Please help me write a piece on SG players...(also why the SG is part of my arsenal)

[alienstarguest]

Hey there, I put together bits and pieces of music writings for a variety of

platforms. I don't get paid for any of it, but you might say I am the local modern music historian in the area (jazz to death metal and lots in between). Much of what I write focuses on the tools of the trade, esp guitars, basses, amps, and pedals. I would like you folks to add any noteworthy SG players other than yourselves that I have missed here. It could be someone whos main axe is the SG or someone who has had memorable moments using it. This just came off the top of my head and I'm sure you folks may have some cool surprises for me.

....... and the players I noted below have inspired me to be an SG man myself. No grammer changes or anything like that needed - this is not really even the writeup - more of a thread for the forum than anything right now.

 

OK.

 

The Gibson SG Standard is a fairly common working musicians guitar. Nothing bloated or flowery about it, that’s for sure. Just about anyone with a job could eventually afford one. Even ones from the 60s are relatively reachable compared to some American vintage axes. The SG custom shop models are often not priced that much differently from what it would cost to buy an original. New, at currently going prices, there is competition from other brands and models galore in that range. So, what has always blew my mind was that some of the world's best rock and blues guitarists were at their absolute peak when wielding this guitar. Be it a several year relationship or some momentous pinnacle of performances, it showed up far more than what probability might have allowed. And as expected these artists moved on to play other big name favorites or custom made boutique instruments.

 

Jerry Garcia in the early 70s made some of the Dead’s coolest music with the SG. Live performances and improvised works of art were born of that partnership including the album Live/Dead. Santana’s landmark performance at Woodstock. Clapton with cream on Disraeli Gears. Robbie Krieger of the Doors, whom used it to such effect, that the Doors did not need a bass player (and yes Manzarek's organ playing had a lot to do with that too). Rare are the photos of Krieger seen playing anything but that red or cherry SG. I’m just winging it here but I think his was the SG Special or something (dot inlays rather than trapezoids). Pete Townsend at the Who’s bombastic best. Some of Radiohead’s most creative pieces sprung from the hands and mind of Thome York with the SG as the primary tool. Frank Marino, Derek Truks, and Tonni Iommi featured the guitar at their best (some still doing it today). Zappa too. And Jimi Hendrix on Red House. Led Zep's Jimmy Page made a couple famous photos holding an SG…. or was it two, two necks that is, one with twelve strings. Just the other day I saw a country music standout (add name here ?? ) playing an SG Standard for an article in Premier Guitar magazine.

 

Outside of Angus Young, and maybe some flashbacks of Garcia, we don’t always envision or ‘hear’ these guys playing the SG. At least I didn’t. Yet that is exactly what has struck me as extremely extraordinary, the numerous high peaks the SG has enjoyed with such a distinguished crowd of players. Even George Harrison played the SG to make the Beatles Revolver album and favored it well in to 1968, which probably means it got time on one of rock music’s all-time masterworks – yep, Sgt. Peppers. Visiting the Harrison-SG thing for a moment. That’s one I could not have envisioned and did not know about until recently, seems rather odd that pairing. Especially by then he could have had whatever the world’s best custom guitar makers could have offered - times ten.

 

Which has always lead me to think, hey what about me…or you…. if you can understand where I’m going with that thought. It could have been any one of numerous axes to do the job, the SG, for whatever unknown reason seems to have always turned up at momentous times for the best artists and providing memorable if not dreamy results. And while we know its more the artist than the instrument by far, the SG caught much more than its fair share of the limelight in astonishingly prolific fashion. What gives, this SG ? Even Les Paul himself demanded that he be disassociated with it, and have his name removed from the labeling. Whatever it is, you have to like it. If it was good enough for the cats mentioned above, well then….. END

 

ok folks send in more SG players names and info as you please. By the way I don't care if they are relatively unknown, indy, cult, or underground guys. If its important to you, its important period.

thanks again,

t

[SG fan 420]

Good article, my only beef with it is that you talked about Jerry Garcia for a paragraph, but only said two words about Tony Iommi[confused] The man almost single-handedly created Heavy Metal with an SG and has played almost nothing else for thirty some odd years. Also Carlos Santana, Glen Tipton from Priest, etc.

We have a thread about this very topic, check it out[biggrin] P.S. Don't forget to mention that the SG is the best selling Gibson guitar of all time. I was reading a fairly recent interview with the late Mr. Paul where he admitted, in his own special way, that he was wrong about the SG.

[jameswithesg]

i liked it that was cool

 

first of all i love that you noted jerry playing an sg for some of the deads's best music, one of the biggest reasons i got a sg

[80LPC]

The SG even found it's way behind the Iron Curtain.... to Macedonia where it helped to reshape the music of East Europe in the hands of Vlatko Stefanovski.

[pohatu771]

The thing with George, and the rest of that band, is that they didn't have a "sound" that they were searching for, so a custom guitar was of limited use - they were using different guitars on each album, and several different guitars within those albums. There were no "constant" instruments after 1965.

[alienstarguest]

Good article' date=' my only beef with it is that you talked about Jerry Garcia for a paragraph, but only said two words about Tony Iommi[confused'] The man almost single-handedly created Heavy Metal with an SG and has played almost nothing else for thirty some odd years. Also Carlos Santana, Glen Tipton from Priest, etc.

We have a thread about this very topic, check it out[biggrin] P.S. Don't forget to mention that the SG is the best selling Gibson guitar of all time. I was reading a fairly recent interview with the late Mr. Paul where he admitted, in his own special way, that he was wrong about the SG.

 

ok. good stuff. Jerry actually only got 3 sentences. thanks for the "TIP-ton", good one. Please embellish further on Iommi's work with the SG if you know more. What albums, time periods, little stories etc. Just what i'm lookin for.

THANKS FOLKS

[SG fan 420]

Iommi's first sg a 65 special "the monkey" used to record most of the "Ozzy" era records:

Tony's second SG, patterned after the monkey made by Jay Dee guitars which he plays even now, nicknamed "old boy"

Gibson also makes a signature Iommi SG with a 24 fret neck and his own signature pickups,

which he uses live, in addition to old boy:

He originally played a Stratocaster, but midway through the first song on their debut album, one of the pickups failed on the strat. His only other guitar was the SG special. They started recording with it, and the rest is Heavy Metal history!