I didn't get right down flat, but this shows it I believe...
neck and body are parallel.
No back angle. Norlin took a lot of flak for doing this to Gibson's design... they marketed it
as the "90 Degree neck pitch" which is nonsensical, and didn't help sell guitarists on the idea.
Even the case was re-designed to accommodate this anomaly... flat topped...
The SG Deluxe was discontinued after only a year in production, along with the SG Pro.
and they abandoned the "90 Degree neck pitch" by late 1972, according to John Bulli's book.
I don't know if they made Les Paul Deluxe like this, or ES-335s or other Gibson models
or if they only did it to SGs. My guess is they only did it to SGs, trying to make the joint
stronger so they'd have less complaints about breakage. Advice from the bean counters.
But this guitar rips, in spite of all the goose honking that's been aimed at it.
I'd read Bulli's book, and had read plenty of posts by players and collectors who know their way around
old instruments. And I lived through this era, but I was in the intense baby care phase of my life at that time,
and totally unaware of anything relating to the music biz. So I had never actually even seen one of these.
Never in a store, never in the hands of a player, never in a music video, ...never. Only pictures.
So you can imagine how fascinated I was to get this baby in my sweaty hands, and tune it up and
play it.
Did I tell you all that this guitar plays and sounds stunning? The feel is silky smooth, not awkward at all.
The T top pickups are like nothing else I've ever played. (I have never got my hands on a sixties SG, or on a
fifties Les Paul, or been close enough to perceive one as such). I ran the signal through a Honeytone 15 W amp
plugged into a Black Heart 12" speaker cab. No pedals. That's all I had around the shop at the time when Gene
came in with the two cases. *grins This SG balances perfectly.
What a fine, powerful sound. Both pickups had real energy, each was distinct but neither was "better..."
So the middle position seemed really fine, combining the two. The bridge pickup is full
and powerful, no tinny overtones, no ice pick, no loss of energy like some bridge pickups suffer. Just rock an roll...
I could play a whole set just using that. But I'd be missing so much!
The neck p'up has an in-your-face jazzy vibe that's smooth and seems kind of... inevitable. If that's a word that can describe music tone. I believe it is. Plenty of latent power, like a race horse waiting for the signal. Love to stomp an overdrive
with either one.
My main impression after getting to play this instrument was to wonder what all the negativity was about.
Just more clap trap from closed minded musicians. Really, a closed mind is nothing to be proud of. It's actually
a crippling handicap IMHO. Anyway, this instrument illustrates what we think of as an evolutionary dead end in
the Gibson SG story. Players urged Gibson to return the designs to their origins... SG and Les Paul. ...and gradually,
kicking and moaning and groaning, they did.
And it took them a long time to get it right. Some of our members
don't think they've ever got it right. That's not my opinion. To me, it's all about the music.
And this beast has a lot of music in it. This guitar growls, and jangles, and shrieks with raw power.]
But if you know how, a guy can play some devilish jazz on this instrument. Gene knows how. He's just
out of practice.
There were some later regrets, especially wrt the refin experiments.
