I thought it was wank...it was a flimsy little thing with a whip neck, and I formed the opinion that gibson sgs were not for me...I have grown up ! this ?? 72 purchased second hand beginner model played and sounded very very good... through a marshall dsl...i instantly became Angus Young...and added "whole lotta rosie" to my set list.
I liked this guitar, and would recommend it to anybody as a knockabout or beginner instrument..... I still chopped it up though...and in its new guise, as a real "tiger top" its sounds gggreeeaat !

I will say again how impressed I was with the set up, the lad I bought it from was no player...whichever shop set it up, or importers deserve a big pat on the back.
If i were to be really picky...the bridge has been slightly misplaced so the strings do not run central to the neck, I am happy with the pick-ups which are a bit rougher sounding, and thicker than on my V ...I don't know where the bass response comes from on this skinny body, and I can't beleive epi have specially "voiced" these for the laminate body...perhaps a happy accident ? I have re-soldered all wiring for a single volume..the selecter knob is ok if slightly stiffer than a gibson, and the machines work...ok

Reliability and durability...I don't think so. I use it for 2 opening numbers to get a laugh...it holds tune for that long, under lights as well ! I expect the fret wire to disintegrate with extended use, I may change the machines.... I have fitted schaller strap-loks. It is unfair to expect a chaep beginers instrument to take an extensive on stage pummelling from a midly amusing entertainer...

I have never had any dealings with gibson or epi.... No I lie...norlin ( 70's uk distributers for gibson) wouldn't let me have a wiring diagram for an ES 355 after the 5 way selctor switch started to crackle and not engage... they said Gibson, wouldn't supply it and to get it fixed I would need to return it to the states ! this was on a ten year old guitar.... I found a top name uk luthier to do the job...and he charged me the same rate he probably does his internationally acclaimed clients....hmmmm

This guitar changed my life....If it wasn't for the weak pound, and prices that sg standards are on ebay ( due to euro punters with a strong euro) I would have bought a proper gibson SG standard by now...as It happens I have a few guitars so I don't need an SG desperately...I have played a long time, so don't get excited easily...As this project has worked so well.. I will search for a cheap gibson melody maker to chop up and become the next tiger top..I may utilise the epi's pick-ups though !

Beginners who are non fender fans could do a lot worse than an epi sg special !

Made:In Indonesia.
Year: 2008
Frets: 22
Solid body, laminated.
One Volume One tone, 3 way selector.
Pickup config: H,H.
Body: Alder.
Neck: Maple.
Finish: Red Wood grain transparent.

I play everything from blues to metal and i find that this guitar works well for any kind of music.

ive used fender amps and line 6 amps with this guitar, and ive used both clean and extreme distortion.

Not so much rich or bright but it does produce a full sound for being a cheap sg copy.

i use allot of pinch harmonics and this guitar has GREAT harmonics.

I found no flaws, but it is a low end guitar.

I have not played any shows with this guitar but it seems like anyone with skill could get great sounds from this axe.
and it seems durable.

I have not dealt with them.

Ive been playing 10 years and own/have owned, A fender strat, a bc.rich bich special edition, a harmony strat, two fullerton strats, and a prs se custom.

I would buy this guitar again.

I love the looks, that is what makes it great, in terms of hardware and technicality your getting what you pay for, but the looks are beyond the price.

i think this is a great beginner guitar and is a wonderful value.

I bought this SG not really knowing what the heck it was. I knew the neck was unusual for an SG (maple, not the normal mahogany) and that the body sounded like it was made of something other than mahogany. I tried it through 3 or 4 amps before I bought it and was very pleasantly surprised. Took it home and did a little research and found out the low-down and this model:

Maple/Alder laminate body
Maple bolt-on neck
Janky Epiphone tuners
looks like the nut is TUSQ
22 fret neck
rosewood fingerboard
fairly large fretwire size
dot inlays
cheap-o stopbar and bridge
single volume knob
single tone knob
flush-mounted input jack on face of body
3-way toggle pickup selector
epiphone humbuckers (passive)
gloss finish on body, neck and headstock
24" scale length
medium neck thickness

This is the budget version of an SG, so I think the appointments are pretty good for what you're paying for. However, due to reliability problems, I'm knocking the rating down a couple of points. See below.

What makes this guitar worth buying, modding, and fixing is that it sounds very, very good. When jazzed up with a couple of mods and adjusted correctly, the SG Special has a very open sound with plenty of upper harmonics (the alder/maple body has a lot to do with this to my mind) Fast palm-muted runs have just the right amount of resonance under high gain settings: not so little that the notes sound stunted, but not so much that the palm mutes are uncontrollable. Lead sounds are authoritative and pinch harmonics are good (though not excellent). The 24" scale makes bends and vibrato a breeze, though (as expected) it cancels out some harmonics and makes for a somewhat dull clean sound from both bridge and neck. The tone control is fairly useful. When wound fully up, the sound is biting in a pleasing way, and wound down gives a nice warm legato-like feel (more noticeably under distortion). The neck pickup is slightly disappointing as it is over-bassy and lacks a little for definition. The middle pickup setting is great for situations where you want to back off your volume and clean up your signal, though I should mention that neither of the pickups cleans up very easily.

