2002 SG Special Faded White?

[Drew.palmer]

I just picked up this 2002 Gibson SG Special Faded. I can’t find any other examples that are white. I’m wondering if it has been refinished but I’ve removed the strap buttons and the backplate and it looks like a factory paint job. Has anybody s en a white one? I know there were 3 pickup versions I think in 2006-08 but this is a 2002 2 pickup version.

 

[cerebral gasket]

Welcome to the SG Special Faded Club.
That is freaking awesome!

It has an ebony board.
Can you post a full view of the fingerboard?
I'll bet it has crescent moon inlays.
Very rare indeed if factory finish.
It appears to be original finish because the stamping on the back of the headstock is not flooded with paint.

Check the pickup cavities.
The neck position will have the initials of the original finish color.

I have only seen the moon inlay versions from 2002-2003 with Worn Brown and Worn Cherry factory finishes.

In the past I had four of these at one time:

2003 Worn Brown (moons)
2003 Worn Brown (dots)
2004 Worn Yellow (dots)
2004 Worn Ebony (dots)

Since they were duplicate guitars, I sold three of them and kept the Yellow.

 

[arcticsg]

Congrats, Happy NGD!

...and welcome to the board!

 

[Drew.palmer]

Welcome to the SG Special Faded Club.
That is freaking awesome!

It has an ebony board.
Can you post a full view of the fingerboard?
I'll bet it has crescent moon inlays.
Very rare indeed if factory finish.
It appears to be original finish because the stamping on the back of the headstock is not flooded with paint.

Check the pickup cavities.
The neck position will have the initials of the original finish color.

I have only seen the moon inlay versions from 2002-2003 with Worn Brown and Worn Cherry factory finishes.

In the past I had four of these at one time:

2003 Worn Brown (moons)
2003 Worn Brown (dots)
2004 Worn Yellow (dots)
2004 Worn Ebony (dots)

Since they were duplicate guitars, I sold three of them and kept the Yellow.

Thanks for the reply and the welcome!

It does have the crescent moon inlays and Ebony fingerboard. I took off the pickguard and didn’t see any initials of any color but am more convinced it’s the original finish because I don’t see any evidence of any other finish.

 

[papagayo]

Welcome !

First time I see a white SG Special with Crescent moon inlays, cool SG for sure.

 

[cerebral gasket]

Thanks for the reply and the welcome!

It does have the crescent moon inlays and Ebony fingerboard. I took off the pickguard and didn’t see any initials of any color but am more convinced it’s the original finish because I don’t see any evidence of any other finish.

The white finish on that model is awesome. You got a rare one. First year issue and non-standard color for that model to boot. The ABR-1 bridge is also a plus for some folks. I have never seen one of these finished in white with the moon inlays before. Very cool.

That finish looks original. You can see bare wood in the cavities, no signs of any previous color.
Sometimes they mark the cavities and sometimes they don't. Pictured below are the markings on my Worn Yellow (WY).

 

[Drew.palmer]

The white finish on that model is awesome. You got a rare one. First year issue and non-standard color for that model to boot. The ABR-1 bridge is also a plus for some folks. I have never seen one of these finished in white with the moon inlays before. Very cool.

That finish looks original. You can see bare wood in the cavities, no signs of any previous color.
Sometimes they mark the cavities and sometimes they don't. Pictured below are the markings on my Worn Yellow (WY).

Thanks for the pic, I wasn’t sure exactly what I was looking for! The yellow looks awesome on these too. I had only seen brown, cherry and ebony before.

 

[cerebral gasket]

Thanks for the pic, I wasn’t sure exactly what I was looking for! The yellow looks awesome on these too. I had only seen brown, cherry and ebony before.

Sure thing. The markings are usually handwritten. You got a keeper with that white one. What kind of Duncan is in that bridge? Usually a small sticker on the bottom of the baseplate.

 

[Drew.palmer]

It’s kind of funny, when I was picking it up I wasn’t sure exactly what model it was, wasn’t expecting a rare variant. I kind of specialize in rare-not more valuable than not rare-guitars.
I also have a Guild D25 rare surf green, a Fender HM Strat with rare HS configuration, a Guild X500t the t version was the rare one, a Silvertone 1451 and a Kalamazoo KG1.

 

[Drew.palmer]

Sure thing. The markings are usually handwritten. You got a keeper with that white one. What kind of Duncan is in that bridge? Usually a small sticker on the bottom of the baseplate.

SD Screaming Demon In bridge with SD ‘59 in the neck.

 

[cerebral gasket]

I kind of specialize in rare-not more valuable than not rare-guitars.

But if the guitar inspires you to play then it is priceless.

