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ivan H

ivan H

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After quite a bit of effort arranging, I got to go & look at a few guitars yesterday (along with face masks & much hand sanitizing). This is the one I grabbed, an original collection SG Standard 61 (actually what I was after).
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I tried to capture a pic on the stand, but the afternoon sun streaming in kinda messed with it
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so I didn't bother taking more at the moment. Of the three I tried, this was the stand out. Even before plugging it in I liked it. Plays beautifully & very resonant, acoustically quite loud. Plugged into a 1987X it had nice open, clear tone & good sustain. The 61r/61t pickups when pushed give a nice crunch without getting hairy. I think with a little adjusting I'll be very happy with them. The bridge pickup especially can be bright (though not harsh or ice-picky) with the tone full up. This suits me fine as I use the controls & typically roll the tone back a bit for rythm playing. The "slim taper" neck may be just a tiny bit thicker than the neck on my 60's tribute SG, but is definitely more stable. Fretboard is good, nice & smooth, no tool marks. Fretwork is good, as is the binding. No gaps between the fret ends & nibs. I'm loving these small frets, much more to my liking than the medium jumbo frets on my 60's tribute SG. The nut is good. Action is reasonably low with very little neck relief, just how I like it. Neck angle is good (bridge height good, not too low or too high). Tuning is nice & stable. Balance is good, no neck dive at all, even with the Gibson supplied strap.
All in all its just a great SG with no flaws at all that I can find. Couldn't be happier with it. Case candy includes the normal Gibson booklets, checklists, photo of the guitar on the bench during final set-up, wipe cloth, Gibson strap & Gibson multi-tool. Looking forward to putting some time on it. Cheers
 
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Ivan, fantastico maximo... Enjoy your fantastic new guitar! The 61' in vintage cherry with nice wood grain and well manufactured/set-up is as good as anything Gibson has produced in years outside the occasional CS (and they are hit and miss).

&, you did it exactly the right way: choose your poison then check them out in your hand! Congrats. :dood:
 
Yo Ivan... Congrats on this sexy beast you have just acquired... :cheers: . This SG is very SG-ish, ha ha! Digging your positive review of it so far. Enjoy, you deserve it... :cheers:

ivan H said:
Neck angle is good (bridge height good, not too low or too high).
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Perhaps a nice close-up of the bridge pup with the bridge and tailpiece that shows the string angles?
 
Thanks guys, appreciated. I've always liked the look of angel wing 'guard SG's & everything that I've read about this model has been positive. With our continually falling Aussie dollar I thought I'd best grab a 2019 model while there's still some available, as the 2020 models will be a good bit more costly when they arrive.
Mr Grumpy said:
you did it exactly the right way: choose your poison then check them out in your hand! Congrats. :dood:
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Our Col Mustard's advice, it kept popping into my head while I was searching online for stores within reach that had them in stock.
JohnnyGoo said:
I see the strings even line up perfect on the fret board to the bridge. This isnt always the case and is often over looked.
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Yes, that & the neck angle are among the first things to check on Gibson's, or any set neck guitar
syscokid said:
Perhaps a nice close-up of the bridge pup with the bridge and tailpiece that shows the string angles?
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I'll take & post one later this morning, when there's better available light.
The only planned modification for this will be locking Faber tailpiece studs & shims. All my Gibson's get these.
Cheers
 
eSGEe said:
has anyone called dibs???????????????? ;)
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Haha, this one won't be going anywhere. Gibson seems to have got their act together, with these SG Standard 61's at least. The ones I looked at were all nice, this one just spoke to me, as Col Mustard would say.
I did move my 50's tribute LP, for the same as I paid for it, providing some cash for this purchase. So now I'm P90-less. I can see maybe a pre-loved SG Junior in my future to remedy that. Cheers
 
ivan H said:
Yes, that & the neck angle are among the first things to check on Gibson's, or any set neck guitar
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I totally agree that this is a key for Gibsons. With the angles at the headstock and the angles at the bridge/tailpiece, a perfectly angled set neck is the element that allows everything else to come together. I've only had one, my Junior, where I'd consider the neck to be absolutely perfect, and SG John gave a good explanation of how the lack of neck pickup also adds to the equation. I've had two which were fine (my Special and a future tribute), but they don't quite have the mojo or perfect sounds, imho. &, I've had a couple where the neck was out, but the bridge/tail adjustments meant Gibson would consider them within 'tolerance' - nice guitars, but I was forever tweaking the trussrod and tail heiaght to try to balance it out, changes in humidity affected these guitars much more... So, yeah, the neck angle is so important on an SG - and if yours is perfect, to go along with a great guitar all round, then you're pretty close to a perfect SG there.
 
Here's a pick showing bridge height on the low E (6th string) side
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(sorry about the reflections). While the bridge isn't high there is still enough downward adjustment available to put the strings too low. The tailpiece height is good too. Strings are parallel to the top of the pickups (this isn't always the case)..
This model has the ABR-1 bridge & aluminium stopbar tailpiece. The ABR-1 is still mounted on the Nashville type studs & posts though (same as my Heritage 80 Standard Les Paul). Cheers
 
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