Gibson SG Menace

This Gibson SG was made 2007 in Nashville USA, it is one of the last made of it's sort. Made right before they canceled the model.
It has a 22 fret glued in 60's style thin mahogany neck with a ebony fingerboard, with the only inlay is a brass-knuckle at the 5th fret.
The body is solid mahogany with a standard style pickguard, except the pickguard is all black and with 3 cutouts in it (this was not shown in any picture), it also features scalloping through-out the side of the body.
The finish is a kinda semi-gloss black with little to none hard coat so that you can see and feel the grain of the wood, a nice touch to get that thing between vintage and brand new feel to it.
Regarding mechanics, it has a 498t/490r smoky coil with brass stud humbucker set, a Gibson standard Tune-o-Matic bridge with stop tailpiece. The tuners are non-locking Grover kidney tuners.
As usual it comes with a three-way toggle switch and 2 volume and 2 tone knobs, one for each pickup, on this model it is the black speedknobs.
Along with the guitar you also get a Gibson Canada made Hardcase in reptilian style with white fur.
Simply enough this is a Gibson SG with a little different look.
You get what you order and this is a pure SG all the way.
The Hardcase is that little extra that pushes this one to a full 10.

This is a very versatile guitar, sure it seem to be "meant" to play heavier music, something that is supported by the smoky coil humbuckers.
As I am sure many buy this guitar to play metal on it, I find that a bit boring.
It has a great range of tone even if the smoky coil is a little deeper than the standard 498t/490r it still greats a hell of a sound, you can easily play anything from metal to blistering jazz, don't let the look stop you from trying to play the blues or classic jazz or rock on it, this guitar can withstand it all and delivers almost any sound you need.
I play a large variety of music, I tend to play more blues then anything else, but not seldom do a bit of Metallica or some jazz sneak into the jams.
I am currently playing it through a *shudder* Laney Hardcore 65, but that is only due to lack of funding, I have tested it through Vox AC30 , Marshall MG100 stack and a Line6 Flextone 3 and even though my amp don't give it full justice they do and it sounds like a dream.
It has a great sustain and the only reason it don't get a 10 is that it can't produce the single-coil twang, probably something you don't want if you buy a SG but still, it can't do everything, but damn close to.

The factory setting was good at first, a very general setup, and as with all guitars it needed to be fine tuned after a few months, setting up the neck properly and lowering the bridge alittle (I tend to like low low low action) and it needed a bit of filing fret to accommodate that, but it worked out fine, and one it's been set up to match my play style it is a god.
Very easy maneuverable fretboard (I have pretty small hands so I really like the thin neck and the alittle harder fretboard) and very nice a smooth frets, I know that there have been some complaints in forums about the frets on the menace being sharp but not on this one.
No faulty electronics or anything, it still is a Gibson, they do have some quality check.
I'll give it a 9 because I think that you shouldn't have to file the frets to lower the bridge. But other then that it was great.

I know that this guitar will withstand a live gig, I've seen it a few times and it works great.
The hardware will surely last even though I'll change the speed knobs since I think that the top hat looks cooler.
The finish is great, I'm sure that it will hold up fine if your careful with it, I bet mine will be knocked around a get a few scratches and dents but that is part of the life of a guitar.
The straps are solid but since this is a SG it is top heavy so you might want to either get straplocks (I did this, they cost me $2 for both and they are great) or change the back strap button to the upper horn like Tony Iommi.
I feel that I can play a full gig with this without any problems, although I will have a backup guitar just in case something happens (I am a bit paranoid and it never hurts to be safe).

The Gibson/Epiphone Customer Support is great, since I'm a bit of a computer nerd I added them to my IM and asks them questions via Emails.
(This is the European Support since I live in Sweden)
They have been great to me really supportive and answering every question. (I've had a few questions for them about this and another guitar when I tried to decide which to buy)
First of all I have a 1 year warranty with the local saleman that I bought it from, after that I have a 3 year warranty with the distributor and after that I have a life time warranty on the electronics with Gibson Europe so both the warranty and the support is great.