In sum, I think this guitar covers a lot of ground sonically. Those who have been disappointed with this guitar seem to have missed the point that they paid less than $200 dollars for a guitar. I'm sorry folks, but if you want great materials and fancy appointments, you will have to spend probably at least $1000 on your instrument. If you're going to buy a guitar like this, assume you will have to set it up and maybe do some repair work and modifications. I think there are a lot of guitarists here who want way too much in return for their piddly expenditures. And they expect to sound like Van Halen without putting forth the effort and time required to coax a good sound out of any guitar regardless of materials. Van Halen made his first guitars out of spare parts he sometimes got out of the trash! Jimi Hendrix played a stock CBS strat he pulled off the wall--there was nothing special about his guitars either. The point is, kids, that they made due with the equipment they had and ended up making amazing music. If you want a fancy guitar, pay for it. If you don't, fiddle with what you can afford. But most of all, as Zappa would say, shut up and play yer guitar!

I can't comment on the factory setup as I bought this guitar used. I will say that it's easy to adjust action and intonation. I like that the neck is maple (maple is my favorite neck wood) as it is much stronger than your typical mahogany neck. However, the neck joint presents some problems. It has already started to show stress cracking, and I'm concerned that it won't hold up if dropped or gigged with. I don't know if that should discourage anyone from getting the SG Special though, since a ton of the Gibson SG's have similar problems. Gibson-style necks in general are somewhat fragile (mostly due to poor design) and need to be babied. Ever tried to break a strat neck? It's nigh impossible! But, because Gibson (and Epiphone) are locked into their traditionalist attitudes toward product design, they refuse to acknowledge that there is a problem with the strength of their necks. Having said that, I'm not sure that I can fault Epiphone for making a somewhat fragile neck. Until Gibson makes design changes, this will be a problem for their whole product line including the high end custom guitars.

But, I will fault Epiphone's negligence when it comes to the SG Special's bridge. I play with 11-gauge strings which while not being extremely heavy strings, still have a lot more string tension than the standard 9's. As soon as I installed my strings, I noticed that the stopbar began to pull toward the neck and got steadily worse. I had to reinforce the mounting holes in the body with superglue to stabilize the posts for the stopbar. When I examined the holes, I found that the fixtures the posts joined with were digging into the body material, and that the material was actually GIVING WAY! It would be very simple for Epiphone to have reinforced these holes with some sort of material. Eh, at least it was an easy fix.

Also, I ended up replacing the tuners. They simply sucked.

Replaced the knobs too. They were ugly. Strat-style knobs look and work better.

See above.

Despite my somewhat low ratings above, I do recommend this as a beater/experimental guitar. It sounds good, it plays good, and for a little extra cash, you can soup it up. For all its design flaws, the SG Special is a fun guitar to play. Also, the woods used in this guitar make it sound better than most Gibson SG's! It's got me thinking about building a Warmoth SG with an alder body and a maple neck (but obviously with better hardware and wood). This guitar has also turned me on to the shorter Gibson scale length.

So, for the money, it's a lot of fun. I would never pay more than a couple hundred bucks for this guitar though. It deserves to be cheap.

This Guitar is Very poorly made, it has almost no features.

The sound in this guitar is Alright, the Humbuckers do all right for a beginer but for every one else the sound is poor.

When I got this guitar right away i noticed the cheap wood and finish. It barley stays in tune, the tuning pegs dont turn smoothly at all and the pickup selector would stop working every once and a while and i would have to jiggle it around to get it to work.

This guitar will last about a few months before problems occor but overall i think it would take a year and half to get this guitar into terrible condtion.

I have Been playing for about 3 years now i started off with a knock-off strat which lasted me two years, this guitar lasted me for four months.overall this guitar is very poor i think it would be great for a beginer.

Epiphone Guitars are known for weak necks. You can find them cheap on ebay with cracks and broken headstocks. I have an acoustic and the headstock broke off when it was fairly new. I own a bunch of guitars and I have never had this happen before. I have had a minor stress crack or two on some older guitars. The Epiphone line looks good and sounds ok but dont expect a Gibson. I like my Squire better but I have a Gibson USA SG that I use on stage. I would look elsewhere for a guitar.

Cheap money but a cheap guitar

Poor to barely presentable

Weak Neck

They will tell you that it was dropped when the headstock falls off. I do know one gut that got his Epiphone Les Paul replaced but I think the store ate it.

Basic features, 2p/u, V/T controls and 3-way switch. Laminated maple/alder body, bolt-on maple neck. Color is olive drab, the only one I've seen. It was purchased new from Muscian's Friend. This guitar was bought in the mid 90's but I'm just now getting around to posting a review.

