SG3

[Chris P.]

My girlfriend loves this guitar:

http://images4.thomann.de/pics/prod/112645_large.jpg

And it's real cheap. Anybody any experiences with this one? Uwe: I believe your son has the V-version of this guitar? What about the pick ups? Hot or vintage sounding?

[Dave W]

Why do you need to know about the pickups? She loves it, you need to buy it for her. It's as simple as that. 

It has the 490R and 490T, same as a regular SG Special, with a second 490R in the middle. But the control setup is obviously different.

[Chris P.]

Thanks. I don't know nothing about no guitars (to use a real American triple negation), so thanks for the explanation of the 490T also being in normal SGs.

[chromium]

I like the 490s.  The ones in my SG have covers on them, so that may affect the tone a bit(?), but I'd consider them more "vintage" PAF-like sound.  I like the way they sound - they have a nice clean sound, are not brash, and they have a nice bite when distorted.  I'd venture a guess that a lot of folks are quick to replace them just because they are the stock pickups on Gibson's low-cost models.

You might check out youtube and see if someone has posted some sound samles of an SG3.  There was a ton of SG Special vs. SG Standard stuff out there when I looking.  Here's one I had bookmarked:

[Dave W]

Just to make it clear, I'm talking about the SG Special, not the SG Standard. The Special has two 490s. The Standard has a (chrome-covered) 490 in the neck but a 498 in the bridge. That's the same combo you find in a LP Studio. The 490s are normal output, the 498s are a little hotter and IMO a little midrangier.

The pickup experts say the cover adds a little capacitance so you get a little less high end, but I don't know if I could distinguish between a covered and uncovered version of the same pickup.

[Chris P.]

Personally I don't like the looks of the big pickguard SGs. I prefer the ones with the smaller guards, like the SG RI bass, which, I believe, are called '61 reissue.

Our former guitar player had the normal big guarded one and I know its pick ups have a higher output than the '61, but it just sounded like... ... an SG.

This wihite one with white guard is nice.

I love Entwistle's quote about those three pick up SG's: 'Shame there wasn't room for a fourth pick up.'

[uwe]

It sounds creamy, resonant (no doubt because of - quick sideways look - the th-th-thin f-f-f-f-finish ...) and my son loves it. All the pup combinations you can dial in with the chicken head switch make sense. When we were in the shop, I did not think that the SG-3 sounded noticeably different to the Flying V-3 at all. They were both clearer and less bassy/massive than an LP guitar and did not have quite the definition of a Firebird V (but then that has clearer-sounding pups). Those "special faded" series are great value for money. My son has already pretty much worn off what little fin the V had at the place where his arm and hand rests (at about 6 hours playing time a day no small wonder), but it doesn't look any worse for it.

Uwe

[Chris P.]

Thanks Uwe!

I'm in love with this model since I saw the first pics appearing in a magazine. But my girlfriend... I dunno. It seems she doesn't like it:( I'll just have to buy her one I guess.... problem is she earns a lot more money than I do;)

[uwe]

I would imagine that nearly all women regard three pups in a row as untidy looking and with too little space between them from an esthetic point of view. There was a reason why Gibson's deleted Godess line did not feature three pup models!

And with your girlfriend playing chiefly rhythm guitar, I don't see her appreciate the multitude of pup settings - she probably wants a guitar with two sounds, not one with six where she has to count the positions (there are no markings) while switching through them, making her life as front woman, singer and sole guitarist even more difficult rather than easier. What a real supportive boy friend you are, Chris!     

[Chris P.]

 

Though she plays her Epi Sheraton (with lots of Gibson replacement parts) and '72 Tele Thinline reissue a lot, she prefers her '57 set neck Epi LP Jr. reissue with one P100 at the moment. Really easy indeed!

And BTW: My girlfriend can count! She's the one with the academic title here in our house..... Master of Arts in English literature and language.

BTW, Uwe: Did you receive a Bassist already? If not, I'll arrange it this week!

[Chris P.]

V-3

BTW:

Now I know why you chose this bodyshape for your son's guitar. I guess you already have the V1 and V2 yourself? (aimed at England?)

 

[uwe]

History has kind of taught us the hard way that state of the art V-1s and V-2s are nothing compared to a reliable fleet of pre-war-design four-engine bombers such as B-17, Short Sterling, Avro Lancaster, Liberator and all the other Allied goodies that reigned our skies from 1942-45! The money and resources that were devoured by the Vergeltungswaffen program were mainly good for two things in hindsight:

- they helped curtail the war which would have only lasted longer and been even bloodier had fighters, U-Boats and tanks been produced, i.e. weapons that made military sense,

- they helped the US get to the moon (if they ever did that is ...  ) a few years earlier.

All this Wunderwaffen crap doesn't impress me nearly as much as the masterful logistic feat that stood behind D-Day (or the "Island Hopping" in the Pacific Theatre) or the sheer doggedness of the Red Army in driving the German invaders out of their country from 1941-45.


No Bassist copy yet!!!

Uwe

[Barklessdog]

Without German sound engineering there would be no Kraftwerk or modern electronic music as we know it. Forget V-2's and the moon!

German music engineered the human element out of music itself!