Gibson SG Junior

1967 SG JUNIOR

I bought this guitar about 5 years ago from "Academy of sound" , it was battered and bruised but sounded beautiful ! No-one had even looked at it , so they let me have it for ?350 !! Fools ! Its a very battered cherry red colour , the maestro tremolo has long -since gone and some kind soul replaced it with a wraparound bridge. The orignal tuners have been replaced for schaller tuning pegs . Curiously I discovered a hole routed in the neck position for a humbucker - quite odd I thought, what with the fragile neck joint ...... however my trusty luthier O.K'd it and installed a kent armstrong humbucker with coil tap in the provided hole , so with the original P90 in the bridge postion and a 3 way switch , I have access to some great original tones .

I play indie / rock . The sound is truly amazing and as soon as I plugged the guitar in , all those years of gigs and experience made sense - I had found THE guitar for me. It sizzles on solo sections , a single strummed chord sounds better than any new guitar I've tried , and with the pick up configurations I get a wide range of interesting tones when using either an AC 30 or Twin . I always feel disapointed with new guitars as they just don't have THAT warm sound - I suppose its decent wood with years of sweat and tobacco smoke and whatever else happens over time but the tone is so sweet - If you hold the back of the guitar up to your ear and strum an open chord , the whole body kind of vibrates in sympathy , , I'm not getting all hippy here ! Try it !

The action is super low , I think Gibson claim that the SG is "the fastest neck" , true or not its a wonderful , easy guitar to play .

I've had a few problems in the area of reliability , its never let me down , but the neck joint does worry me , its just so fragile . I find it a problem in the studio as the guitar does move in and out of tune - if you plug in a tuner and turn the guitar upside down (headstock facing the floor) the guitar drops half a step out of tune !! Try it , its quite shocking ! This has caused problems for me if I'm recording intricate parts as if you exert too much pressure on the neck , it pushes it out of tune - I've adopted this nuance into my style , during heavy distorted parts it seems ok , however its unnacceptable on clean parts though .

N/A

The Gibson SG junior is great . The P90 pick-up gives beautiful distortion , even the feedback sounds amazing . Great for solos , rock , the individual note definition is great too . Plugged in clean (not that its ever really clean ) through a Fender Twin with a touch of tremolo and reverb - dreamy ! Its got two faults , Neck drop (the neck is too heavy for the body) and tuning problems if you move the neck whilst playing , which we all do ..
Its a fragile old lady , thats for sure but I wouldnt swap her for anything

Mine is about a '98 or so. I work for a Gibson dealer, and we bought a couple of these at a blowout deal from Gibson, I guess they were overstocked or something. I promised my boss these guitars would sell great (who wouldn't want an inexpensive, American made Gibson?), and if they didn't, I'd buy at least one of 'em. Well, bad purchase for the store on my part again, 'cause the guitars didn't sell. I bought the red one as I'd promised to do, and I adore it. It has no features as anyone reading this knows. Single P100 (not a P-90, weird, huh?), wrap around tailpiece, single volume, single tone, vintage style tuners, mahogany body. That's about it. But then, I don't want features. From a personal perspective, the less a guitar has, the better it is.

I use this guitar for the more overdriven stuff I do. Perfect for Who-style raveups and really singing wheedly-deedly bits. The P100 has a great tone, it's not a perfect P90 clone, but I can stand right next to a PBR flourescent and have no need to find mecca. It's kinda bright, but nothing like my lipstick-equipped strat. Back off a bit on the amp's tone and it balances the other guitarist's Casino perfectly. I've never tried it for anything clean, but I do love this guitar's girth on the power chords and it's cutting-but-still-fat-way-up-on-the-neck stuff when mildly-to-wildly overdriven. I use it with a reissue Tube Screamer and two Nick Greer pedals: a Ghetto Stomp and a Sonic Boom, plugged in to a Mesa Maverick. Outstanding early-'60's rock tones.