I've been playing for about 7 years now, I currently only own this one and a Gould GS135, but I have owned several Epiphone SGs and a Fender Strat. I've played almost anything from a 65 Les Paul Custom to a cheezy J&D strat copy. I've literally tried out hundreds of guitars to find the ones that suit me best (I love having guitar wielding manics for friends)
If I ever lost this one or it got stolen I'd do all that I could to get it back, if that was impossible (say it burnt to shreds) I'd either get a new one or a SG Standard, depending on how much money I'd have.
What I really love about it is it playability and the raw sexiness of the body, If you ask me the SG is the sexiest guitar around, with it's smooth curves and pointy devils horns, what I don't love about this one is the silly little cutaways in the scratchplate (they don't do anything and they don't look good) and I'm a little sad about the Headstock inlay, well it's not a inlay it's a painted Gibson "Tattoo Heart" logo, this seem a little depressing almost emo-pop over it, something that I'm not that fond of.
If I could change anything on this guitar it would be the Gibson logo and a heritage cherry or wine red body instead of the black, not that the black is wrong in anyway but the red body is just SO hot, and I will install a standard scratchplate instead of this one with those little grooves.
Overall I'd say that this is a fantastic guitar, it's quite cheap for being a Gibson and what you get is pure and raw SG power with the abit cheaper lacquer and the stripped down look of it.
But don't let it's look deceive you, sure this is a great hardrock guitar, but it is also a great SG with all that it means, it can play anything from slowhand blues (as Clapton showed us in Cream) or jazz to heavy riffs like Hetfield and AC/DC.
This is a very cheap guitar for that value.

The Menace has a black finish with the mahogany's wood grain shining through just a little.

Black hardware and brass colourd humbuckers.

Grover tuners, stop tailpiece and very thin 60's neck.

No fret inlays but a brass knuckle on the 5th.

Gibson Canada hard case was included with nice white interior.

It's a 2007 USA made (what else?) with 22 frets, 2 humbuckers (490R/498T) double volume and double tone controls and made from pure mahogany.

I play classic rock (Thorogood, ACDC, Stones) and Goth'n'Roll (69Eyes, Negative, HIM) and this brute gets the job done like it was made for me.

I use a Kitty Hawk 130 Watts full valve top on a 4x12 Laney cab and it rocks like hell. Has a very warm sound on the neck pup and brilliant crunchy break-through-everything-tone on the bridge.

Same sound through my POD XT Live with Solo 100 (Drive, Bass, Middle and Presence on 2 o'clock, Treble on 5 o'clock) with 4x25 cab.

It's not noisy - just a little overdriven from the start. It sounds as if a mini tubescreamer was implanted - yet absolutely creamy sounding.

Amazing looks - amazing sound. The clean sounds are okay but lack a bit of character. Just somewhere inbetween Les Pauls and Fenders.

I was surprised by the pickup toggle. Setting the neck pup's vol to 0 makes the toggle a real kill switch in the middle position - love this feature.

Sure, this beauty wasn't made for jazz and swing. It's not very versatile but it will do everything from crunchy rockabilly to death metal with ease.

I mostly like its lightweight body. Although it has about half as much wood around than any Les Paul it still has an extremely warm tone with a whole lotta sustain. The wonderfully thin neck made me a better guitar player as I seemed to be handicapped with way too little fingers.

Plus: the Menace makes everyone a real rocker! If you ain't got the looks - the Menace got em!

As no guitar store within a radius of 200 miles had the Menace, I bought her by mail order for EUR 899,- (USD 1220,-).

I was surprised that this low-end Gibson came with a hard case and not just a gigbag.

The action was very low as the Menace is built for low tunings.

When I first heard it clean I noticed it had a strange "pling" on the B-string. I worked about 2 hours with different neck adjustments, lowered and heightend the bridge and adjusted the saddles back and forth to eliminate the annoying "pling".

Another downer is the Menace' top-heaviness. Let off the neck and it'll drown in hell. So you better change the positions of the strap pins...

Once adjusted properly the hardware is very good.
Played it live a couple of times and it worked fine. Seems to be solid.
I don't care whether the finish of a guitar lasts long or not. I like rub-off styles here and wouldn't mind the grain coming out a little more.

I replaced the strap buttons for Schaller security locks and changed positions slightly - so they're no problem anymore.

It's dependable but I never got without backup - I'm too paranoid about that topic.

Never dealt with Gibson. I always try to solve issues on my own.

I've been playing for 15 years with a longer break in between. I used to play everything from 30$-Strat-copies to 2000$-Les Pauls.
Currently I own an Epiphone Dot Studio which I use for clean work and as a backup for gigs.

If it were stolen I'd hunt down the thief guns blazing to get it back because it's probably on of the best guitars I've owned so far.

I love its looks, its sound and as mentioned before the kill-switch-feature. I only disliked the poor setting of the strings and the overall top-heaviness.

Hm. If I could make a wish I would want the pots for the pups the other way round cause I mostly play on the bridge pup and would love its knobs on the topside.

The finish is beautiful, as described above. The body is of course, an SG style, yet it has these cool grooves around the edge of the body and three slits cut into the pickguard. It came with a high-quality gig-bag, though I wish it came with a hard case. This is the perfect guitar, and I'm in love with it.