I play primarily through an original Fender Blues Deluxe. I don't use any effects any more, just plug and play. I play blues and 60's & 70's rock and roll. The pickups were typical cheap humbuckers and I swapped them out for a Carvin M22T in the bridge and M22V in the neck. This changed a muddy sounding guitar into an articulate and clear sounding axe. The neck is clean and clear enough for serious jazz and with the guitar volume dimed on the bridge p/u you have all the AC/DC you could want. I'll eventually change the switch and control pots but they are ok for now.

The finish was very good and all the parts fit clean and tight. The action was set up average. I did put a strap button on the tip of the upper bout to make it balance better. The tuners keep it tuned perfect and the frets are crowned and and polished to perfection. Intonation is dead on. I bought this guitar to play slide on but gave up and it had been setting unused for about 6 or 7 years. I changed the strings to 10's and set the neck as straight as I could get it then lowered the action as low as possible without buzzing. I plugged straight into my Fender Blues Deluxe and instant AC/DC. This thing plays smooth as silk and and sounds like a million bucks. I've been playing for about 45 years and this axe sure doesn't play or sound like the $200 guitar it really is. This axe might be a "one in a million" and I'm glad I'm the one who got it.

It seems to be built very solid and I have used it on gigs several times. My main axe is a Strat but when I need some good crunchy rock & roll, my little green frog comes to life.

Haven't had to deal with them.

I'm very glad I bought this axe. I wound up using it for a different purpose than I bought it for but I'm sure glad it worked out that way. Overall I'd give it an 8 without the p/u change, but with it it would have to be a very solid 10.

Charcoal burst finish. medium frets, bolt on neck, plastic Nut, twin buckers.

Only a 3 because the fit of the parts are so bad and poorly constructed that proper intonation is impossible. What sound you do get does sound like an SG although a very anemic one that tends to annoy the ears rather than stir the soul. Looks pretty... but like your mama told you looks aren't anything.

Where to start... frets levelling is terrible, the nut was cut to abritrary depths for the strings, the neck pocket in the body was milled incorrectly, the tune o-matic bridge and stop tail peice positioning are off so as to throw out the string alignment .

There is no doubt that this would be reliable because it would probably sit in the case it is that bad.

Can't repair bad engineering... but this is the was Gibson / Epiphone wants it... if their low end guitars were playable and sounded good why would somebody spend Thousands on an actual Gibson SG or Half that on a "Nice" Epiphone.

I've been playing for 10 years, I own a Gibson Explorer, An entry level PRS, a dillion Les Paul, and a Pawn shop prize Vantage PRS kinda copy.... I was able to set these up and they are all very playable. I play these guitars though various amps including a Fender 75, Traynor YBA-1A, Hiwatt DR-103, Musicman 212-65, Garnet Gnome. If you are a wannabee and never intend on ever playing and just want a guitar for decoration then by all means buy one... it's pretty enough. But as a caution to players and PARENTS who want to buy their child their first guitar.... this guitar sounds bad, it cannot be properly tuned and that will make it sound bad.... as a result the novice player will quickly stop playing because they think that it is them that sound bad. I've tried several Epiphones in the past and they always leave me disapointed to more or a lesser degree, usually with the construction quality, and setup/playability... a guitar that is well built can be set up into an EASY to play instrument. The Kid I bought this from ended up taking up the drums.

SG shape electric guitar. Volume and tone knob, bolt on neck. Lead / rythum three way switch. Mine has black/white humbucker pick ups and gold harware, cherry red color. Tune-o-matic bridge, stop tailpiece. Inlays on the neck.

Pretty good for a cheap guitar I use it with a Fender Princeton amp.

Fair, doesn't stay in tune as well as I think it should. Color is nice finish is very good. Action was fairly well set up from the factory I have never adjusted the neck.

I don't play it that much, I'm a bass player use this guitar for ideas and fun.

No idea.

Very nice for the price. Cheap and looks good, sounds good, fun to play. I've had it kicking around my house about two years seems fairly durrable.

This is a beginners guitar, period. It is an entry level guitar and I dont think that Epiphone is trying to market it as otherwise.
I have read some other reviews on this guitar, and they are from beginners so they dont really have the knowledge to be giving a review. I bought one new for 140 bucks out the door, it has two generic humbucking pickups that are cheap and sound that way, but a beginner is not going to be able to tell what a good pickup really sounds like so that is ok. The tuners are also cheap but adequate. One of the best things about the guitar is that it has no trem on it so it stays in tune reasonably well. The neck is thin and the action was set fairly well and low for such a cheap guitar, I consider it a very easy to play guitar so its role as a beginners guitar it does pretty well. Just know you will outgrow it, if you keep playing, I would suggest buying a used one in good shape because you can get them for next to nothing.

It sounds like what it is, a couple of cheap humbuckers. Someone that buys this guitar most likely does not have a great amp either, and as a beginner they are not ready to appreciate things like the tone of tube amps or the difference in tone of pickups. I dont find any bad noises etc. scratchy pots, so it is not "defective" just will loose its appeal as one learns how to play. Probably the best feature is the neck, it is thin and the back of the neck is easy to slide your hand on. The second best thing is the stop tail bridge, it is very basic so it is hard to screw up

Again, it reflects its price pretty well. The factory sets them up adequately if they are like what I got. The worst feature is how thin this thing is.