Factory fit was excellent, but .009's are just too skinny. I moved on up to .10's and it's a great playing guitar. No hot spots or dead spots. I have no problems with intonating the instrument, despite the wraparound tailpiece. The pickup has never been touched by me, so I'd say Gibson got that right, too. Maybe they worked extra hard on the ones they were going to show to dealers, 'cause this one is just fine. We have gotten other guitars over the years from Gibson that have been total disappointments, though, including a Custom Shop piece. But this particular Jr. I found no issues with. As far as looks go, I personally don't give a rat's crotch what a guitar looks like. I don't look for flaws because I don't care. I painted my strat with flat black spraypaint, y'know? I mean, who cares? It's for using, not looking at. Finding niggling little flaws in a guitar like this is an utter waste of time. But structurally, the guitar is sound, no wiring issues...it's a great player's piece.

I've been playing this guitar for about three years live, and it's been excellent. No string breakage issues, no noise issues, stays in tune despite the looks of the tuners, and I am completely confident in it. I mean, what could go wrong?? It's just a slab of wood with a pickup in it. I replaced the strap buttons with schaller straplocks, as I always do. I just took it on a tour out West, and though I had a backup, it never got used. No need for it, but I never play without one. I'm not stopping my gig for a broken string and I don't have a tech, so backups are required. As for the finish, it looks like Gibson trans-wine-red over mahogany, and there you go. If it has any dimples or any of that sort of thing in the finish, I haven't the faintest idea. But, as I said, I don't care. In fact, I think I prefer guitars that are beaters. You either play them or you collect them, and I play them.

Hmmmm, I probably shouldn't answer this one as I still work for a Gibson dealer. I have no need for any factory support, any pro player worth his salt shouldn't, either, unless something is blatantly wrong with the instrument, in which case you should go through the Gibson dealer where you bought the thing. The warranty is limited lifetime, and I doubt I will need it.

I have been playing for twenty years or so, I own a mid-90's American Standard Strat which I have loaded with Duncan Lipsticks, a couple of Nick Greer overdrives and a Mesa Maverick. There's nothing to have asked anyone about this guitar, you either know what's up with such a beast or you don't. Were it stolen, I would seek to replace it with a similar model. I love the feel and playability of the guitar and the way it brings out the rock in me. I can really stray into McGuinn territory given a too-clean guitar, and this encourages me to keep it simple, play for the song, and really dig in and play loose. It's forgiving, my Strat is not. Overall, a ridiculous deal for $250. Just an opinion: Paying more than $1000 for a guitar is insanity, and even then only a Rick is worth a grand.

Review for a 1966 SG Junior. Mine was all original when bought apart from a different hardcase and removed vibrola (good thing too, those are useless trems and whats more they're fuckin' ugly).

I had the original tuners changed for a new set of Deluxe ones; I don't want new holes drilled on a 39 year old instrument else I'd have Grovers. I had the fixed intonation tailpiece-bridge changed for an basic intonatable one, I may get a Badass bridge or better at some point.

The tone control is okay, not a great sweep there. I use the volume control every so often, but most of the time when I pick up this guitar I'm not looking for subtlety or nuance. I'm looking for a no-nonsense balls-out performance.

If I'm in the right mood this guitar is a hands-down favourite. As I said, NO NONSENSE. Sometimes less is more. I generally use this with Fender Twins of all kinds (except those nasty 135w models!) or Non-MV Marshalls. I use it exclusively with a Boss GT-8 (I've been using the Boss GT multis for years) and/or amp distortion/reverbs only.

Noisy? Of course, the P90 is a single coil and carries all the assorted problems we've come to expect. This particular P90 is a tad noisier than the ones on my '94 LP Special but what are noise gates for? The tone of the thing is incredible - bite, punch and when you hit the harmonics it SCREAMS.

Oh, I'd forget about using it clean. This has the WORST clean sound of any guitar I've played using 'classic' designs (strat/tele/es335/es175/les paul etc). But for the one sound it does, that awesome rock snarl, it's untouchable. Although I will point out the clean is tasty when its not plugged in. Probably because there's so little of the guitar - whoever said it's a plank with a P90 wasn't kidding.

