NGD - 50's Tribute SG in Vintage Sunburst

[shamu1]

Check out the new axe. This baby just arrived today:

I've been wanting an SG with P90 pickups for a while, but I could never find one in my price range that I liked, until I saw this; it was sold as "old new stock" and marked down significantly.

I haven't plugged it in yet, but I'm hoping it sounds as ferocious as the ones I've seen in video demos.

 

[LeadFinger]

"I haven't plugged it in yet, but I'm hoping it sounds as ferocious as the ones I've seen in video demos."

It will.

Congrats!

 

[Biddlin]

Nice score,Dude!

 

[shamu1]

I just finished playing this guitar for about a half hour through an amp. I'm a "just plug it in and play" guy, no distortion or effects, so I spent most of the time on a clean setting. The clean tones sound incredible - nice crisp, ringing, glassy tone that I look for in P90 pickups. It sounds great, and makes a really nice alternative to all the humbucking guitars I have.

As for overdriven/distorted tones, not so impressive. This is fine with me, since I'm not a rock or heavy metal player, but I was really looking forward to coming home and banging out a few nice brutal power chords on this axe. Overdriven, the guitar sounds muddy, even mushy, without the cutting, grinding tone I was hoping for in the mid range. I know a lot of people think P90s don't do distortion well, but I've seen some great demos of this guitar cranking out slashing power chords. Oh well. Could be the amp, I don't know. I'll have to try it on one of my other amplifiers to see if it makes a difference.

Anyway, this guitar is definitely a keeper. The other guitar I have with P90s, an Epiphone Riviera P93, doesn't have anywhere near as much bite on clean settings as this one does, so this one gets a thumbs up from me.

 

[Heavy Garden]

wow, really?
that's a bummer all of my P90 equipped Gibsons love my dirty ways and sound great with as much dirt as i can throw at them
i use a clean Fender amp so maybe that helps me
guitar looks great either way
enjoy it

 

[LeadFinger]

Hmmm, I get the same super-impressive clean mids you get. Was blown away by that, kind of not expecting that. But I also get a great sound in overdrive. No mud whatsoever. That's on a shty little practice amp, though.

One thing I noticed on the 50s Tribute was the string height being a tiny bit higher than on the SGJ. Maybe 1.9 mm, or a few tenths higher at the 17th fret. So, perhaps the strings need to be a bit further away from the pickups?

These are my first P90s so I don't know just how sensitive they are to PU height nuances. On my strat it made a big f'ing difference to move the Fat 50s pickups down just a tad. Really big difference on those particular single coils, especially the middle one. Went from CHICOM nasty to about the finest, articulated sweet tone I've been able to muster on anything.

You need to hear that overdriven growl on the 50s Tribute, though. Don't be denied! Man, is it like good coffee in the morning.

 

[Biddlin]

Seriously, bro, I can't get mud out of my P-90s.
I'm puzzled. +1 adjust the pickup height.
Work the eq on the amp and see if that solves it.

 

[shamu1]

I'll try lowering the height of the pickups. I usually end up doing that with most new guitars I've bought. I say "mud" because it lacks that ringing clarity I've heard with other P90 guitars overdriven.

 

[LeadFinger]

You'll probably get satisfaction with a few tweaks. I watched some of those demos, too, and was surprised to get those qualities with mine, even through a crap amp.

Was the finish on yours nicer than you expected? My expectations were lowered by some of the wankers pouring online contempt on this geetar. But, man, is it a nice finish for a lower priced SG.

 

[shamu1]

You'll probably get satisfaction with a few tweaks. I watched some of those demos, too, and was surprised to get those qualities with mine, even through a crap amp.

Was the finish on yours nicer than you expected? My expectations were lowered by some of the wankers pouring online contempt on this geetar. But, man, is it a nice finish for a lower priced SG.

I can't say the finish was nicer than I expected - I was expecting it to look beautiful, and it didn't disappoint. I'm a sucker for dark natural wood finishes on guitars, and the photos of this guitar made me drool.

I didn't know people were trashing this guitar online. I wonder why. Because it's not as expensive as a Custom or a Standard? This is a great guitar.

 

[LeadFinger]

"I didn't know people were trashing this guitar online."