Nobody is going to be gigging with this guitar, it is a good guitar for a beginner, it is basic, certainly not spectacular in any way, but it has a decent thin neck that is easy to learn on, hopefully by the time you are ready to move on you will be able to learn more about guitars also, and you can go shopping at stores and compare them to this one. The best way to find a guitar you like is to go in to a big music store, actually play every guitar that you can possibly afford, and play all of them, even if you dont like the look, the most important part of any guitar is the neck, you can always change the pickups but you have to have a neck that you like and fits your hands and that is comfortable for YOU to play. So dont be embarassed that you are not Eddie Van Halen, dont ask the store clerk to play it for you. Suck it up and play whatever you know however well you can, no real musician is going to make fun of you because you are a beginner. Having a salesman play it for you means nothing. This is a personal choice, so find a guitar that you find is comfortable and easy for you to play, if there was one "best" guitar for everyone there would not be hundreds of models for sale. It only matters that you like how it plays and how it sounds. I still keep my SG Special only because it is worth about 50 bucks used, and you should not pay more for a used one than that, and even though I only use it as a test guitar for pups, it is too thin for some of them to fit. It will last probably as long as you want to play it.

never needed support, just play it and when you get an idea of what is going on by learning buy a better guitar.

I am giving this a 7 because looking at it as a pure beginners guitar, it serves the purpose, and it will be easy to play and stay in tune well enough so that a beginner will not get frustrated.

Strings? If you are a beginner you can do two things, buy some decent plain strings, eg Dean Markley Blue Steels and let your fingers build up callouses so the strings dont hurt your fingers, or you can buy Elixers which are coated strings, these are much easier on your fingers and are good quality strings. You dont need to change strings that often, so dont go cheap on them, also as you learn to hear the tone of the pickups etc, you will also find strings you like by trying them yourself, again this is personal, I listed two that are good and I use on different guitars for different reasons, so there is not one string that will be the best for every player or every guitar, but you cant go wrong with either of those.

Cheap black stripped sg. The first guitar I ever bought was a G-400 so this one brings back good memories. For the money you can't beat the quality.

cheapo pickups actually sound decent.

Tuners are a little cheap and go out of tune slightly. This was a musicians friend reject guitar that someone did a little fretwork on and sold me at a blues jam. It plays great now that it has been set up.

Seems durable enough. This is my "don't give a crap" backup guitar for gigging.

Been playing about 10 years and currently own about 200 guitars. Again for the money you can't beat this SG. Serious hod rodding potential.

Obviously the guitar was cheaply produced, with a few layers of Alder and capped with a maple veneer. I would recommend a pickup upgrade to some original Gibsons or maybe some Dimarzip's, then you will have a pretty solid guitar.

I give it a 10 only because I dropped a set of 500T 496R inside. Before that, the sound rating I allow is a 5 - vanilla Epiphone garbage with no character.

Action is somewhat high, but that's okay. This guitar plays well for such a simple machine. The SG, whether you pay 100 or 1000, is a block of wood with 2 pickups, very simple. This lower cost model does nothing to take away from that simple yet deadly effective intent.

I'm not sure I would trust this guitar in a live setting. However, is the perfect guitar to bang around and rehearse with. This is definitely an instrument where you will not cringe if it gets bumped, or cry if it gets stolen. At the same time, it is a very effective axe and, again, now that I installed the 500T/496R combo, keeps up with those 500 dollar guitars out there. A warning, the neck joint is weak.

NA

Let me first just say that I am writing this mostly to inform amateur guitarists ( as they will probably be the ones buying this). I was a brand new player when i bought this guitar and put about 40+ hours reading reviews, trying guitars, and asking friends about what guitar to buy. I eventually decided to buy this Epiphone SG Special. I hope this helps you beginners (as well as veterans) interested in this guitar.

Paid: $235 (bought as part of a starter kit, came with 10 watt amp, softshell case, cord, picks, strap, chromatic tuner, truss rod wrench and instructional DVD)


Made in China, no indication of when if was made, but im guessing no earlier than 2004, bought it in January 2006 right after the Christmas season. 22 frets, neck made of maple, 2 open coil humbucker pickups, one tone knob and one volume knob, 3-way pickup selector, chrome hardware. Good set-up right out of the box, Good setup overall. My only complaints here are that there are slight grooves in the fretboard that can catch your fingernails when you are bending strings. It's not really a big deal if you keep your nails short on your fretting hand. It stays in tune quite well, tuners stay relatively stiff. The accessories were great for a beginner. Amp was decent considering it was a 10-watt. All in all great setup for a basically sub-$200 guitar.