The thing was a beast to be wrestled with - crappy intonation and couldn't hold pitch for ten minutes even with new strings - until the new parts were on there. Now it's actually reasonably reliable.

I still don't trust that it joins at the last (22nd) fret and has a tiny heel though. Gibson seem to have this serious problem with neck design - necks popping out into the pickup cavity on 50s models, giving many of their guitars small strap buttons for example. I'm surprised this guitar hasn't got a neck break either end of the neck!

The finish is amazing. You know Fenders 'closet classic' models right, the ones with the slight chips and nicely cracked finish when you look closely? This guitar looks like that, with minimal neck wear. The lacquer is gorgious... so smooth and never gets sticky, it's a shame they can't make them like this any more.

Lets talk about the neck. I fucking love that neck... it's a huge, comfy baseball bat with short scale (24.75") but better string tension than I've come to expect from the many Gibsons I've played. The space between the strings is well above average... you true-blue Fender guys must HATE guitars like this but I love it cos I can pull out some wide bends when I'm on form, without snagging other strings all the time (think 6 semitone bends, 12th fret on the G for example. Try that on a Strat).

The action is great. As I said string tension is great and that neck is a work of art, smooth and really allows you to dig in. Still one of the best guitars I've ever played.

See what I said about the neck and the small strap buttons. The hardware has been partly changed, see above. The finish will last. If I don't drop it it'll last another 40 years. I can't gig without a backup.

Nah, they don't know what they're talking about these days. I emailed them for some details on my '94 LP Special and they kept insisting it was a Junior, even though it has LES PAUL SPECIAL on the headstock and 2 P90s. Then I pointed this out and was told Juniors/Specials have the same meaning. LIES, FILTHY LIES!

Okay, it's taken me over 2 hours to finish this review cos I keep getting distracted, so I have to say this. It's not versatile. It's not got a lot of sustain. It's noisy, it doesn't hold tuning as well as most of my other guitars.

But... when I'm on form and shes on form, this guitar has pulled from me some of the best lead work of my life. Records well too... try overdubbing a solo with a P90-equipped SG onto rhythm tracks record with LP Standards. The LPs are the girth, the SGs are the bite.

This isn't my ultimate guitar - my LP Special is the perfect hybrid of SG/LP tones to me, it's far more versatile and stays in tune better despite it's neck break. But as I say, when this guitar is behaving it really rocks. Even if it has only got one sound, at least it's a smoldering, awesome one.

You want more info, I've provided my email address.

This is a 2001 that was sitting around a store for 4 years. I bought it new. It has a tone and volume knob, P-90 pick-up, and white button tuners. I won't rate the features because if you like a lot of features, you won't like this guitar - it's super simple. I like this guitar for that reason.

I play rock in the style of AC/DC or Black Sabbath. The guitar sounds very bright. I play through a Soldano Hot Rod 50 with very little gain (around 2). I replaced one of the AX7 preamp tubes with an AT7 for even less gain. Sounds very good with the volume turned up halfway.

I replaced the bridge with a wraparound tune-o-matic bridge because the intonation was not perfect. I adjusted the action and it plays just the way I like. The paint job is nice (black) - no blemishes. The guitar looks great.

The guitar with the stock compensated bridge was unreliable for recording - a nightmare actually. Without the replaced bridge, I would rate it a 6. With the new bridge it's a 9. I don't use a back-up when playing live.

I never call the manufacturer. I don't have the patience for repairs covered by the warranty.

Been playing for 15 years. I own a 2000 Gibson Les Paul Jr., a 1984 SG Special, and an 80's Jap Fender Tele. I like the SG Jr. the best and would buy another if something happened to this one.

This is a 2001 SG Junior. Vintage Cherry finish with one P-90 and a wraptail.
Tone, volume, a 22 fret all access neck with 6 kluson style machines and vintage oval tuner buttons.

