Gibson releases the Pete Townsend SG....

[Sarge]

and I love it!

http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Elec...nshend-SG.aspx

[Diamondjimi]

I want one.

SG's sound great and can cut through any mix.

[Cato]

cool...but I already have an SG Special



love the P-90 sound...

[ZahZoo]

It's odd... always loved the look and other people's sound playing SG's. I've played a bunch but not a one of them sounded good or felt comfortable playing in my hands... like it's just foreign or somethin is off...

[chefcraig]

It's odd... always loved the look and other people's sound playing SG's. I've played a bunch but not a one of them sounded good or felt comfortable playing in my hands... like it's just foreign or somethin is off...

I hear ya...there is something about the glued neck, or the way the neck meets the body at the cut-aways that simply doesn't feel natural to me. Strangely enough, no two I've played have felt the same, being either too top or bottom heavy, so that they don't seem balanced. Hell, even my prized SG bass required a special strap just to keep the damned thing upright without the headstock nosediving toward the floor. Arguably the best SG I ever played was (of all things) a 1970s Ibanez knock-off, yet it was so light that I would spend about 3/4s of my playing time trying to keep it from flying away of it's own accord.

I dunno, it just seems to me you shouldn't need to wrestle with an instrument in order to play it. That and the idea of having to use a bunch of outboard devices in order to beef it up and just get it to sound worthwhile.

[Nitro Express]

For me I would take a good SG over a good Les Paul. The first time I played a good one through a good amp I was hooked. P-90's on a SG are fabulous.

You have to use a wide strap with an SG and then you have no problems. A good one will resonate unlike any guitar you ever played and will seem like a hollow body. I have three. The beefiest one has a middle pickup you can dial in with the other two. That one has plenty of chug.



SG's are also nice when cute chicks play them.

[Sarge]

It has a bound fretboard.. which I like. I believe the SG Specials do not...

[sadaist]

It's odd... always loved the look and other people's sound playing SG's. I've played a bunch but not a one of them sounded good or felt comfortable playing in my hands... like it's just foreign or somethin is off...

Ah ZahZoo, you just described me & any guitar trying to sound like any musician on any song. Guitar just isn't in my blood. But it's fun as hell to try and I will never give up. Neighbors & housemates be damned! They can just learn to love my awful version of Sweet Child O Mine.



PS - I can still play the intro to Aint Talkin Bout Love better than Velvet Revolver played it at the R & R HOF induction. That's something ........I suppose.




Back on topic, the Pete Towsend model should actually come as a 6 pack of guitars for 1 price. Cause they should know you will smash it in true Pete form. RAWR!

[VAiN]

I'm not a Who guy... Did Pete play an SG often?

[Coyote]

Late 60's to early 70's, I think...

[Coyote]

Personally though, I'd rather go for a Tokai SG...Like this one

[Nitro Express]

SG's with P-90's were Pete's main gigging guitars in 1970. He ran them through a Supra Fuzz into his HiWatt heads and cabs loaded with Fane speakers. One of the best sounds he ever got.



The fun thing with SG's is they are so fragile and resonate so much when you slam them with a cranked wall of amps, they come alive. They become a living thing you need to tame. Great fun it is!

[FORD]

I'm not a Who guy... Did Pete play an SG often?

He did, but......





...it wasn't a white one, usually.

[chefcraig]

I'm not a Who guy... Did Pete play an SG often?

Only briefly, during the period The Who first started touring Tommy (1969) through the recording of Quadrophenia (1972). After that he used the more durable Les Paul Deluxe associated with mid-period Who livework until the start of the eighties, when he started using a series of Strats and Telecasters that he has used to this day. So it is kind of surprising that Gibson would create a tribute model of a guitar that he in fact (by comparison) rarely used. More than likely, this is because it appeared in the film Woodstock and is associated with the recording of Live At Leeds.

[Nitro Express]

He played the cheapest SG's you could buy. The humbuckers cost more money than P-90's. Pete played the stripped down no frills model. The cheaper ones. I'm sure he broke a few of them too. No sense in smashing up a gold plated, three humbucker, pearl inlayed, bound SG with vibrato. That would be a waste of money. LOL!