The sound is pretty damn good. It doesn't necessarily sound as good as say a 500-900 dollar guitar, but for a beginner to learn on its great. With high gain the distortion effect is great. It defintely caters to the heavily distorted sound, but does just fine clean and even has great resonance acoustically (without being hooked to an amp). Stock strings were ok, but i recently switched them out with a set of $10 elixir strings i bought under the advice of a guitar center employee and it made a hell of a difference. lot brighter sound once the strings are changed. pickups are ok, not spectacular, but again, it was a 200 dollar guitar. great for the price i paid. i compared this sound to about 10 other sub-200 dollar guitars and this sounds the best by far, much better than its fender and yamaha counterparts. I like to play everything and this can handle it all. A better amp and strings can make this a damn good investment if you want it to be. Also, if you wanted to mod this, different pickups might be in order, but i will leave that up to you, as i have no experience in moding guitars.

Action is a little high for my taste, but not too bad, helped develop my finger strength and coordination. at the higher end of the frets (15-22) its a little narrow and hard to get good precision on the notes. but nothing terrible, again, great for the price. finish is solid. Body is laminated alder/maple. Like i said it was set-up great out of the box, nut was well adjusted, so was bridge.

This guitar is durable as all hell. ive hit the headstock several times against the fridge (which is right next to my desk in my dorm) and it doesnt even have a scratch. had it for 3 months and hit it a couple times on a couple different things. And so has my roommate (who is a bass player and also an acoustic guitar player). My roomates acoustic is all messed up from him hitting it on his bed/desk etc. But everytime he hits my guitar on something it does nothing to it. Not a scratch on it at all in the 3 hard months i've played it. Extremely reliable.

never dealt with them

All in all, this is the best guitar I have found in all of the 200 dollar guitars i have tested. It sounds great, is set up just fine. Suits beginners great, especially if you buy it with all of the other stuff in the player pack. Damn good deal. i've only been playing 3 months but i've done a lot of research and have extensive experience in piano and violin. My roommate, a bass player of 8 years said its damn good considering i paid only 200. I'll likely continue to use this guitar for another year or so until i feel like buying a higher end model. When i went to go pick the guitar up i asked the salesperson what he recommeded, and he said he recommeded this guitar over the epiphone Special II and the other guitars in this price range because it was a more faithful, albeit cheaper, replica of the famous Gibson SG, which is a superb guitar. if it was stolen i might get a stratocaster, Gibson SG or 450-700 dollar guitar just because im decently good now and would like to experiment with better hardware. But for beginners and veterans alike, for the price i paid it was the best i've encountered. Could probably be even better with 150-200 bucks of mods. Great guitar.

Made in Indonesia, cherry red finish nice wood grain. Bolt on next, maple fingerboard with 2 zebra humbucker pickups. 1 volume, 1 tone, with 2 way selector switch. Tune-o-matic bridge, plastic nut, and decent tuners. Bought this in the "poor boy pack" came with an epiphone 10w amp, strap, picks, electronic tuner, padded gig bag and instructional DVD. Giving it a 9 for features as this was the pack, which gave me everything I needed to get started right away for 200 bucks.

Plugged it into a VOX Valvetronix amp when trying it out, sounded fantastic. Rich full sound, not bright, but decent tone. Got lucky, intonation was perfectly adjusted right out of the box. Great starter rock guitar, but I've gotten some great blues tones out of it as well. The clean setting on the amp showed the pickup's weakness, a little muddy. It's a 150 dollar guitar though, I'm extremely happy with it.

Guitar was set up perfectly as noted regarding action, intonation was almost dead on right out of the box. Slight fret buzz at the second fret A string, however that was fixed with a slight truss rod adjustment. Plays like butter compared to some other guitars in this price range. Finish is gorgeous, pictures don't do it justice. The cherry is translucent, and the wood grain stands out more in person than the pics.

Only had it about a week and half, seems to be built somewhat sturdy. I wound't gig with it, doesn't seem built strong enough for road wear. Finish seems like it would last, stock strings are garbage, change them out.

N/A

Made in Korea or Indonesia, laminated, plywood with mahogony top piece. Not sure of year made, one volum and one tone control, three way switch, two humbucking pickups. Bolt on neck. After market Grover tuners.

Very musical. Unplugged, nice ringing sound, plugged in the guitar sounds very good. Looks like standard humbuckers, but unsure, pickups sound excellent, will not need to replace them. Very good clean sound, pickups sound like they could be alnico. Works well with distortion. Not too bright, not too bassy with very good midrange. Definately not a Les Paul, not an Gibson SG either, but it does have it's own unique sound which is very cool.

Action was set up very well, I just had to adjust the pick up height. Very nice finish on the guitar, more of the classic cherry finish that Gibson uses.

Guitar feels very solid, would probably use it on a gig without a backup.

Had to deal with Epiphone 10 years ago and they responded quickly and adequately.

I've been playing 15 years and have found this guitar to be better than I expected. The special series by Epiphone seems to be hit or miss, the hit ones are excellent and the miss ones can be very disappointing.