This is so light. Maybe 6 pounds, and they are not neck heavy because of the light tuners. Grovers would make the neck heavy so it was a great idea on their part to stay true to the vintage styling.

Other than that these look identical in every way to a 67 SG Junior. The headstock is identical and so is the logo color and placement. I think they did a better job on this than they did on the LP Juniors. The LP Juniors are great but they don't look like real juniors because of the missing wood by the neck joint.

Anyway it's just like my friends '67, only the neck is slightly rounder and the tuners are far better on this new one. Even the rosewood is very dark like it should be. The 60's original old ones had the 3 on a strip cheapo's. Came with a hardshell case from Guitar Center - they through it in because of my haggle.

I give this a 10 because this guitars features are its lack thereof. It's very simple, very LIGHT (bad back saver), and it rocks hard since it's all mahogany and loaded with a hot P-90. The tone control is very usable unlike the production les pauls. You'll know when you try one. Also the cherry finish is beutifully thin laquere, and you can see the wood grain perfectly through it. That gives it a warmer feel in the hands and makes it a real pleasure to play.

Can be a little noisy in high gain when not playing, but while playing you just don't hear any interfierence. The P-90 growls and Bites like a Gibson single coil wound to over 8k-ohms should. Very Hot and that lets you dime the amp and use your two simple controls. Volume and Tone to go from a hard clean to crunchy rythym with singing leads that only a Gibson P-90 can do in solid mahogany. Think Leslie West or early Santana.

Pretty darn good it's hard to screw up here. When they are done building these they either work or they dont. Placement of the Bridge is vital and all else is covered under warrenty. Frets are large an lots of room for resurfacing in years to come.

This is solid as a rock if used with respect. Don't drop any guitar that has a 17 degree peghead angle. No problems with the pots or pickup, or tuners in over 3 years. Good Job Gibson. Please bring these back!!

Gibson support is awesome but I've never needed it on this guitar. On my historic I needed some new saddles and they sent them out fast. Good Job!!

Over all fit finish and playability are second to none. This guitsr is a pleasure to plat and sounds wonderfull. Simple truly is better. The longer I play the more I realise that. Simple guitars, non Master Volume amps, simple riffs = lots of FUN and easy to listen too.

I hate to give 10's accross the board but this guitar is a gem. Actually better than my PRS Santana and better than my 97 SG Standard.

I got mine last summer from Musicians Friend in their blow out sale for $399. What a steal for this guitar! Mine is a 2001 model and is ebony in color. Everyone knows the basic features and you know what they give you enough to get many decent sounds out of it. It may not have a 100 sounds but for one pickup and a volume and tone control you can get a quite a few great sounds without having to mess with a bunch of switches. I like the wrap around bridge/tailpiece but it isn't as easy to setup as the separate tun-o-matic and tailpiece like my 1992 SG Standard. This guitar, unlike the aforementioned SG Standard, does suffer for SG Neck Heavy-itis. Although for me playing standing with the guitar in a comfortable position it isn't a problem. This one is also very light compared to my other SG and my Strats. Also I really dig the fat neck - you can dig in really well with it...great for bending. I give it a 9 because you buy this not looking for a 4 pickup - multiswitchable guitar. It is a simple, no frills blues rock machine.

Great but a tad noisy. I love the tone of this thing for blues and classic rock. I can get awesome Jimmy Page and Hendrix sounds to Allman Brothers and AC/DC. It really suits that stuff perfectly. I also love the natural acoustic resonance of the guitar - it sounds awesome just for strumming unplugged. My only complaint is the P90 is a little noisy. I am more anal about this than some, but not as much as others. I live with it right now but I want to try some noiseless P90 pickups - like the SD P90 stack or even Lace makes a stacked P90. If they don't sound as good then I will plop back in the P90 and live with the noise. Just beware using really high gain. If is were noiseless and sounded this way it'd be a 9.5 but with the noise it has to be an 8. It is a great sound though.

