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Was thinking of picking up this SG at a pawn shop to play for a little bit and then flip it. Can anyone give me info? Sorry for the very, very shitty pics.




I'm more of a Fender guy, so i don't really know that much about Gibsons. The neck has been snapped and repaired. It's a set neck. the truss rod cover is 2 screw. The pickups look like mini-humbuckers. The bridge looks pretty funky too. I tried to look up the serial number (741XXX stamped on the back with Made in the USA under it) but had no luck.

Any one have any info? Thanks...

It's an "SG Special"
Looks all stock

It looks like an early/mid 70s SG Special.
The funky “harmonica” bridge is a dead giveaway, but also the pickup selector is in a different place than modern ones.
If the serial number is only 6 digits, that would also indicate Early 70s as well.

Any way to get some higher quality pics?

An SG with neck binding and mini hums??

ALLisNOISE wrote:It looks like an early/mid 70s SG Special.
The funky “harmonica” bridge is a dead giveaway, but also the pickup selector is in a different place than modern ones.
If the serial number is only 6 digits, that would also indicate Early 70s as well.

Any way to get some higher quality pics?

I narrowed it down to 1970, 1971, 1972. The initial serial number was confusing, but I was able to dig in a bit more. Found some similar ones on Reverb that match up with that time period (they are all listed as SG, not SG Special).

Sorry, no better pictures. But thanks a lot for the info. I would have never noticed the pick up placement. What makes a difference between a "SG" and "SG Special"? I noticed how funky the bridge was, are the "harmonica" bridges cheaper? Also are these "less preferred" pick ups? Between the bridge and the pups, I wondered if Gibson was making cost saving measures around this time.

Gibson was totally trying to stream line production around this time. This was around the time that Norlin took over.
The “harmonica” has a wider saddle adjustment range, so they didn’t have to be super spot on when drilling for the bridge posts.
The mini humbuckers were an effort to get rid of old stock left over from their buyout of Epiphone (see the Les Paul Deluxe) and because P90 equipped instruments weren’t selling as much as their humbucking counterparts.
Those pickups aren’t bad, but it depends on how and what you’re playing.
Because of a narrower magnetic field(due to their slimness), they’ll be much brighter than your typical humbucker.
The plus side to that is that, even with the doomiest of Muffs, your chords should cut relatively well.
And SG Specials are just pared down Standards. They don’t have as many flashy cosmetic appointments; ie, painted logo on headstock, instead of inlaid acyrilic and dots instead of trapezoids for the fret markers.

Awesome! Thanks for the info ALLisNOISE

SG Specials are fantastic guitars. Those pickups are a great in between of HBs and SC’s. Sorta reminds me of a beefier jazzmaster. Great guitars at a reasonable price.