What does the "SG" in Gibson SG mean?

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Easto

Easto

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I was just sittin' here thinking about it and I realized that I don't know.
 
'Solid Guitar' ........pretty lame, eh?

When they first came out they were Les Paul Customs. Les' contract with Gibson was running out and he didn't like the guitars much anyway so they changed the name.

There's a great book on Gibson's history by Walter Carter.
 
I always assumed it meant Spanish Guitar, which seems to be Gibsons name for all guitars. (ES stands for electric Spanish, for instance). But Solid Guitar makes sense too.


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"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
When Pete Townsend used to smash 'em, it might have meant "splintered guitar."
 
solid guitar. it's called that because the entire guitar is only one piece of wood, the neck and the body are the same piece. other guitars at the time were seperate necks and bodies.
 
"Super Gibson" not really but it has a comic book coolness to it.
 
solid guitar. it's called that because the entire guitar is only one piece of wood, the neck and the body are the same piece. other guitars at the time were seperate necks and bodies.
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That's not so, enferno. The neck is glued on (called a set neck, as opposed to a bolt-on neck like a Fender Strat). I highly doubt the body is even a single piece of wood.
 
AlChuck said:
That's not so, enferno. The neck is glued on (called a set neck, as opposed to a bolt-on neck like a Fender Strat). I highly doubt the body is even a single piece of wood.
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i suppose i was misinformed.

sorry for the false information
 
AlChuck said:
I highly doubt the body is even a single piece of wood.
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i don't know a whole lot about the originals, but i think for a while in the beginning of the sg, the body was one piece of wood. later it was multi-piece though.

i think for a while in the 90's and up till a year or 2 ago, the standards were single piece bodies too, but i recently saw a standard in some kind of burst that was a 3 piece body. but i could be wrong, maybe they've always been multi piece and that's just the first one i've seen that was insanely obvious.

the custom shop sg's are all single piece body though.
 
I believe the correct answer is "standard guitar". It was conceived as a response to complaints about the weight of the Les Paul. I don't think even Gibson staff knew how much body material, shape, weight, and density affected the sound from magnetic pickups.-Richie
 
I always thought it meant "Super Guitar", which could be a testament to its lighter weight and "faster" neck than the Les Paul, as well as its (at the time) non-traditional body shape. Like everyone else's theories though, its just what I've been told. I do have a book around here somewhere called the Encyclopedia of Electric Guitars that might have the answer...maybe I'll have to find it and look it up.
 
They were derived out of the sucess of the double cutaway Les Paul Jr's that came out in '58. They were first called Les Paul Custom, Standard and Special when they came out in '61 and renamed 'Solid Guitar' in '63 during Gibson's Ted McCarty era.
 
One story says Les Paul did not like the guitar and wanted his name removed and another used. That is supposedly when the SG "Solid Guitar" name came into play.

Ed
 
philboyd studge said:
'Solid Guitar' ........pretty lame, eh?

When they first came out they were Les Paul Customs. Les' contract with Gibson was running out and he didn't like the guitars much anyway so they changed the name.

There's a great book on Gibson's history by Walter Carter.
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This comes from a Les Paul interview in the "American Guitars Book" (and every other interview I ever read):

The "SG" moniker means "Solid Guitar" and "Standard Guitar". Les Paul was going through a divorce at the time the "LP" was discontinued. Les Paul did not want to get into any monitary contracts until the divorce was final. When his divorce was done, the old Les Paul Guitars were being sought after by every rock star imaginable. Les Paul saw this and had to *beg* Gibson to bring the LP series back. Gibson was not going to make them anymore and thought they were not a great seller. While Les was going through his divorce, Gibson attached the "Les Paul" name to the SG series of guitars. Les was walking down the street one day and saw his name on the SG. He then went to Gibson and told them to get his name off it. It was not his guitar. So, when the SG first came out, it was called the "Les Paul Standard" l(ike the previous LPS we know). So, SG was known. officially as the "Standard Guitar" while the real letters SG (used inside Gibson) stood for "Solid Guitar". Both are really right.
 
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