REVIEW > GIBSON
GIBSON
JEFF TWEEDY
SIGNATURE SG ’ 61
BY CHARLES SAUFLEY
The Gibson SG has served all kinds of guitarists since replacing the Les Paul as
Gibson’s front-line solidbody in 1961. But
for most players, the devil-horned, mahogany SG screams rock above all else.
And let’s face it—if you want a fast fret-
board, simplicity, and the power to drive a
100-watt Marshall to house-wrecking levels,
a PAF-equipped SG with a Tune-o-matic is
hard to top. But over the SG’s life span, the
model appeared in less famous iterations
that were about much more than brute
force and bossy humbucker tones. One
of the most beautiful of these—the SG
Standard with Maestro Vibrola—appeared
in the early-to-mid ’60s, presumably to
give the SG a little more appeal to players
tempted by Fender’s hip and very musi-
cal vibrato systems. But the SG/Maestro
combo resulted in what a lot of Gibson
spotters consider the most elegant version
of the instrument, and a unique Gibson in
terms of tone, versatility, and musicality.
Better in Blue
Though the Firebird was Gibson’s favorite
canvas for their own Fender-fighting custom
colors in the ’60s, SGs ended up on the
receiving end of the sprayer too, and though
custom color SGs are relatively rare, the compact and bold lines of the guitar looked great
in Gibson’s custom hues. Tweedy rocked a
pelham blue model onstage a lot over the last
several years, and that guitar was the aesthetic departure point for the Tweedy SG.
The Tweedy SG is flat-out gorgeous. The
blue, crème, and chrome color scheme is a
welcome deviation from the iconic, but ubiquitous cherry finish, and lends a nice touch
of femininity to an axe that otherwise tends
to exude machismo. Visually, the guitar could
not be better balanced, and the combination of color and design makes the Tweedy a
guitar that stops folks who don’t know a SG
from a banjo dead in their tracks.
The blue mist nitrocellulose finish
is applied in a manner that reveals
a lot of the grain in the mahog-
any, and the metallic flake is
a little more sedate than you
see on the similar pelham blue
Natural finish neck
Vibrola
vibrato
Gibson BurstBucker 1 pickups
146 PREMIER GUITAR JUNE 2012
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