Swordfish Posted December 8, 2008 Posted December 8, 2008 My son has been playing guitar for two years ( he's twelve) Prior to that he was leraning sax. I bought him a cheap SquierStrat and amp to learn on, but he now says it is irritating. His teacher has a Gibson ( I don't know what) which he allowed my son to try out. Funds are short but I want to encourage him and said i would buy him a better guitar. I took him to a local music store where they suggested a second hand Fender American Standard. The guys in the store are friendly and into music. I took him down there to have a play and it was like a woman in a shoe store, he must have tried ten different guitars. On the way home he confessed he wanted a Gibson, that he would always associate Fenders with his crappy Squier, and he has fallen in love with a SG Special Faded 3 pick up which he as seen on a web site. I can afford it just, but I have browsed these forums and there seems to be a lot of bad opinions, about SG Faded guuitars, and almost nothing about the Faded 3 pick up. It dosn't look as great as the Fender, but my son is only concerned about the sound. What dear Gibson agony aunts should i do? If I buy the SG from the web am I asking for trouble?
jimmiJAMM Posted December 8, 2008 Posted December 8, 2008 I can dig your situation and I'll say what I always say, go for the Gibson SG Standard... it's the real thing! You can find a used one for a really great price, including hard shell case on eBay. Probably for the same price as a new faded with a gig bag. P.S. Two pickups are plenty.
Swordfish Posted January 20, 2009 Author Posted January 20, 2009 I bought it. Its not so cosmetically pleasing as other Gibsons, (or Fenders) but even to my ears it sounds better, and the big plus is that the time my son spends practicing has increased by 300%. He loves it.
Spike~ Posted January 20, 2009 Posted January 20, 2009 IMO the faded sounds way better unplugged than the standard. It's a regular SG Special with a worn finish, really. Which I prefer. I always assumed the only reason people would buy the Special Faded was because they liked it over the nitro finish, then I hear people complaining that they don't like the finish. The only thing seperating it from the Standard, other than some asthetic details, are the pickups. The Special Faded has 490R and 490T pickups, and the Standard has 490R and 498T pickups. However pickups can be replaced easily if you have some decent soldering skills, and even if I had bought the standard with the better pickups I still would have replaced them. I dropped a 498T into my Special because a friend had one for me to try out and there was practically no difference between it and the standard. I opted to go with some more expensive Seymour Duncan pickups after I owned the guitar for awhile. So really it comes down to asthetics. The reason the guitar is cheaper is because of the finish, however as I said I assumed it was for people who wanted a worn finish and the price drop was just a benefit. Even the Classic Special's still had the dot inlay's. (although they had neck binding) And after upgrading my SG Special I can say I would pick it up over the Standard, if I owned both, any day of the week. Of course I am basing all of this on the SG Special, I have never once seen/played the 3 pickup style.
Swordfish Posted January 21, 2009 Author Posted January 21, 2009 I'm not comparing the SG I purchased with any other Gibsons, I don't know enough, but I'm saying it sounds better than the Squier. Not surprising really. The 3 pick up option allows five or six (I think) combinations, and my son has two he uses regularly. I bought it for fifty pounds more than i was being asked for a second hand US Fender Standard, and this has been in my view a very economical way to get a high quality guitar into the hands of a young boy who wants totake playing seriously.
AS90 Posted January 21, 2009 Posted January 21, 2009 Faded SGs are great guitars! You have to remember a lot of people who dont rate them are comparing them to £2000 top of the range Gibsons. Forget the 3 pickup model, your best bet is to buy a normal SG Faded on ebay for around £350. If he really wants the 3 pickup model coda music have them quite cheap... http://www.coda-music.com/product_info.php?cPath=21_22_24&products_id=1657 EDIT: Just realised you already bought one, thats one lucky kid!
Guest alanhindle Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 Is it the one with the three single coils or the one with the three humbuckers that AS90 just pointed out?
hellion102792 Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 Its the one with the 3 humbuckers, I think the single coil one was a GOTM model.
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