Gibson SG-X: Everything you never wanted to know!

Here's some perhaps too extensive musing I jotted down on the Gibbie SG-X (see my website where I sell guitars like this: StillKickinMusic.com):

The Gibson SG-X is one of my favorite guitars. Let’s just get that out of the way up front. The funny thing is if you had told me five years ago that I’d find a Gibson SG I’d fall in love with, I would have laughed at the idea. See I’m a Fender guy for the most part, with Tele’s being my flavor of choice.

I’ve never gone in for the classic Gibson Les Paul. And I’ve always thought the SG was perhaps the ugliest guitar on the planet. I love Angus and Townshend, don’t get me wrong, but to each their own. I just always hated the devil horns look and that fat squat body. Enter the Gibson SG-X.

I don’t even recall how I first came into one of these. But I bought one used, and well, it floored me. I had been using a Seymour Duncan JB pickup for years (installed in a 70s Telecaster Custom). I liked its thick, fat distortion sound for my rhythm playing. But the Gibson 500T pickup in the SG-X blew me away. To my ears it had all the crunch and thickness of the JB, but it had a clarity that I had been missing. I felt like I could hear every note in every chord even through its super thick sound.

The other thing I really love about the SG-X is the coil-tap switch. Without it, the SG-X would be somewhat one-dimensional. But the coil tap lets you get that single-coil sound for when you need less bark. It’s really helpful with the 500T pickup because it is such a high output pickup. For some songs you just don’t need that monster sound. I’ve heard some players remark that the volume and tone pots on the SG-X are very responsive. Though I’m not one to fool too much with a tone pot, I will say that backing off the volume on the SG-X is doable and it maintains a useful sound even when backed down a bit, unlike some guitars.

The chunky neck was another Gibson deal I had never embraced, always loving the Tele neck profile. But I grew to like the semi-fat Gibson neck pretty quickly. Lead guys might like the fact that the neck has 24 frets and is a full two octaves. For me it’s mostly a novelty, but it is kinda cool. One thing to note about the necks on these SG-Xs, is they always seem to intonate real easy, very easy to get the neck super flat and straight. The action always goes down real low without buzzing. I’ve not met an SG-X yet that was really “off” or had serious neck problems.

Here are some specs on the SG-X, which come via everythingsg.com, my favorite place to go for SG info:

BODY

Species: Mahogany

NECK

Species: Mahogany

Profile: Rounded

Truss Rod Cover: Bell-shaped cover

FINGERBOARD

Species: Rosewood

Scale length: 24 3/4"

Nut Width: 1 11/16"

Inlays: Dot

HARDWARE

Plating Finish: Chrome

Bridge: Tune-o-matic

Tailpiece: Stop Bar

ELECTRONICS

Pickup: 500T ceramic magnet humbucker

Controls: One tone, one volume, coil-tap switch

FINISHES

Dark Wineburst (1998-1999)

Ebony (1998-1999)

Limited Edition Colors

Caribbean Blue (1998)

Coral (1998)

Corona Yellow (1998)

Army Green (1998)

Chocolate Brown (1998)

Rust (1998)

The SG X began as the SG All American 1. It was introduced as the All American 1 in 1995 and was renamed the SG-X in 1998, but the specs did not change, only the name.

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I’m not going to pretend I’m an SG-X expert, I’m just throwing down here what I know and have seen after owning about 20-25 give or take, having bought them as an investment for resale.

The only thing I would question from the specs above is that the fingerboard is rosewood. Most are, but I’ve had a couple with ebony fretboards, such as this Corona Yellow one pictured above. I’ve had every single color mentioned at some point, except the elusive Caribbean Blue. (It’s my white whale of SG-X guitars.) My guess is that it’s the hardest to find. SG-Xs are, in general, not plentiful, perhaps due to the limited two-year run. The Ebony and Wineburst SG-Is are the easiest to find, and least expensive.

Of the Limited Edition colors, often referred to as Summer Beach Series colors, the Corona Yellow seems most prevalent, and perhaps most liked—for good reason. They look really good and turn heads. The Chocolate Brown is hard to find and kind of unremarkable, but I had a real clean one (which just sold) and it grew on me. The Army Green is pretty nice looking, also hard to find. Rust (come on it’s orange) are scarce and not as pretty an orange as it could have been. Actually I take back my guess that yellow is the most liked. I think Coral (come on it’s pink!) probably has the most fans, or at least most rabid. These are just my observations after seeing how fast and for how much the different colors sell. The Coral ones sell immediately for the highest price--maybe just because it’s such a wild color and people see it and just have to have it.

Other thing I might quibble with in the specs above is the final paragraph. It says that the early All American version specs did not change when the name changed to SG-X in 1998. My understanding is that one thing did change and that is the pickguard was added.

I’ve had quite a few of the early models. They were all either Ebony or Dark Wineburst, and most said “SG-I” (Roman numeral one) on the truss rod cover--often misquoted as “SG-1” (number one). But there seems to be a gray area when Gibson switched over to the SG-X name. You will sometimes find an Ebony model with an SG-X truss rod cover and white pickguard (I believe from the factory). My guess is that they made a few Ebony models with the SG-X covers before going heavy into production of the Summer Beach series colors. I’ve never, however, seen a Wineburst model that looked to have factory pickguard and SG-X truss cover.

As for naming conventions, I’ve heard the term “All-American” used to describe the early SG-Is. I’m not really clear on how those two names relate. The specs listed above suggest in the final paragraph that early models were called “SG All American 1.” I’ve heard most people explain it as they were perhaps first called the All American, then changed to SG-I. We already know something’s wrong with the listed specs because to my knowledge it was never “SG-1” (numeral 1).

I know this is minute detail, but if you really like a guitar it’s interesting to look at the evolution of an instrument and what the Gibson company was maybe thinking in the marketing and changing of features along the way. That’s it for now on the SG-X. There’s not a ton of info to be found on the web, but I’ll add more as I get it. And any readers please feel free to correct me and school me if you think I got something wrong. If you're like me and have never embraced the SG look, get your hands on an SG-X. I've learned to embrace the ugliness, and now there's no turning back. Thanks!