When the SG body style took over from the single-cutaway Les Paul in 1961, several variations came along with it. The original SG Custom embodied Les Paul’s ideal for the “black-tie” guitar, but even its elegant appointments pale in comparison to the looks and features of the new SG Deluxe, a stunningly upscale SG from Gibson USA. Rather than let dressy Les Pauls have all the fun, the SG Deluxe adds a Grade-AA figured maple top to a versatile feature set that includes three humbucking pickups, Bigsby™ tailpiece, bound headstock, and bound 24-fret rosewood fingerboard with Deluxe split-diamond inlays, along with locking Grover™ tuners. Four finish options in stunning high-gloss nitrocellulose—Lime Burst, Cobalt Fade, Orange Burst, and Red Fade—complete the totally Deluxe package.Like the greatest SGs ever made, the SG Deluxe starts with a foundation of solid mahogany, a tonewood with a long tradition at Gibson, then tops it with a Grade-AA figured maple top for a look more often associated with Les Paul ’Bursts. The body is crafted in the distinctive, thin asymmetrical dual-cutaway style, with iconic pointed “horns” and beveled edges to enhance playing comfort. A solid, Grade-A, quarter-sawn mahogany neck is glued into the body in Gibson’s time-tested tradition, and carved to a fast, slim ’60s profile that measures .800” at the 1st fret and .875” at the 12th. It is topped with a bound fingerboard made from genuine Grade-A rosewood with 24 medium-jumbo frets and split-diamond inlays, and finished in a bound headstock with split-diamond inlay. The SG Deluxe takes its firepower from a trio of 57 Classic humbucking pickups, some of the most popular recreations of vintage PAF humbuckers available today. These great pickups use genuine Alnico II bar magnets and are wound with 42-AWG enamel-coated wire, for the characteristic blend of warmth and creaminess that made original PAFs legendary. The control setup looks traditional, but hides a clever “TogPot” around the three-way pickup selector, which let’s you blend in the middle pickup as desired, enabling myriad sonic variations. To anchor it all down, Gibson USA loads in a Bigsby™ vibrato tailpiece with a set of genuine Grover™ locking tuners. All in all, and the SG Deluxe presents a great incarnation of the iconic original SG, and a superbly versatile, great-looking guitar that truly lives up to its name. Each guitar comes protected in a plush-lined hardshell case with black exterior, owner’s manual and truss-rod wrench, and comes covered by Gibson USA’s Limited Lifetime Warranty and 24/7/365 Customer Service.
