Gibson SG Supreme Electric Guitar with ‘57 Humbuckers

June 3, 2007 by Jo Minor 


The Gibson SG Supreme Electric Guitar with 1957 Humbucker pickups is a modern classic. It has all the charm of the vintage Gibsons from the 1950’s, and sports a gorgeous gloss finish in Emerald burst, Midnight burst (a rich dark blue), Fireburst (sometimes called “Lavaburst” - graduated colors from red and orange to yellow), and transparent black. All of the beautiful finishes highlight the woodgrain beneath, making these guitars some of the most attractive you can buy.

The SG Supreme is not inexpensive, retailing for just over $3000. It’s suited to clean and distorted playing, but isn’t really designed for metal.

The Gibson SG guitars began when they designed the Les Paul with cutaway horns and a thinner body. Although the guitars were well received by the public, Mr. Paul himself was not so fond of the changes and had his name removed from the product. Gibson came up with the name SG to indicate that they are “solid guitars.” The changes were made because sales were slipping - why else? The Les Paul guitars had the classic 50’s style body with a single cutaway, while the new SG style guitars had a sculpted look with two pointed horns at the double cutaway.

Many of the greatest rock guitarists, such as Pete Townshend of the Who and Eric Clapton have picked the Gibson SG Supreme as their electric guitar of choice.

Advantages: This is a really beautiful guitar. The finish is real lacquer instead of polyurethane. This yields a slightly less than perfect finish, but a guitar that sounds better than one finished with poly. It’s well balanced and not too heavy. It has a thicker sound than the other SG’s, but not so thick as the Les Paul guitars, if you are trying to pick from several Gibson electric guitars.

The ‘57 humbucker pickups provide the sound that has characterized a whole generation of rock ‘n’ roll music. These classic heavyweight pickups perform in an amazing way because they are composed of Alnico II magnets, nickel-plated poles pieces and slugs, vintage enamel-covered wire, maple spacers, and two-conductor braided wiring. This makes for incredible sound- whether you’re going for clean tones, sustain, or crunch.

This is a classic all the way, with a slim tapered maple neck that dates back to 1959. The shape of the neck gives the guitar a fast feel. The maple top on mahogany body in one reason for the rich resonance and good sustain. The tone is one of the best. The maple-mahogany structure is why this is so, because the maple reflects sound instead of absorbing it.

Disadvantages: Obviously, the price is going to keep some people from playing a Gibson SG Supreme electric guitar with ‘57 Humbuckers. Some critics say that it’s not any better sounding than a SG Classic which costs over $1000 less.

The nitro lacquer finish can scratch, but a luthier can take care of any cosmetic imperfections for you. One reason the SG Supreme looks so sharp is that it doesn’t have a pick guard. This could be seen as a disadvantage by some guitarists.

For best results, this guitar needs to run through a tube amp and not a solid state amp. The solid state amp will cause it to lose much of its great tone. And occasionally a guitarist will find the SG Supreme not right for them at all and consider it a waste of money. Some have found it not balanced well, with two much weight in the headstock. This is more of an issue if you like to play sitting down, or if you don’t want to have to support the neck in between songs during your gigs.

Specs:

  • Body top made of AA grade flame maple
  • back of mahogany
  • mahogany neck
  • slim tapered neck in the style of the 1960’s
  • Neck joined at the 22nd fret
  • Cutaway horns make accessing the higher frets easy
  • Split diamond inlays
  • Single-ply head binding
  • Ebony fingerboard
  • 24 frets
  • Scale length of 24.75 inches
  • 1.695 inches wide at the nut
  • Singleply head and fingerboard binding
  • Gold plated hardware on Emeraldburst and Fireburst
  • Chrome hardware on Transparent black and Midnightburst
  • Stopbar tailpiece
  • Tune-o-matic bridge
  • Black Top Hat control knobs with inserts
  • Grover kidney tuners
  • Two volume controls, two tone controls, and a three way switch
  • Two classic ‘57 humbucker pickups
  • Brite Wire strings, .010 to .046
  • Comes with a black reptile case with dark gray plush lining

Here’s a well-written article called “Horny Devils” which tells all about the history and develpment of the Gibson SG electric guitars. And if you’re a Pete Townshend fan, here’s a little info on the Pete Townshend Signature SG from Gibson guitars.

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