[Nitro Express]

If you buy one pop for a hardshell case because you are going to need it. The most easy to break guitars on the planet. I saw one fall out of a guitar stand and the headstock broke right off. The necks break off easy too. You probably could snap the guitar right in half with your bare hands. So you are going to want to make sure it's not going to come off the guitar strap or get banged around.

[FORD]

Only briefly, during the period The Who first started touring Tommy (1969) through the recording of Quadrophenia (1972). After that he used the more durable Les Paul Deluxe associated with mid-period Who livework until the start of the eighties, when he started using a series of Strats and Telecasters that he has used to this day. So it is kind of surprising that Gibson would create a tribute model of a guitar that he in fact (by comparison) rarely used. More than likely, this is because it appeared in the film Woodstock and is associated with the recording of Live At Leeds.

Or maybe because that just happens to be the time period when The Who were unquestionably at the top of their game, and arguably the best live band on the planet?

Not saying it was the SG that made them that way, but it's a Hell of an odd coincidence how the timing worked out.

I would think that Gibson would prefer to name their guitars after someone who has consistently used them though, like Angus Young or Tony Iommi, for example. (Probably the two biggest fans of the SG, that I can recall, and yeah, they both have their own models too)

[Nitro Express]

The SG was originally the new Les Paul model. The original Les Paul was considered dated in 1961 and dropped out of production, so Gibson came out with a new lightweight double cutaway model engineered for the new rock and roll music that had become popular. It was one of the first real rock guitars. The only thing is Les hated the things. So they called them the SG short for Solid Guitar.



Here is one of the rare original 1961 Les Paul Customs. Awsome guitar. I wish it was mine.

[Matt White]

The SG was originally the new Les Paul model. The original Les Paul was considered dated in 1961 and dropped out of production, so Gibson came out with a new lightweight double cutaway model engineered for the new rock and roll music that had become popular. It was one of the first real rock guitars. The only thing is Les hated the things. So they called them the SG short for Solid Guitar.



Here is one of the rare original 1961 Les Paul Customs. Awsome guitar. I wish it was mine.

They should rename that model the GLEN BUXTON SG!!!

[Matt White]

FARKIN' BRILLIANT!!!

[Nitro Express]

Another famous SG. The Fool.

[Hardrock69]

Hendirx had an SG custom as well. Saw it at the Hard Rock Cafe in London in 1989.

Friend of mine once had a coffee-table book of photography from Rolling Stone magazine. This was in the late 70s. One page was great....a series of about 20 photos of Pete Townsend with a single-pickup version of the SG special.

The title of the series was "The Guitar".

The first photo simply showed the body of the guitar, with Pete's hand clenched around the neck at the upper frets.

The rest of the series showed him in various stages of destroying it. It was hilarious.

The same friend (my best friend who lives in Everett, WA) had a 1961 Les Paul for awhile. I think he traded a guitar or two and some cash...the asking price at the time was $1,000. The previous owner took the original PAFs out and sold them, as he got almost as much for the three original PAFs as he did for the guitar. My friend had it for awhile, then sold it for a bit more than a grand...so he made a small profit on it.

I don't care for single-coil pickups, just due to the noise. If I can have pickups that do not have the noise but get the same tone, that is fine. I do have a Lead II with a pair of EMG single coils in it, and it sounds like a crazed, starving, rabid beast on crack.

I do think SGs are pretty cool. Have only owned one, for a short period of time.

And I saw Clapton's psychedelic-painted one on display once somewhere...can't recall exactly where.

I think this one looks neat. I like Alpine White on SGs.

Ok so how many fucking thousand dollars is this because it is a "Pete Townsend" model?

[Hardrock69]

Oh, and GOOD TO SEE YOU POST AGAIN SARGE!

[FORD]

Townsend....Clapton....Hendrix....Iommi.... and Mick Taylor on the Stones 1969 tour too.....



Apparently it was a very popular guitar that year

[FORD]

I think Keef is playing a white SG here (or at least pretending to be playing it, since only the vocals are live). A little hard to tell with all the damn smoke machines though....

[Nitro Express]

Townsend....Clapton....Hendrix....Iommi.... and Mick Taylor on the Stones 1969 tour too.....



