Gibson Custom Shop 1961 Les Paul SG Standard – VOS

Born Under a Bad Sign

Back in 1961, the folks at Gibson decided it was time to refresh and re-imagine the Les Paul, and boy did they ever hack and slash! In order to freshen things up, they did away with the maple top and the sunburst finish. Instead of Les's design, they presented Mr. Paul with a sleek, contoured horned devil made out of lightweight mahogany. 'Ol Les was NOT pleased and asked them to kindly take his name off the truss rod cover. This left the Gibson marketing team in a bit of a lurch, so they scrambled to find a name for their new axe and landed on "Solid Guitar."

After its inauspicious birth, the SG did indeed prove itself to be a Solid Guitar in every sense of the word (who knows, maybe the SG works so well for rock and roll because it was born under a bad sign--it does have horns, after all!). Its aggressive styling and muscular tone quickly made it a favorite of a whole host of guitarists from Angus Young to Pete Townshend to Tony Iommi to Dickey Betts. When you step back and think about it, it's pretty wild that the dude from Black Sabbath played the same guitar as the dude in the Allman Brothers! A staggering amount of players in many genres have made classic records using an SG. The length and breadth of the list of SG aficionados is a testament to its incredible versatility and universal appeal.