Special by name , special by nature!

First of all I must confess that I fell in love with SGs the very first time I played one. This is the third one I have owned. The Special is the cheapest of the range but it's the details that have been cut not the quality of materials. Its my current first guitar and likely to stay that way for some time.

Many people have complained that it is "neck heavy", its not a problem I have found, in fact the feel of the mahogany neck with its rosewood fretboard is certainly my favourite of all the guitars I have played and I have never found a problem with the balance . It really is a delight to play and has perhaps the best access to the top frets of any guitar. It invites you to play it.

There are lots of stories of cracked headstocks, but these always seem to have happened to a "friend of a friend" so I suspect the problem may be exagerated. Its a valuable instrument for goodness sake, take care of it!

It has that "Gibson" sound, with a little less bottom end than a Les Paul, more middle and perhaps a touch more top, unmistakeably a Gibson. Its especially good at cutting through a band mix whether playing chords or lead (better perhaps than its more expensive cousin the Les Paul). Roll off the tone and volume a little and it also does suprisingly good jazz tones.

I have always found the tuners to be fine, but I know other people do not like them. I do play with a fairly light touch, maybe it's the more heavy handed that have problems.

In my books the SG Special would be hard to improve upon, OK the Standard looks cosmetically slightly better but a bound neck doesnt really bother me too much and although they don't look as good I prefer the dot inlay for playability purposes (more wood for the fingers!).

For me it's the perfect gigging guitar, looks good, great to play and a wonderful tone.