I play alot of hardcore and metal and this guitar slays. I don't even have to play it to melt the crowd's faces. The crunch is perfect for breakdowns, the high end is perfect for soloing, and the middle is perfect for fast, driving riffs. The Menace SG was made to be played in low tunings, so basically its perfect in every way for metal. The only reason I give it an 8 is because the clean isn't great. It'll pass at a show, but not in the studio. I play it through either a Mesa Boogie Nomad 100 or a Marshall AVT50, each of which are run into a Mesa Boogie Oversize Rectifier 4x12 cab.

Man, the action is perfect for lower tunings, not even a chance for fret buzzing, yet the strings are close enough for tearing up the fretboard. It has a fat neck, which I love. I can play faster with a fatter neck. It's an SG, of course, so it's small, not too heavy, and awesome. The finish is beautiful. It's a perfect flat black finish. You can see the texture of the wood-grain through it. I can't wait to gig it so much that I wear the finish off. Oh, you can't forget the black hardware with the brass pickups, frets, and the BRASS KNUCKLE INLAY on the fifth fret. Badass.

This guitar is built for hardcore artists. Unless you're trying to, this guitar will not break on you. It is built SO well that I've never had the smallest of problems with it. It says in tune through a whole show of rocking out, never has had any sort of strange noise, nothing has come loose, strap buttons aren't coming out ANY time soon. And yeah, I would gig it without a backup. I already have on multiple occassions.

Haven't needed to contact Gibson, but I expect that they would be friendly and helpful.

This guitar is my second in quality piece of equipment that I own next to my Nomad 100 and the cab. I also own a Lite Ash Telecaster, an Epiphone Les Paul, an Art & Lutherie acoustic guitar, an Alesis Micron synth, and a Yamaha 600 watt PA system w/ two Yamaha 15 in. PA speakers. I've bonded with the guitar, and I hope to never part with it. If some punk stole it, I would hunt the bastard down to the ends of the earth and then feed his heart through a meat grinder and eat it in front of his mother. If he broke it, the same procedure would occur, followed by me buying a new one. It's perfect. For 800 dollars, there's nothing better for hardcore or metal.
The only thing I wish it had was the original Gibson label at the top of the head. Instead it has a banner that says Gibson in front of a heart with a spiderweb.

It's made 2006, has 22 frets, solid top, it's got 2 see-through
humbuckers and a floating bridge. It came with a gig-bag.
Well, you know, there's a lot of guitar in this. Nothing fancy,
but MAN does it have MONDO tone! It's like taking the tone from
a tube-screamer and sticking it in a guitar right away!!!
But you know, not alot of features... but the features it has
are simply the BEST.

First of all, I'm a blues-man with a large Billy Gibbons
influence. At first glance, I really thought I was going to hate
this guitar, but it proved that it was extremely Good for me!
I fell in love with it... The action is not too high, but not
low either... and the tone is awesome!
I really can't complain, except that there's no tremelo bar :(

IT LOOKS LIKE A METAL GUITAR, WARNING WARNING WARNING!
But it plays... Like that george thorogood sound.
Pickups are great! (actually, a tad high) Perfect!
hey and it's even got a neat groove that looks neat!

This guitar looks like it should withstand a skirmish with a tank.
And yes, I would use this without a backup!

...I havn't had to deal with the company because...
ITS JUST SO DAMN GOOD!

You know what? I love this guitar because it's so different.
People may see it and think, oh, another metal player, and then...
BANG! THEY GET HIT WITH THE ULTIMATE TONE WHEN YOU SCREAM THE BLUES!

We'll this bad boy was made for hard rock playing and metal. It has 22 frets, solid top similar to the sg voodoo and sg gothic. The classic Gibson controls, 2 tone and 2 volume, with brand new 490 and 498 magnet pickups made for deep and high pitched metal and hard rock work. The nromal Gibson electronics, mahogany, with all black and gold paint. The Sg style body with the Tune-O-Matic bridge, metal tuners and 60s thin neck. Came with a nice case, lifetime warenty and etc.

If your into metal working and hard rock this is for you. I ran it through a Marshal tube amp and it sounds great its not too sensitive to small notes when the tone is done when its way up it gets everything you ever wanted. A big metal in your face sound not very clean but its not made to that. It dosent compare to my Les Paul Standard's burst buckles but its amazing.

The guitar was great right out of the case the action is really fast and the pickups were adjusted to my liking in no time. It looked jsut like it did on the website infact i ordered the menace the day it came out online.

Its a gibson... dont worry

its yet again a gibson

Its Perfect.