The action was about perfect for me which is a little higher than most people like. 6/64 on low E at 12th fret and 4/64 on high E at the same place. That is just a perfect for me - I play pretty hard and like to get a thick tone - so it works for me. I had to change the 9-42's that came on the guitar immediately to my 10-52's tuned down a 1/2 step. It rocks and rolls like that. The finish is good but has some flaws - nothing major - probaby should be buffed better. The pickup was adjusted okay - I adjusted it some though to experiment. The fretwork was very nice and had no real problems at all. When I bought the 1992 SG Standard new it had worse fretwork than this one. Not that is was too bad either. Nut needed a little work but that was mostly for the heavier strings. I still need to stop some of the g-string pinching (sounds painful!) when I bend really far but otherwise not probs really not for the price.

I think this guitar could withstand quite a bit of live playing. I like the thicker neck and it seems to bulk up the guitar a little more than say my SG standard which I fear hitting the headstock or it falling over against something. The neck joint seems stronger because of the thicker neck - it may just be my imagination. The finish is laquer so you have to watch out for that but all gibsons are the same that way. The strap buttons are okay but small. I bought little lock things from StewMac that click in place on he strap buttons after you put the strap on and they work fine $1.50 strap locks - can't beat that. I would gig without a back up - not much to go wrong unless you break it.

I have only dealt with them once via email a bunch of years back. They offered a helpful suggestion in a reasonable amount of time so that experience was good. Many companies don't even email you back. This was in '95-'96 and they were courteous and pleasant. So no complaints.

This guitar is absolutely fabulous especially considering the price I paid. I'm not sure if I'd pay a lot more for one maybe a couple hundred, but at $399 it was a deal of a lifetime. It plays awesome and sound awesome. It is just a nice guitar to go to. Also my wife was actually the one who purchased it for me and because of that I could never let it go. I wouldn't want to anyways - it is a permanent addition to my guitar collection.

2002 model. Every body knows about the features. Why rate them low? The simplicity is why this guitar can sing and is so light and easy to play at the same time! I say quality neck joint, quality finish, quality tuners and bridge setup. Perfect frets and a screaming P-90 with .022 caps and nice volume and tone swells make this and excellent feature filled guitar!

Sounds great. Very Pete Townsend Rawness to these guitars. Sings sings and sings. The P-90's I have had to BTW are pretty hot 8.5-9k. These things don't require any effects to sounds great and go straight into your favorite Tube amp combo or half stack nicely.

My choice is a JTM 45 or a Fender Twin!

Already said. All perfect. Nice laquere smell too;)

Supposed to be a 2 pice top but I can't find any seams or otherwise. Gibson told me they came in 1,2, and3 pice bodies.

Rock Solid! Had it for almost two years and no problems. How many guitars can you say that about that you gig regularly with?

Gibson Support is probably the best out there. I never had a problem getting parts or information from them. Usually in less than 24 hours you have your info and no parts are comming!

Nothing else to say but I wish they never discontinued these! This was the best budget guitar the world had IMO, This and The LP Junior..

Appears to be a NOS (if I have the serial number dating procedure right, it's a 2001) ebony Gibson SG Jr. Cool P90 pickup, mahogany body and neck, rosewood fretboard, tone, volume, you get the picture. Also dig the wrap-around tailpiece. Pretty stripped down features-wise, but it's meant to be. Came with a heavily padded gig bag.

Big ol' baseball bat neck, which almost feels too big (for me) on a short scale guitar, but I settled in with it nicely after 5 minutes or so and very much dig it now. Feels a lot like the neck on my Tele Plus with a little extra girth.

I'm a Fender guy, and have been ever since I started playing. So my review will come from that perspective (bias?). I wanted to add a Gibby to my stable, and also dig SGs and P90s. Combined with the price, this was the obvious way to go. I used this with a variety of the "standard" overdrive and distortions (SD-1, TS9, Big Muff, etc) and a few different Vox and Fender amps.

