A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

I had a Epi Prophecy SG with Dirty Fingers I sold a few months ago when I was in trying to cut down on my guitars. I really liked it, but it was crazy neck heavy and just felt, somehow, 'cheap'. But the neck and sound was great!

Then I saw these Gibson SG 70's tributes with Dirty Fingers and thought, that might be cool. A real Gibson with less flash than the Prophecy, but the same pickups. The Gibson SG standard that I had was probably my least favorite guitar I've ever had. The neck just didn't feel good to me, and it had terrible dive as well.

I put a bid on one at Reverb in Vintage Burst at $600 and was rejected. It was pretty, but definitely didn't need one as I just got my Agile Valkyrie. Then another one came up that was black. Late one night I put in a ridiculously low bid of $375 that I knew would be rejected. Woke up the next morning to find it was accepted!

Just arrived yesterday afternoon. It's probably the lightest of my guitars, and besides my strats I think the only one with an unbound board. The fingerboard was probably going to be one of the thickets I have, so I was very apprehensive on the guitar. I thought I'd hate the feel of the board and it would have terrible neck dive.

To my utter surprise, it's awesome! Well balanced, and I like the feel of the neck as much as any of my other guitars. And the Dirty Fingers, yes!

My first guitar was an black Epi SG in maybe 1988. It was fun, but I couldn't wait to get a Superstrat, and a few years later I got an Ibanez HSH with a Floyd that I put EMGs in. Now I'm back to a stripped down black SG. Funny how the circle turns...

I'm thinking of finding a straight black bat-wing pick guard on it. What's your thoughts, add pick guard or not??

I say keep it with no guard. Open coil pickups = no guard to me.

Beautiful Gibby!

How are the fret ends? Myself and others here have Gibson SG Tributes with very sharp fret ends. Mine is a 60s tribute and I like it very much, though only after I got the fret ends smoothed.

Regarding the pickguard, I say none. I like the stripped down look.

HNGD!

keep it black, it looks great. congrats.

I really enjoyed my 70s SG Special Tribute, but I ened up finding a 70s Firebird Tribute and decided to sell the SG since I have 2 other SGs already plus an Agile Valkyrie.

The neck profile is one of my favorite from Gibson.

toomanycats wrote:Beautiful Gibby!

How are the fret ends? Myself and others here have Gibson SG Tributes with very sharp fret ends. Mine is a 60s tribute and I like it very much, though only after I got the fret ends smoothed.

Regarding the pickguard, I say none. I like the stripped down look.

HNGD!

Must be they do better work on the lefties. across the 3 tributes I've owned that were new, not one had an issue with the frets...

That's a real player. I had a black SG that I used exclusively when I played with a singer songwriter for a couple of years as a side project in the early 2000's. I ran it through an old Univox tube head into a really old 1x12 Yamaha PA speaker cab that was converted to a 1x12 guitar cab. That was one ratty looking rig but the tone was to die for. This was a roots rock sounding group and it worked nicely. It became the sound for that group. SG's are great, I think if I ever do another "electric band" project I will break out my SG because they are lighter than an LP.

Great Score!!
Congrats!
I say leave it stock.

+1 for leave it stock. These are lean, mean rock machines and need to look the part.

Yeah, that's a looker, and doesn't need anything extra. Rock it! HNGD!

honyock wrote: ↑Fri Jun 12, 2020 9:09 am

toomanycats wrote:Beautiful Gibby!

How are the fret ends? Myself and others here have Gibson SG Tributes with very sharp fret ends. Mine is a 60s tribute and I like it very much, though only after I got the fret ends smoothed.

Regarding the pickguard, I say none. I like the stripped down look.

HNGD!

Must be they do better work on the lefties. across the 3 tributes I've owned that were new, not one had an issue with the frets...

If I remember correctly, I could swear [mention]tobijohn[/mention] was one of the others on the old forum that commented about the sharp fret ends.

toomanycats wrote:

honyock wrote: ↑Fri Jun 12, 2020 9:09 am

toomanycats wrote:Beautiful Gibby!

How are the fret ends? Myself and others here have Gibson SG Tributes with very sharp fret ends. Mine is a 60s tribute and I like it very much, though only after I got the fret ends smoothed.

Regarding the pickguard, I say none. I like the stripped down look.

HNGD!

Must be they do better work on the lefties. across the 3 tributes I've owned that were new, not one had an issue with the frets...

If I remember correctly, I could swear [mention]tobijohn[/mention] was one of the others on the old forum that commented about the sharp fret ends.

maybe I have just got the luck, it is not like I get the pick of the litter...

The only place I've seen more than 1 of any left handed Gibson was at Manchester Music Mill. Though the Firebird I got there was the only one I tried (love at first sight?), they had at least 3 in storage that they posted for sale about 6 months after I bought mine.

nothing but sexiness there! I wouldn't change a thing on it (except maybe the tuners).

dirty fingers scream in an SG

HNGD!

I was thinking of getting some locking tuners, maybe something to keep the head stock light, like gotoh stealth locking tuners. Thoughts?

What a steal, man. Congrats! I was just thinking ‘wouldn’t it be nice if I knew someone with an SG and Dirty Fingers who could share some clips.’ What are the odds?

Very nice, really doesn't need anything. If you decide to add a pickguard, you might want to consider the "small" 3-layer (BWB) SG guard. I think that would look good, too!

Great score, congrats. I guess I’ll be ‘that guy’ and vote for a pick guard. While some guitars look ok w/o pick guards, I have always felt that a guitar just looks “normal” to me with a guard.

Either way, looks good!

I hate the batwing guard. The small guard is nice but on a black guitar just leave it alone.

It's beautiful, and what a score!! Enjoy it

No pickguard needed, but it sure would look mean if only the neck pup had a cover..

SGs are simply amazing when done right. The cheap ones don't balance well, or can often use the wrong neck joint (more like an LP). But when you get one that's balanced, man they are rock and roll machines

I tend to like an SG better without a pick guard.
I also tend to like black guitars better without a pick guard.