This review is for the Epiphone SG Special, made '03 in China, I think. This one is a Limited Edition model with wine red finish, zebra pickups, and gold-plated hardware, 22-fret rosewood fingerboard with dot markers. Two white/black humbucking pickups with 1 tone/1 volume and 3-way selector toggle. The Special seems to have a shorter scale than a standard SG (this is the only SG I've ever played) as the fretboard extends farther onto the body. Has a polyurethane gloss finish and Tune-o-matic bridge/stopbar tailpiece. The tuners are the same junk that was on my Epi Les Paul Special I bought in 2000-wouldn't hold tune on a bet. Has a slim neck with medium-jumbo frets. No accessories whatsoever.

If you're looking for an axe to play lightnin'-fast leads on, this one will do the trick...as long as you don't expect Gibson-like sound. The pickups just aren't the greatest, but for jamming/practicing or just plain fun, it should be OK. I've only tried it on a couple of low-wattage amps, a 20 watt Rogue and a Behringer GX110. But I can get much better sounds with my Carvin pickup-equipped L.P. Special on these amps. There are no extraneous noises at all from the electronics or pickups. I like to fingerpick so I gave this one to my son (he's more of a rocker!)'cause it's too hard to play fingerstyle.

The set-up on this SG was about what you'd expect for an axe that cost under $200. You basically have to mess with these cheaper guitars until you get them where they need to be. This is easily accomplished with the Tune-o-Matic bridge, however, so you or your music shop can have it spot-on without too much trouble. The finish on the SG Special is very nice with no noticeable blemishes or flaws. The biggest issue with this guitar for me was, that if you're playing and exert any forward pressure on the guitar body at all with your belly it sounds like you're using a whammy bar-which it doesn't have! And often as not you have to re-tune when this happens. Just too flimsy, I guess...as long as you don't get too wild with it, it's OK. Fretwork is remarkably good for a low-buck electric like this.

As stated above, the SG Special is too weak in the neck-to-body joint for much hard gigging, unless you play it (calmly) sitting down. All the hardware, except the tuners, seems solid enough...I bought and installed some gold diecast tuners on this SG and helped it immensely. Strap buttons aren't Straplocks, but they're not bad.
With proper care (and carefulness!) it should last many years.

Only called Epiphone/Gibson C.S. one time and wasn't too thrilled with them...you'd be better off taking it back to the music store where you bought it.

I'm 51 and have been playing since I was a kid. I own 6 guitars, a bass, 5-string banjo and a mandolin and 4 amps. I pretty much knew what to expect when I ordered this unit...pretty to look at but nothing "Special" as a player's axe. My son likes it, however, and his friends think it's "cool", so I'll leave it at that.
My favorite feature (other than price)is the wine red finish & gold hardware, really looks good. For what it cost, I can't gripe too much.

Well, this guitar is pretty gun. I bought it in 2003. It has an exceptonally good sound when the rhythm humbucker is selected. It has thaat great Blues sound. It is that classic cherry colour and looks great.

Very good sound for blues and rock. If you looking for a clean guitar buy a f#$kin stratocaster.

When i bought it there was a centermetre gap between the edge of the fretboard and the string.

This guitar is very dependable i have gigged wth it about 5 times. It is just stupid not having a backup guitar.

I waited 2 months to get it back from epiphone when i sent it off

Bought it 2005 - made in Indonesia.
Poor-pack SG, glossy red colour, 2xHB, TOM bridge, 1 volume pot, 1 tone pot, 3 way switch, no pickguard.

Resonates well unpluged. Pickups are little week, but decent sounding.
Not exeptionally clean tone, but well suited for Blues , Rock and Metal. Acceptable sustain. Tone controll pot serves only for ornamental purpose. Pickups are dead quiet. Not bad axe for the price.

Finish is exellent. Smooth, glassy clear coat. Nice, slender neck - Epiphone's trademark. Lighing action. Tuners are crap! One of them rattle, one is hard to turn. Bridge nuts slightly missaligned which makes it harder to lower. I'm giving it 7 because tuners and bridge, otherwise would be 10.

Looks solid. Neck joint is strong. Hardware nicely chromed. Finish seems scrach resistant. Tuners need to be changed.

N/A

Exellent axe, but tuners let it down. Good value for money.

This will supplement my review from a couple of weeks ago...

I have now used my new Epi SG at four consecutive gigs, and I was basically happy with its sound and general performance, and still love the feel of its neck-- really lets you "dig in" on solos-- but I was a little disenchanted with the fact that the G string tended to go noticeably sharp when fretted, despite the fact that I had fully adjusted its saddle on the tune-o-matic bridge to maximize the length of the string. As a result, I had to tune the G string just a little bit flat in its open position, which in turn resulted in a miserable-sounding traditional first-position "C" chord !! So... (read on...)

