I Hate SGs, But This One Got Me Anyway
Epiphone IGC 1964 SG Standard Reissue with Maestro Vibrola
I was never an SG guy. They never appealed to me, I found them ugly, awkward to hold, body too thin, the neck too thin, just not my cup of tea at all. Then one day I thought "hey, that one with the tremolo looks interesting" and things derailed from there.
Obviously, even though I liked the guitar, that didn't mean I wanted to pay Gibson prices, much less Gibson Custom prices. I wasn't aware of the IGC version because for some reason Thomann didn't have it, they only had the triple humbucker, which is something I still dislike, whether it's an LP, SG, or whatever. So I started looking around and found it available online from some vendors, but I just wasn't convinced. Then all of a sudden one day, checking Gibson, I found they had it on sale, and as usual, weak knees got me, had to buy it. So here's my experience.
Epiphone IGC 1964 SG Standard Reissue with Maestro Vibrola
Anyway, I ordered the guitar, and with super fast shipping from gibson.com it was at my door within a week, more or less. Picking up the box I noticed it was heavy. After unboxing and taking the guitar out of the case, it felt weird, terrible weird, I'm talking super heavy weird. I started playing it and it felt nice, good resonance, beautiful looking, but the weight kept worrying me. Took it to the scale and boom, 4.8 kg. That's almost 5 kg for an SG? Nah, this can't be right. But the guitar had good sound, still though, it was weird. Then I took it to my amp, started playing properly, and found the guitar probably had some issues on the way to me, a few frets had marks from the strings, like the box tipped forward and the strings dinted the frets. So with that issue plus the weight, the guitar had to go back to Gibson.
After a short while I got another one, and I explicitly told them to send me the lightest possible. I got one at 4.1 kg, still heavy, LP weight, but hey, I liked the guitar, no issues, it's just perfect, the craftsmanship is top notch, sounds good, looks good, a keeper I thought. So it stayed with me, which meant taking it to the workshop for a proper setup and review.
Epiphone IGC 1964 SG Standard Reissue with Maestro Vibrola
Like I said, the craftsmanship is outstanding, mind you this is my 4th IGC, so it's not like I don't know their quality, but some are special, and this one is just beautifully made. In particular the finish is glossier than the rest of my IGCs, but still not fully glossy, yet it looks so good and somehow doesn't pick up too many fingerprints.
The neck is very comfortable. Now, if I had to pick my perfect neck I'd always go for thick and very round over anything, but that doesn't mean I can't play a guitar that isn't. This is one of those cases where the neck is slimmer than what I prefer, and not as rounded either. Apparently on the Gibson Custom version of this exact model the neck is much thicker, but I've never held that neck so I can't compare or say which is better. What I can say is it feels wider and meatier than the neck on my IGC DC LP Special.
Hardware works fine. Like I've said in my other posts, I'm not a purist, don't claim to be, and have no reason to become one. So if it's not vintage accurate, or not the "right" one for the model, I really couldn't give less of a fuck about that. My only concern is whether things work and look like they'll hold up to use, and in that case the hardware is fine.
Speaking of hardware, the elephant in the room is the Maestro Vibrola. It works fine, if the nut is set up properly it holds tuning. Now, I have to be honest, the reason I like this guitar so much is because it looks so good with the Maestro Vibrola. That said, I'd much prefer if the system could exist without the arm. Yes, Thom Yorke, for example, takes the arm off, but I'd prefer an adapter that keeps everything as is minus the arm. The reason is I like having the arm out of the way, but when it's out of the way it ends up in my way, because I use the controls a lot when I play, and the arm just bothers me there. Guess the only way around it is taking the arm off. This guitar doesn't need an arm, honestly, and no tremolo system can match the Jazzmaster system, no discussion.
Pickups, well, this is just another Epiphone IGC with Custombuckers. Some people like them, some hate them, some buy Custom guitars and then swap them out, and the list goes on. Me personally, I wouldn't touch this guitar. Good electronics, good pickups, so why mess with it? Now, I have to be honest about something. A set of these Custombuckers goes for 498€, supposedly reserved only for the Gibson Custom lineup. By putting them in a cheaper line of guitars, Gibson is either saying they're not that hard to make, or they're not that good. My take is these pickups are sold with a really high profit margin, meaning they go for 498€ but cost about the same to make as any other pickup. So isn't Gibson devaluing the price of their own pickups by doing that? And by saying that, aren't they adding overvalued pickups to cheaper guitars just so they have an excuse to charge more for them?
Okay, so the guitar is good, sounds good, looks good, feels amazing, etc, but should you buy it? Well, if your aim is the Gibson Custom version of this, honestly I don't think that guitar is 3k€ better than this one, but this guitar isn't a Gibson. So is the cheaper Gibson version of this SG Maestro Vibrola better then? If you're in the USA, maybe you can find a used Gibson SG Maestro Vibrola for close to what this guitar sells for new. Here in Europe, the cheapest new Gibson SG '61 Maestro is 2k€, or 1900€ for the faded version, so that's about 800€ more, and those come with Burstbuckers. I paid 1200€ for this, and I think the guitar's worth that money in today's market. Sure, maybe it's expensive, but unfortunately it's priced to match the market. These are items we buy because we can, not because we need them. So if this price seems fair to you, it's a good guitar for the money. And if you tell yourself you'd prefer a Gibson, go for it, but it won't be much better, sorry to tell you that. I get it if you'd rather go for the name though.
Hope this helps any of you deciding whether to buy this or not. Use what you have, and have what you use.
