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Gibson SG3

 

Review of the Gibson SG3 by The Man in the Jar

A meatier than normal SG with a chicken-head!

Features of the Gibson SG3 

Tuners - Covered (but not sealed) vintage style Gibson Deluxe tuners in gold with those classic SG green knobs. The tuners work beautifully and bring a touch of vintage class to the instrument.  

Headstock - The simple Gibson paddle is full of understated class, here the Gibson name and decoration are inlaid in pearloid.

Nut - The white plastic nut abuts the fretboard and is finished perfectly.

Neck - The mahogany neck has that slightly old-fashioned feeling of chunkiness that is common on most Gibsons. It's a different hand feel to Fenders or more modern neck profiles like Ibanez, but it feels oh-so-natural for the style and weight of the instrument. The shiny black lacquer that covers the body also extends up the neck and onto the headstock. 

Fretboard - The rosewood fretboard has a lovely stripey grain and the classic trapezoid "crown" inlay in pearloid. The fretboard and the ends of the frets are bound in antiqued white binding.

Frets - The 22 square profile frets are extremely well polished and make for a fantastic playing experience.

Action - Good and low from the box, no need to adjust at all.

Body - The classic SG shape hewn from a slab of mahogany and lavished in black shiny lacquer. One of the nicest guitars to wear on a strap, a lovely comfortable instrument to play sitting or standing.

Bridge - Standard Gibson Tune-o-matic and stoptail in gold. The tune-o-matic is as old as the hills and is the one Gibson feature that gets nicked by most manufacturers in the end. Individual saddles are adjustable for intonation and the whole bridge assembly moves on two screws up and down for string height adjustment.

Pickups - Three pickups!  There are two '57 Classics with a '57 Classic Plus in the bridge position. All the pickups are gold and sit in black surrounds. Because the neck rakes away at an angle to the body the pickups descend in height from the bridge to the neck which gives the guitar a mean, no-nonsense look from the player's perspective.

Controls - One Master Volume, one Master Tone and a six position chicken-head knob. The chicken-head gives the following pickup combos:
Position 1 (pointing to the neck) - Neck pickup only;
Position 2 - Neck and Middle;
Position 3 - Middle only;
Position 4 - Middle and Bridge;
Position 5 - Bridge only;
Position 6 - Bridge and Neck.

Scratchplate - Standard SG teardrop in five-ply plastic, black/white/black/white/black.

Strap-buttons - Two smallish strap buttons fitted, one on the base of the body and one on the back at the heel.

Output Jack - In the front of the body behind the controls.

Finish - The black finish is lovely. As a bonus it's an old fashioned nitro-cellulose finish that will wear and age in a unique way. But be careful of chemical reactions to some stands and guitar straps.

Accessories - A fully fitted Gibson hardcase with combination lock.

 

Sound of the Gibson SG3

The '57 Classics are a supreme humbucker with a fantastic voice both clean and overdriven. Think of all the sounds you associate with famous SG users and they reside in this instrument. Admittedly the most used and well-known of those sounds is the bridge pickup running alone, which is why Gibson loaded this position with the '57 Classic Plus. But the chicken head combinations give some interesting extra dimensions, especially the bridge and middle combination which I found useful for heavier metal riffs, and the middle and neck combination which added huge depth to chord progressions.  

 

Overall Impressions of the Gibson SG3

This guitar looks fabulous and is probably worth the money for that alone!  But I know some SG purists will ask why the middle pickup? Isn't it just overkill?  Well there is an element of showmanship involved, but that middle pickup does add real sonic variety and makes this little rock warhorse a touch more flexible than his bi-pickup buddies. One criticism of other three pickup models has been the lack of flexibility offered by a three-way selector. Here the six position chicken-head solves that problem, albeit in a slightly clumsy way. But it does mean you can run the bridge pickup alone and select the bridge and the neck together, which covers all previously known SG territory. The other four positions are icing on the already very tasty cake.

Buy the Gibson SG3

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