EpiphoneSG Special Electric Guitar, Cherry

I decided to buy an SG, mostly for sentimental reasons, because the SG was the first guitar I ever played. I was about 12 or 13 years old at a neighbor's house who owned the guitar. I think the only song he knew was "Jumping Jack Flash" by the Rolling Stones.When I held the guitar in my hands I was in a state of awe as I had never held a guitar before. After a few moments of fumbling around, as if by magic I actually began to play some lead guitar that was probably rudimentary, but musically coherent melody. Similar experiences have happened throughout my life, when for brief moments I was able to do the impossible, as though a transmission directly from my unconscious to my conscious mind.My neighbor-friend was in a state of shock because he had never been able to play lead guitar and I who had never even tried to play guitar before was actually playing. After a couple minutes, he demanded I return to guitar to him out of jealousy and fear and never let me play it again.He had turned me on to Black Sabbath which I loved and went out and bought "Paranoid" and "Volume 4". I did not actually begin to learn how to play until several years later, when my uncle gave me a garbage Japanese acoustic guitar that could not be tuned because the bridge was ripping off the face of the guitar.I developed a love and passion for the guitar, especially after hearing Jimi Hendrix several years later, so my guitar obsession naturally shifted to the Stratocaster.Here I am, more than half a century later and my love of the instrument has only grown. I currently have a collection of 27 guitars of all types and makes and this Epiphone SG is the latest addition to the collection. I was not expecting much from a cheap guitar, but figured that it would be a good instrument to modify and transform to a first class instrument, as I have done with many guitars and basses.When I opened the box I was not disappointed and although it felt cheap and light (6.2) Lbs, and likely neither mahogany or alder as advertised the fit, finish and color is over all, excellent which is common for cnc manufactured instruments which virtually eliminate human error.After tuning, I plugged the cable in to my 2 amp system my pedal board divided with 2 independent pedal chains dedicated to each amp, I was pleasantly surprised. It felt great and sounded as good as it looks, I decided that I am not going to change the pickups because they sound great.As I expected, with all cheap guitars, the tuners are absolute garbage which I will change and will make a few other modifications (I bought a roller bridge for under $13.00 delivered from ebay and quality Chinese made locking tuners from Amazon), I am going to make a custom nut out of a brass rod and modify the kill switch on the tone pot to eliminate the excessive noise and replace the plastic fret markers with abalone. Eventually I may change the pots and tone capacitor, but am leaving them for now, because: "if it ain't broke. don't fix it".Its kind of amusing how as much as things change on some fundamental level they remain the same. As my musical tastes matured and expanded far beyond rock and classical music, to Jazz, Flamenco, Indian, Arab, African, Japanese, Chinese and every form and idiom imaginable, I recently returned to listen to Black Sabbath who I had dismissed decades ago as adolescent and irrelevant only to remember why I loved them in the first place and realized exactly how great a guitarist Tony Iomi is and his contribution to rock as one of the originals. While I hate heavy metal, I love Tony's playing.Derek Trucks, the great Slide Player of the Allman Brothers was part of my desire for an SG style guitar and I can tell you that while I would have preferred real mahogany, I am really glad I bought this guitar because cheap or not, it is a great guitar that is fantastic for slide.

I couldn't be more happy with the guitar. It looks and plays very nice,

Wow! This guitar is amazing. The Cherry Red version looks like sex as a guitar. Awesome finish, and since it's an Epiphone it handles and plays like a Gibson. I have a small collection of good guitars, but this instantly became my favorite because of how it plays. I'm loving this guitar!

I'm a total newb, just learning to play at 54 years old. I bought my first guitar based on Amazon reviews, it is the 3rd best selling solid body on Amazon. I was nothing but super impressed by the quality, sound, and packaging. Even the guitar tech that did the setup said it was way better than what I paid for it. So, I thought "why not get a name brand that's also made in China?" Well, I wish I'd purchased the Leo Jaymz version of an SG instead.This guitar didn't come in a gig bag surrounded by laser cut foam like the Leo Les Paul did, just a single cardboard box with some cardboard drop point protection. Luckily no damage. The action is very high, it will need a pro setup more than my Leo Jaymz Les Paul did. The tuners have a lot of gear slack in them and have a very unique screw pattern, replacing them will mean drilling the headstock and leaving the old holes exposed or using Hipshot tuners with the ugly plates. But the final nail in this guitar's coffin is the output jack. I can't get a clean signal unless I put pressure on the cable. Beyond that the overall finish doesn't compare to the Leo (which is like glass), it doesn't have pickup covers and it doesn't have separate pots for tone and volume like the Leo version SG.In short, I spent $50 more for a brand name with fewer features. I'm going to spend at least another $100 or more to fix the issues and dress the guitar up a bit with chrome pickup covers and rings.Oh well, you live and you learn. This one will likely end up a wall hanger and replaced with a Leo Jaymz SG.Edit: I bumped this up from 3 to 4 stars. The noisy output seems to be either my cord or amp. After trying a small headphone amp simulator I no longer had to hold it to get clean signal. The tuners seem to be holding tune after a week, they still display gear slop, but if you slowly tune "up" so you don't have to back "down" and start over, they hold tune decently. Still, at bulk pricing Epiphone could have put Grover style 18:1 tuners on this for about a $5 price increase. At least you wouldn't have to drill to replace them if that wasn't good enough.

I don’t anything about guitars. I bought this for my son only because he wanted a guitar so I trusted the reviews for this one . It seems to be well built and it looks very nice. We just need to find out what the knobs are for and how to use the cause turning them doesn’t seem to make a difference in the sound.

Very nice plays well looks great. No issues would recommend

For this relatively small amount of money, you get an unexpectedly lovely, heavy, well-balanced guitar with about the best neck you could wish for, and if you’re ok doing minimal action and intonation setup yourself you will be very happy with your purchase. Stays in tune as well a $1200 Strat. Pickups are great but I’m putting some P-90’s in it. Nothing to lose.

It is a nice guitar for the money. We knew we would need to pay for set up, so that was okay. But we also had to have the fret board filed, as it was cutting his hand when he player. Also one of the tuning screws was broken and needed to be replaced. We paid as much as the cost of the guitar for the set up and repairs. Now that he has it playable, he loves it. The sound is good and the guitar fits his hands well. I would give it more stars if nit for the fact that it actually cut his hand up.