... just yesterday I noticed that the individual adjustable saddles on the 4th, 5th & 6th strings were actually placed within the tune-o-matic bridge kinda backwards, if you will, so that, given the contour (shape) of the saddle pieces, it's possible to lengthen the contact point on those strings to a greater degree than if the pieces were situated facing the opposite way. The saddle pieces on the first three strings were situated in the reverse (and visually more conventional) direction, presumably because the manufacturer feels those strings don't need as much "lengthening" adjustment as the 4th, 5th & 6th strings. So, I took all of the strings off, removed the individual saddle piece for the G string, turned it around the opposite direction, put it back in, adjusted it so as to maximize the length of the G string, put on a fresh set of strings, tuned the guitar up to pitch, and... WOW !! The G string is now PERFECTLY intonated, it has a perfectly precise octave from the open position to the 12th fret, I no longer have to tune it flat in the open position, and the guitar now plays dead-on accurately all the way up and down the fretboard!

Everything still holding up quite well. I just love the way this axe looks, with its SG shape, and its cherry red finish. It's so inexpensive, yet so decent !! It's a guitar you want to take really good care of.

No contacts with customer support yet.

I started playing when I was 13. I'm 52 now. I've played continuously during those years. This guitar is an absolute STEAL !! I've always used a Strat, but I just love my little Epiphone SG Special !! It's so comfortable to play, and has a nice edgy attitude to it ! It's well-made. No frills, but beautiful in its simplicity.

the features on this guitar are great, there are non locking tuners, the gig bag doesnt give alot of padding and the strap leaves the guitar to slant downward once you let go,and the cable it comes with pops out of the amp easily,it was a 2005, made in china..very good guitar

the sound is great it has a rich full powerfull sound, but can also have a jazzy or pop rock sound also, unplugged is great because it sound just like an accoustic, i am using it with a epiphone studio 10 amp(came with guitar in player pack) and it a=is a great amp, lots of different distortions

guitar has a nice clean shiny black body, i have found this guitar very well fit, pickups were very well adjusted

very durible, i have dropped this guitar many times and hasnt caused a scratch

great guitar i would reccomend it to anyone with a taste for a powerful SG and doesnt want to pay too much for it

Bought new from Musician's Friend. Features have been amply covered in prior reviews. This is a base-model electric guitar. No frills, but I will say that for the relatively small cost involved, this is a very nice instrument. The cherry red finish is very nice, and it looks great. Out of the box, it was set up quite well. I immediately installed a fresh set of strings and tweaked the intonation a little bit, and this little axe feels and plays quite well!!

It sounds really good. I'm using it thru my little Vox Pathfinder 15-R, hooked into an old 1 X 12 speaker cabinet, and it sounds terrific! I also have a Dunlop Crybaby Wah, and a Digitech RP-50 effects box, hooked up. The overall combination has worked out very well for purposes of the club-type gigs I've played with it.

See above.

With the TLC that I give all of my gear, this guitar will hold up just fine.

No problems so far. N/A

I've been playing for 39 years. I bought a Fender Stratocaster in 1973, and it had been my only electric for all those subsequent years, but I had always loved the look and feel of the SG style guitar. So I got this for myself for Christmas, and thus far I am totally delighted with it. For the money, it is very impressive. I particularly like the access to the higher register that it provides with its cutaways, and the fretboard has a nice feel to
it-- it feels like I can "dig in" on lead parts with more confidence than I did with the Strat, and that helps my confidence, which in turn fuels my imaginativeness. Overall, a very good value!

this guitar was made in 2004. it was made in china. has 22 frets, shiney black, tone, volume, and and three way switch (rythym, treble, both). H/H pickup config standard. plywood body and maple neck. sg body, stop tail piece, non-locking tuners.

it sounded good when i got it but as i used it more the tone quality decreased. i use a 20 watt trynor amp. the treble switch has stopped working and i have to fiddle with the patch cord to get it to work somtimes. it has got a low hum when left without a palm over the pickups and its a little to full sounding for my liking.

the finish is shiney black it was not badly done. the action is perfect for me. the guitar has had some problems with the bridge i recenly got it fixed because it fell out of the guitar. the pickups buzz, the tuners are loose and come undone quickly it was finished well it just doesnt stand up to the dialy wear and tear

i have owned this guitar for a year and have been using it recently anywhere from 1 hour to 4 hours daily and it has started to fall apart. the bridge has fallen out, the tuners untune quickly, the pickups are buzzing and wiring is coming apart, the rythym is the only setting that works and the fret board is not taking my playing very well.

this is a good guitar if you are seeing if you would like to take up the intstrument. it wont last long if you play it daily. i would not replace this guitar because it is now a heap of junk. i am going to buy a godin freeway classic as my next guitar and once youve been playing junk for a while a good guitar feels really nice. once agian its a good first guitar but if your going to get into it like i did you'll need somthing more durable because it wont last long.

