Cheap vs Expensive

[TheToiletStore]

Im looking into SGs. I played the cheap special faded Gibson sg, and the standard in stores and I could tell a difference.

I looked at gibson.com and they had the same sizes, body wood, fretboard wood. The only thing different besides the looks was the pickups.

Would they sound the same if they had the same pickups, or am i missing something.

Im kind of new at guitars

 

[Metalman_666]

Re: Cheap vs Expensive

I think it's just the pickups, especially if the wood is the same for everything. The actual quality of the individual wood pieces could vary too.

 

[big_black]

Re: Cheap vs Expensive

First off the finish is going to make the two sound different. The exposed grain may give you more of the woods true sound at the expense of cosmetics. There will be less attention to the frets, and fine details overall in the Faded. I haven't cracked on open, but the pickups and electronics will probably be the same. The fretboard is bound in the Standard, the Faded is not. You have inays on the Standard, non on the Faded. As stated above, the wood will be of less quality. There are some Fadeds out there that do have one-piece bodies though. They are good guitars if you find the right one and budget in some money for fret work.

 

[RushOfBlood]

Re: Cheap vs Expensive

yeah my suggestion would be to play as many of them as you can and find the one that stands out the most.

 

[DeadSkinSlayer3]

Re: Cheap vs Expensive

I will say that I went to try an SG Special in silver yesterday, and never even got to the amp. The back of the neck was TEXTURED, like roughly! It was disgusting!

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Cheap vs Expensive

I will say that I went to try an SG Special in silver yesterday, and never even got to the amp. The back of the neck was TEXTURED, like roughly! It was disgusting!

+1. I'd recommend you buy a used Standard.

BTW, welcome to the forum

 

[theodie]

Re: Cheap vs Expensive

I think the fadded SG's have the same pickups. Personally, I would buy a faded one. With Gibson, no matter how much you spend, you run the risk of buying a shoddy guitar with shoddy fretwork.

BTW, I love your user name "toiletstore". Is there a hidden meaning to it?

 

[big_black]

Re: Cheap vs Expensive

I think the fadded SG's have the same pickups. Personally, I would buy a faded one. With Gibson, no matter how much you spend, you run the risk of buying a shoddy guitar with shoddy fretwork.

Yes you do. If you measure them side by side, most of the differences are mainly cosmetic and not tone changing.

 

[MattPete]

Re: Cheap vs Expensive

I will say that I went to try an SG Special in silver yesterday, and never even got to the amp. The back of the neck was TEXTURED, like roughly! It was disgusting!

Was that a Special, or a faded? I tried a faded, but I couldn't get over the texture, so I went with the more expensive Special (also, the 490t bridge pickup suited my purposed more than the hot bridge in the Standard).

 

[seanguynj]

Re: Cheap vs Expensive

the natural burst standard SG is so freakin HOT imo. but i'm not sure of the playability/tone differences in different models so i guess it's upto you

 

[Blue Calx]

Re: Cheap vs Expensive

BTW, I love your user name "toiletstore". Is there a hidden meaning to it?

heh, you should go watch Anchorman.

 

[TheToiletStore]

Re: Cheap vs Expensive

What do you mean by fret work?

ps. blue calx is right. its anchorman

 

[danglybanger]

Re: Cheap vs Expensive

What do you mean by fret work?

ps. blue calx is right. its anchorman

take it to a guitar tech. tell them to level/polish the frets.

"Faded"fretsseem to be boxy and sharp for some reason... other than that, they seem to be decent guitars.

...I just never liked the finish (no aged gibson looks like that at all) and never liked that style of big SG pickguard (the pickups look cheaply mounted to me, not a real turnoff... just not really appealing IMO)

slade

 

[Lu_B]

Re: Cheap vs Expensive

What do you mean by fret work?

I can vouch for Gibsons shoddy fret work. Bought a brand new LP in Honeyburst an absolute looker that I liked the sound of. Played it in the shop etc.

Got it home, played a bit more and more but noticed that evertime I played a D chord my finger would drop off the E string causing the string to fall off the fretboard.

Examined the nut and it looked not correctly spaced, so took it to my tech and he said the nut is off but only by a couple of thou on the E string but the real problem is that the edges on the first 5 frets have been chamfered back too far. Solution to the problem is a refret!

Shouldn't happen on a £1450 guitar!

 

[rinse_master]

Re: Cheap vs Expensive

Shouldn't happen on a £1450 guitar!

Ouch!, I guess I got fairly luck with my LP? I have played better though, I have to say...