Gibson SG Special

The Gibson SG Special is an electric guitar made by Gibson that has been manufactured since 1961. Current models have several deviations from the Gibson SG Standard - uncovered humbucker pickups, a Gibson 490T in the bridge pickup position (as opposed to the SG Standard's 498T), and lack of the "trapezoid" nacre inlays commonly found on most Gibson Standard SG models. Instead, the Special models typically use nacre "dot" inlays, as shown . Most SG Specials have a volume and tone knob for each pickup and a 3-way selector switch. From 1983 to 1988, a simpler three-knob model was produced. The model shown here was built in 2000. Current color offerings from the factory (12/06) are Wine Red, Worn Cherry, Worn Brown and Ebony. Many guitarists prefer the less active tone of the Special to the Standard SG sound. The SG Special guitar has found its own cult following. Gibson in recent years has taken cost reducing one step further with the faded series which has a more rough and lesser finished stained mohagony body.