I am looking at it right now. And one sticker says, "Made in China". 2nd sticker says, "Inspected by Gabor, China". 3rd says, "100% inspected and set up in the USA by E (Epiphone)". So, who's to say? 22 frets, rosewood frtbd. Mahogany neck. Mahogany body. Wine Red. Open Coil Zebra pickups. Wht/Blk. Humbuckers. Gold Hardware; bridge and stoppiece. Gold tuners. Covered, or sealed, tuners. This is the area where I'd pick at. To me, my taste, I'd keep everything, but replace those tuners w/ either Gold Schallers, Grovers, or if I'm really feeling like it's deserving, Gold Sperzels. Those Sperzels tuning pegs, man, I've seen on a buddy's Fender Strat. He swears by them. They really help a guitar hold it's tune. This isn't an endorsement for Sperzels, btw. Passive pickups. One Volume and one tone knob. Want to eventually convert it to 2 volume knobs. Tone knobs on a guitar are somewhat useless, IMO. Like what Eddie VH stated, why he never had one on his guitars. The Neck/Fretboard feels nice and wide. Frets are semi jumbo, kind of in between. Came with a 10' cable and Allen wrenches.

I like how this guitar resonates unplugged. Sounds great, almost has an acoustic quality to it. Amplified, wow. These pickups are pretty decent. For stock ones. I can get some beefy rock sounds, set up my amp EQ for some country twanging, or use the Rhythm Pickup for Bluesy type sounds. Have to configure guitar AND amp. My style of music? Rock, for lack of a better description. Old and New. Everything. From 50's rock to the 21st Century NU rock. And other styles, country, jazz, blues, R/B, etc...

I bought this from Musicians Friend, April of 2005. Paid $119.99. I like this neck for the simple reason that it came shipped pretty straight; I uncovered the truss rod plastic plate, tweaked the truss rod a little to give it somewhat of "bow", not much, changed the factory issued strings (whatever they were) to Dean Markley's. 09-46. Now, gives more growl and bite. I raised the pickups slightly, just my preference. Bridge is fine. Saddles I adjusted slightly; no real fixing required. Nut is fine. Bone Ivory. Works fine. Really like this Wine Red Finish. With the Gold hardware, is really a looker.

I've played live with this one; and it was fine. Would like to replace those tuners b/c they really don't hold tune very well, and for around $100.00 or so, could get some Sperzels on there. Or for $60.00, Grovers. Hardware: over time, could replace with Gibson parts. Etc...Finish is fine. We'll see if it lasts over time. Strap buttons? Hope they hold up. I don't do the 80's Metal "toss the axe around" thing. Dependable. Have NEVER gigged without a backup, period. Won't start now.

Epiphone seems decent. Registered my guitar with them. And Musicians Friend has always been good. Limited lifetime warranty from Epiphone. I take care of my stuff, but it's good to know there is a warranty.

Been playing a LONG TIME. I just wanted this b/c I'd always thought to buy an SG at some point. And for around $120, what the heck? Not a Gibson, but pretty well made, except for the tuners. I'd buy this over the other Epiphone SG Specials, if I had to do it again. Have played them at Guitar Center, and wasn't impressed. These particular guitars, btw, may no longer be availible at M.F. as of 12/05. I got the one with Gold Hardware; then, std. silver hardware models were issued. Wine Red. And now, when I go to the Website, no longer see them. Just the plain ol' SG Specials. Hmm...look on E-Bay. I'd recommend it; like mine quite a bit.

2005 Epiphone Sg Special. Has simple volume and tone knobs. Decent open-coil pickups. Has a nice fat neck(good for bare chords). Has great grover tuners.

Great sound for what I paid for it. It sounds pretty good through my Roland Cube 60 from 1983. Has a nice,fat Gibson sound to it.

Nothing was wrong with this guitar when i bought it and there is nothing wrong with it now

I have'nt played on stage with it yet but come on, im only 13.

Havent had to deal with the company.

Being a novice at guitar, i'd say this is a great guitar for beginers. I dont plan to use this guitar too much longer but for what i paid it's a great deal!

Made somewhere.
I don't know tech stuff
It has pickups, strings, knobs, switches, tuner things.

Sounds great after I raised the pickups alittle and changed the strings to super slinky 9's. Nice tone, sounds better distorted than clean.

Action was fine, mine was little bowed , and still is, but not horrid.
Finish was nice, cherry red

Played it live a few times, I like the feel of it, Dependable, and hey for $129, what can I complain about.

I sold an old gibson SG a while back and wanted to get one just for nostalgia. For $129 It was a steal.

I love finding cheap guitars....

You don't have much to choose from with the 2 knob and 3 way selector they don't change the tone very much at all. The Tuners are terrible the guitar gets out of tune after 30 min. of playing. Although the finish is fairly nice. It looks better than it is.

The pickups are very generic and have a decent range. It can be very noisy on the treble setting but dull on all the others. Handles distortion pretty well. Good for begginers who don't have much musical preferance

Only had one flaw when recieved the jack nut was loose and when trying to tighten it a wire broke a little sodder fixed it easily though. Has a pretty nice finish

I wouldn't use it live but it probably would survive. But would never use it without a backup. For practice it is dependable. The finish does seem to scratch fairly easily from heavy playing.

Very Helpfull Customer Service they were informative and helped me out a lot.

All In all it is a nice starting axe for the price but is not the best choice.