Unplugged, the Jr. has a very mellow, warm strum to it. It sounds very "short scale"; punchy with a good dose of mids. It lacks the bright Fender clank that I adore very much, but of course it would, it's a Gibson. Plugged in, it has a very organic clean tone to it, with lots of mids and lows. It even has a smattering of acoustic-ness to it....very woody. A nice flavor to compliment the rest of my stable.

But as many have said before, this thing just doesn't seem to want to play clean. For me, the clean was nice but a little bland. It didn't have any natural chime to it. It really does beg to be overdriven. Cranking the gain a little yields brings out some great raunch. The more you hit it, the better it responds. True to most P90 guitars, the tone is biting yet thick and single notes simply sing. All you need is a little gain and it just oozes character. The tone control is very usuable, especially in the 6-10 range. I was able to rangle up a good compliment of rhythm and lead tones from just a single pickup. It nails that cool Steppenwolf grit with the SD-1 and, naturally, handles Replacements-style mayhem with aplomb. It reminds me a lot of an overdriven Telecaster set on both pickups, except with more punch and thickness. A fun guitar to strap on and go. Whenever I pick it up, I just want bash out some rock n' roll, drink a beer, and then play a slide solo with the empty bottle.

In Sum: I really really really hate to call this thing a one trick pony, because it's not. But it just seems to thrive much more with some dirt in the signal. The clean tones just don't capture me the way my Fenders' do, and I like a good clean tone. But dirty, it's something else.

This was my first brand new guitar in a while (two previous purchases had been used). Overall, it looked great with a few niggles here and there. The finish is stunning. There were one or two tiny flaws that I could identify on close examination, but otherwise it's gorgeous. The fret work is excellent as well....they look and feel well dressed and polished and there are absolutely zero stray ends or barbs to be found anywhere. Around the upper frets there are what appear to be some kind of filing or tooling marks on the fretboard itself, but whatever. For $399, it wasn't going to be perfect.

The guitar was very well setup, but I will need to change the strings to a bigger gauge once I get rid of my laziness and get some strings. The factory strings still have a lot of life left and felt absolutely great despite being a bit too light for me. Action was also set up very well.

All of the chrome parts generally look great, except for some adjustment wear on the treble side of the bridge (but very well hidden under the top of the slothead post, you can't really see it unless you're specifically looking for it), and the pots and tuners are solid and smooth. The knobs rotate a little crooked, which was the biggest bummer for me but minor in the scope of things.

Unreal for $399

I have little doubt this guitar will withstand live playing. Everything is very solid. It does feel a little more delicate and less substantial that what I am used to, but I wouldn't bet on it being a guitar that would just crumble in your mitts if you sweat on it just a little too much. I would use it for a gig without a backup. It will mostly be a knock-a-round home jammer for me, so it should last a lifetime.

I've been playing 15 years, and love all sorts of music. I particularly love shoegaze, older blues and country, straight rock and punk, you name it. I own two Telecasters (a Tele Plus with Lace Sensors and a '69 thinline reissue), a '68 RI Strat, and a Rickenbacker 330/12. I'm a bonafide Fender guy, as mentioned above.

This guitar is basically my token Gibson. It was a great price and had a lot of the features I was looking for. I've always dug SGs and the Junior series of guitars. It was not bought to replace my Fenders, and I can't say that it will. But that's because I'm such a Fender devotee.

This is my knock-a-round, plug-in and go, rock out with yo' c@ck out, louderfastermoredistortion guitar. It does feel like a guitar twice its price, so I love it even more for that. I think it's a great intermediate player or backup candidate, and lets you get into the Gibson club at a low price (Melody Makers are cool, but do you REALLY want one of those?....c'mon, everyone knows SGs kick ass!). For me, it's on par with the SG Fadeds for around $150 less, and actually I would rather have this than one of those for the finish alone.

Highly Reccommended overall.

New old stock made in 2001, bought 6/03. Features are the same as prior review, plug and play value definitely gets a 10.