 

[sazista]

Yes, that is a one of a kind. I have never seen one either. Of course, not everyone is as sick as us and take fricken tons of pictures of their guitars, so there is possibly a ton of white, mooned, faded models out there, and who knows, maybe even other colors that Gibson shot out just to finish off some left over paint colors they had before embarking on the brown/cherry. The white color goes well with the moons. SCORED!!!!
My octopus prefers yours.

 

[Lunacy the Faded]

SD Screaming Demon In bridge with SD ‘59 in the neck.

AWESOME SG special you got there!! Mine has the same bridge pick up too, must have been popular in the early 2000s!

 

[Col Mustard]

Gibson maintains a web site where you can report the serial number of your guitar
and they will tell you when it was made and what it's original color was.

That ought to answer all your questions. But I believe you've found yourself a prize.
it's been modded with Seymour Duncan p'ups so it won't retain value like it would if it
were all stock. But maybe the original owner installed those for good reason.
The original equipment was Gibson's 490R and 490T pickup set. Player's often dis
these Gibson pickups, so the SD pickup mod is not too unusual. Those pickups probably cost
about a third of what the guitar is worth.

The ebony fretboard and crescent moon inlays were a short lived Gibson innovation.
Anti-Muslim sentiment and propaganda in 2003 forced Gibson to discontinue the Cresent Moons,
because they weren't selling. Hopefully now, all the bull-shite will soon be history
and we can play a guitar with Crescent Moons on the fretboard without any bullies
accusing us of being soft on terrorism.

 

[Drew.palmer]

Gibson maintains a web site where you can report the serial number of your guitar
and they will tell you when it was made and what it's original color was.

That ought to answer all your questions. But I believe you've found yourself a prize.
it's been modded with Seymour Duncan p'ups so it won't retain value like it would if it
were all stock. But maybe the original owner installed those for good reason.
The original equipment was Gibson's 490R and 490T pickup set. Player's often dis
these Gibson pickups, so the SD pickup mod is not too unusual. Those pickups probably cost
about a third of what the guitar is worth.

The ebony fretboard and crescent moon inlays were a short lived Gibson innovation.
Anti-Muslim sentiment and propaganda in 2003 forced Gibson to discontinue the Cresent Moons,
because they weren't selling. Hopefully now, all the bull-shite will soon be history
and we can play a guitar with Crescent Moons on the fretboard without any bullies
accusing us of being soft on terrorism.

I can’t find anything about the serial number telling you original color but thanks for the tip I’ll keep looking. Interesting story about the crescent moon, I had no idea.
It’d be easy enough to restore it to all original but I’m not under any illusion that a unique color 2002 Special Faded SG would ever be of any collector value, just an oddity. A really cool oddity.

 

[Drew.palmer]

AWESOME SG special you got there!! Mine has the same bridge pick up too, must have been popular in the early 2000s! View attachment 32809

How do you like the screamin demon? Mine sounds pretty thin next to the ‘59 but it may just not be optimized height or set up right just yet. I’m looking forward to messing around with it to get the more st out of it.

 

[cerebral gasket]

I can’t find anything about the serial number telling you original color but thanks for the tip I’ll keep looking.

Serial numbers from 1977-2013 (8-9 digits) will only indicate the Year, Julian Date, Batch, Rolling Production Number of the guitar.

http://www.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/serialnumbers.aspx

 

[lawrev]

Welcome to the SG Special Faded Club.
That is freaking awesome!

It has an ebony board.
Can you post a full view of the fingerboard?
I'll bet it has crescent moon inlays.
Very rare indeed if factory finish.
It appears to be original finish because the stamping on the back of the headstock is not flooded with paint.

Check the pickup cavities.
The neck position will have the initials of the original finish color.

I have only seen the moon inlay versions from 2002-2003 with Worn Brown and Worn Cherry factory finishes.

In the past I had four of these at one time:

2003 Worn Brown (moons)
2003 Worn Brown (dots)
2004 Worn Yellow (dots)
2004 Worn Ebony (dots)

Since they were duplicate guitars, I sold three of them and kept the Yellow.

This worn yellow could be my next SG!

 

[Lunacy the Faded]

How do you like the screamin demon? Mine sounds pretty thin next to the ‘59 but it may just not be optimized height or set up right just yet. I’m looking forward to messing around with it to get the more st out of it.

It is a very thin sounding pickup make sure it's wired correctly inside the cavity-- mine had gotten funky inside by the time I got it so I redid almost the whole signal chain. The pinch harmonics with high gain the pickup produces are insanely well voiced.. I have decided it stays in mine. Sounds great for a mix definently would stand out.

 

[Lunacy the Faded]

I just put treble bleed kit on my volume pot which is an Emerson pro and it sounds killer, the tone pot is gibson but the capacitor I put in is .022 orange drop

If the humbucker is thin it's not high enough to get the mids so adjust it yknow