Gibson Angus Young SG – For Those About to Rock
By MNJ
| Posted in Guitar
The Gibson Angus Young SG Standard is a completely new version of the SG, and unlike any other of the previous reissues which were based on Angus’s 1968 SG Standard, features the guitarist’s own personal appointments.
The Gibson SG has provided the signature tone on which AC/DC have based their monumental rock onslaught ever since the band emerged from Australia in the mid-1970s. Angus has never used anything else, and for him to switch to a different guitar now would be unthinkable. The SG is the perfect rock rhythm guitar, it doesn’t have as much sustain or power as the Les Paul, which makes for cleaner ‘chording’, and because the neck joint isn’t as solid, you get a lovely natural vibrato when you shake the neck back and forth. If you have an SG, try it – carefully please! Most importantly for Angus, it’s light weight puts less strain on the poor chap’s diminutive frame as he throws himself about the stage!
Although similarities with the original SG are present – for example the enlarged pickguard, the chamfered cutaways and the control layout – there are some significant differences. First up, it has an Ebony fingerboard with the AC/DC trademark lightning bolt inlays; ebony fingerboards have so far been mostly consigned to Les Paul Customs and ES-355s. It’s a dense, black timber which provides extra ‘snap’ and articulation tonally, as well as having better resistance to humidity and climate change. This brightness and attack is further enhanced by a three-piece quarter-sawn maple neck – a very unusual feature for an SG. The other major custom feature is the nut width, which is 1.555 inches, again reflecting the narrowness of Angus’s original.
The pickups are also a surprising choice, comprising two Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates, a design based on the pickups originally found on Billy Gibbon’s ’59 Sunburst Les Paul. The neck pickup is a standard model while the bridge position unit has a slightly hotter output. The bridge pickup is mounted with a pickup ring, never a feature on a late 1960s SG, as the pickups are mounted directly on the scratchplate rather than screwed into the body as on the earlier models. Also, the switch ring is white. There doesn’t appear to be an explanation for this – perhaps it’s easier to see onstage? Finally, the guitar has a nitro-cellulose, pre-worn finish and is of course finished in the only proper colour for an SG, cherry red.
Potential customers for this guitar are going to be first and foremost AC/DC and Angus Young fans, and guitar players looking for an extremely skinny neck at the nut end. There will be a certain collectability attached too as only 250 guitars will be shipped, 50 of which are being hand-aged in house. Personally, I can’t wait to see Angus using his own signature Gibson Angus Young SG. It’s about time.
Tags: angus young, gibson sg