Apparently it was a very popular guitar that year

It was Gibson's rock and roll guitar. The original Les Paul was going the way of the do do bird then. I believe they became popular again when Jimi Page started playing them. The Stratocaster was going obsolete until Jimi Hendrix played it. A famouse guitar player can make what would normally go out of production popular. Jimi saved the Les Paul and Hendrix saved the strat.

[FORD]

So who saved the Telecaster? Keef? Or Buck Owens?

[Nitro Express]

One of the best sounding guitars I ever played was a Gibson double neck. The same model Jimi Page plays during The Song Remains the Same. It had the thin SG type body but man did it resonate in all the right ways. I wanted that one bad but the price was out of range.

[Nitro Express]

So who saved the Telecaster? Keef? Or Buck Owens?

Amazingly that model was never in danger of going out of production. I think it was so popular with the country western players that the market was always good for it. I read a book on the history of Fender and basically the Jazz Master and Jaguar line had replaced the Stratocaster. If you look at the players in the mid 60's they are playing hollow body guitars mostly.

[Nitro Express]

We can't forget Robby Krieger of The Doors. Another SG poster child for sure.

[chefcraig]

Friend of mine once had a coffee-table book of photography from Rolling Stone magazine. This was in the late 70s. One page was great....a series of about 20 photos of Pete Townsend with a single-pickup version of the SG special.

The title of the series was "The Guitar".

The first photo simply showed the body of the guitar, with Pete's hand clenched around the neck at the upper frets. The rest of the series showed him in various stages of destroying it. It was hilarious.

If memory serves (and believe me, at this point it rarely if ever does ), there were at least three of these "Pete Destroys A Guitar" posters done in the mid-late sixties/early seventies. There was a black and white series of pictures (one of which would later be used for the band's "Maximum R & B" ads) that featured Townsend busting up a Rickenbacker semi-acoustic, the Rolling Stone one and a third taken around 1975 that was used as the promotional ad for the soundtrack of Kids Are Alright documentary, showing Townsend about to ruin a Les Paul Deluxe. You can find an incomplete yet entertaining list of Pete's more famous "hits" at this link: Smashed Guitars

Ok so how many fucking thousand dollars is this because it is a "Pete Townsend" model?

Around $1,389.00

[FORD]

Another SG fan from Woodstock- Jerry Garcia

[ZahZoo]

Ah ZahZoo, you just described me & any guitar trying to sound like any musician on any song. Guitar just isn't in my blood. But it's fun as hell to try and I will never give up. Neighbors & housemates be damned! They can just learn to love my awful version of Sweet Child O Mine.

Ya know how folks always say tone is in the hands of the player not necessarily the gear... I believe there's some truth there and odd physical interplay with each person and certain types of wood and electronics combinations.

For me it's that way... I can play Strats & Tele's mostly with alder & some old ash bodies and maple necks with single coils, preferably Texas specials... and milk out some very decent AC/DC like chunk, ring and tones. Just running into a simple Marshall combo with no added effects. Then swap an SG or Les Paul into the same setup and no matter how much I tweak the gain, tone and pickup settings or even change pick attack... it sounds and feels like mud to me. Switching to other brands but with similar wood and electronics... same results. Seems I have this issue too with rosewood and ebony fret boards even if slapped on top of a maple neck.

Clearly working up tone with a humbucker -vs- single coils setup is key factor. Lately I have found that I can pull some decent tones out of humbuckers that are "Ed like" for example the cheap knock-offs from Guitar Fetish... but only equipped in a strat body with maple neck.

All I can figure is alder/ash & maple woods behave with a resonant frequency that is compatible with my fat ass... mahogany, rosewood, ebony and the like aren't at the right mojo zone.

I'd suggest get out and play anything you can get your hands on or experiment in building parts guitars... you may hit a combo that comes to life in your hands.

It don't have to cost a fortune either... For kicks I bought a cheap Squire 51 new for $95.00... threw a Guitar Fetish EVH bucker in the bridge and lost the dog-assed ugly pick guard, dropped the stock single coil as low as it would go and put a beauty ring around it... also put a $15 replacement bridge on it. Less than $200 invested and that little sucker screams!!!