There weren't that many user reports, but those were mostly positive. A couple of people had what seemed to be legitimate QC issues. Others were just gong off on "they didn't make SGs in the 50s, man!" The insidious comments were from people claiming to have played it, but now I see quite obviously, hadn't.

I just wanted to get some feeback before I pulled the trigger, and wham. seems that the clever thing to say is that anything Gibson does is wrong, a-historical, clueless, terrible! Unbelievable vitriol, so from now on the only research I'm doing on a Gibson is right here.

 

[CHall1525]

Great looking guitar!! You guys are gonna push me over the edge on getting a SG with P90s.

 

[eS.G.]

The people trashing it obviously fail to read the word "tribute" in the name.

 

[shamu1]

Well, I lowered the pickups a bit, and it did make some difference in the sound. It's a little cleaner and clearer sounding now, so thank you guys for the suggestion.

I also think it could be my ears and my brain. I'm 44, and I haven't played a guitar with distortion on a regular basis since I was 18. So I think part of it is that my ears and brain are taking time to re-adjust to the sound of distorted guitar.

 

[Biddlin]

"I didn't know people were trashing this guitar online."

.... seems that the clever thing to say is that anything Gibson does is wrong, a-historical, clueless, terrible! Unbelievable vitriol, so from now on the only research I'm doing on a Gibson is right here.

I just posted on another forum, where a genius was questioning whether Gibson really made all their branded guitars in the USA. After the usual Gibson bashing and some assurance of their pedigree,
"Thank you f'or the responce. I knew they where made in Tenn. I was just hoping they didn't jumped ship like the rest of these companies did. My 40 DSL was made there"
With the kind of crap the company takes on countless other fora, including their own, how could one blame Henry if he sold the whole lot to Yamaha? Would the whining stop when every finish was flawless and the bindings were perfectly off-white? I'll bet they could even teach the robots to do nibs.
;>)/
Sorry for hijacking the thread.

 

[Biddlin]

Well, I lowered the pickups a bit, and it did make some difference in the sound. It's a little cleaner and clearer sounding now, so thank you guys for the suggestion.
.

I played with the pickup height on my Classic for a few days to get the bass/treble angle and the bridge/neck balance where I liked it.
;>)/

 

[LeadFinger]

Well, I'm just looking at the pics of shamu1's beautiful 50s Tribute, and looking over at mine, and it gets me a bit pissed off when I read all the Gibson bashing around the webs.

For fks sake, this is an American company building great products. Surviving this lousy economy, and here we are enjoying the fruits of their labors. I don't think many of us here are rich guys, either. Says something.

I'll add my apology for hijacking!

 

[WoodenDuckMaker]

P90's should definitely rock with heavier tones. Tony Iommi pretty much started heavy metal with his P90 SG, and Pete Townsend made one of the best live rock album with his.

May be worthwhile to put a set of Seymour Duncan antiquity P90's in there.

 

[shamu1]

To Biddlin and Leadfinger:

I too am sick of all the Gibson bashing. Seems to me that a lot of the people bashing them are cork-sniffing snobs who collect vintage Gibson guitars, who are merely trying to one-up the rest of us plebians who can "only afford" modern Gibsons. You know, as if paying $1000 for a guitar is like buying a cup of coffee on the way to work.

Same kinds of people who seem to think that it's more important to own a '59 Les Paul than to just spend time practicing and becoming a better player. Like you can buy talent or buy technique. I'm a lot more impressed with someone who can sound awesome on a $180 Squier Affinity Strat than some poser who thinks he's hot **** because he owns a 1956 Gold Top.

Seriously, these days I find that there are few truly bad guitars being manufactured. I've played a lot of excellent $200 guitars. The only truly bad guitar I've owned was one of those Fender Deluxe Player Stratocasters. What a piece of **** that was.

I just hijacked my own thread.

 

[shamu1]

P90's should definitely rock with heavier tones. Tony Iommi pretty much started heavy metal with his P90 SG, and Pete Townsend made one of the best live rock album with his.

May be worthwhile to put a set of Seymour Duncan antiquity P90's in there.

I gotta say I'm pleased with the stock P90s in this guitar. If I turn down the distortion and just slightly overdrive it, the guitar produces a great old school, classic rock tone reminiscent of Tommy-era Pete Townshend. Gotta love that.