I'm mainly into indie rock (Sunny Day Real Estate, Mineral) and post hardcore (Fugazi, Hum) and for this it doesn't dissappoint in the slightest. Unplugged this thing resonates rediculously (easily fills my bedroom). Plugged in with volume at full it has a ballsy midrange that begs to overdriven. Power and octave chords cut through with urgency and sustain indefinitely. Also the body's resonance causes a very heavy reverb sound (is there such a thing as a deverb? I can't just get a dry sound). Backing off the volume acts like a notch filter revealing those crisp Gibson lows and a touch of high end brilliance (but still nowhere near in the Fender camp).

Good God, I've never seen a stock instrument play this well. Intonation and neck relief are perfect (when does that ever happen, especially from mail order? I think the wraparound helps also). Action was exactly how I wanted (med. to help negate buzzing on heavy downstroking). I changed the stock strings to a special set of D'Addario .010's with a wound G (the only difference is .018 instead of .017 gauge) and keep it tuned down to an Eb. Everything was still well, perfect. The only misgiving I had was a minor finish flaw on the back, but at this price I won't even bother...

No issues yet, everything looks solid. It stays in tune nearly all the time (I check everytime I plug in and still have yet to really tune it). I think the wound G helps a lot also.

I've dealt with different divisions of Gibson and they're always thorough and helpful.

I've actually only been playing for around 4 months or so but I've played bass constantly the last 4 years, so I know how a solid instrument should look. My first guitar was a decent Japanese Les Paul custom knock off from the 70's but it didn't quite capture the tone I wanted. This guitar was a treat for me as a beginner since it nailed everything I was searching for. This sould be a keeper for years to come.

p.s. MF still has a number of these left (I thought they'd be gone by now). So grab one

USA-made, 2003 Ebony, 22 fret, mahogany body and neck. No frills is a fact. One volume, one tone, one screaming P-90 bridge pickup. Wraparound bridge, deluxe tuners, fat neck, and fat sound. Comes with gig bag. I gave it a five since ten is "tons of features." I frankly respect the lack of knobs, switches, and other junk that gets in the way of the tone. I would give it a ten for "utility."

I play blues. I have been a Fender fanatic, i.e., Strat, Tele and variations thereof, but this guitar has transformed me. I can't put it down. I play it through a '53 Fender Tweed Deluxe. No pedals. Although, it sounds pretty good with an MXR Micro Amp for a boost if necessary. The characteristic noise of a P-90 can be minimized by turning the volume down between songs, or by tweaking any pedal you might use so there is not too much gain on the input. The sound is the best part. Solos are fat and notes sustain in a unique way. I find myself playing notes that would not "sing" on my other guitar. I can back off the volume or tone for rhythm. I thought the guitar would be "treble-heavy" but that is not a problem.

The guitar came with strings that would not stay in tune. They were 0.009s and were not wrapped around the tuners correctly. With a change to 0.010s, the guitar settled into tune. I have no problems with the tuners. The guitar stays in tune and I don't plan to change any of the hardware. The finish and wood are fine and I really like the wraparound bridge. The feel of the neck and the action are superb. The pickup is a soapbar, not a dog-ear, and is not really adjustable. It is up high and provides plenty of response. A great sound!

I have not been able to put it down. I played gigs with it and it stayed in tune and enhanced my playing skills. I plan to gig with it regularly. The strap buttons are small, but adequate with the correct strap. The simple design and solid finish should not be problem in terms of reliability.

Lifetime warranty. I dealt with Gibson before. They were very supportive and helpful. I don't anticipate any problems.

I have been playing almost 40 years. I gig regularly. I own Strats, Teles, PRS, Les Paul and Groshs. This is my favorite guitar now. Can't beat that sound. I have a Fender Deluxe Reverb and tweed Deluxe, Ampeg Jet Reissue, Gibson Goldtone, Penn, Victoria Champ, etc. I would buy this guitar again anytime! I would immediately replace it. It has a one-of-a-kind tone and feel. I love the simplicity, sound, action and feel of this instrument. I couldn't recommend this instrument more to other players.