Epiphone SG Special P-90
11/09/23 05:52:30
Got this guitar new on sale for around $299. Great guitar, great tone, and very lightweight. Looks beautiful as well in the burgundy finish. Aside from the standard SG neck dive issue, my only caveats are having to adjust for truss rod as is the common issue with Gibson style headstocks with the truss rod cover, and for models like this Special, adjusting for intonation and action, as the wraparound tailpiece is a bit limiting in that aspect.
The pickups sound amazing. I love the neck P90 for cleans and soloing. Neck and fretboard are smooth, but my particular model has mediocre fretwork in the higher frets where I could feel some sharpness but could probably be easily sanded off.
For upgrades, I'd suggest getting a bridge with adjustable saddles like a Badass. The heavier bridge could also help counteract the neck dive. If you're comfortable with a bit of woodwork, you could move the strap button behind the neck to the upper horn, again to counteract the neck dive if that poses an issue for you. I'm thinking about the bridge upgrade, but to be honest I could live to the neck dive at this point.
For the price, this is a great guitar to get if you're looking to get an SG that's different from the usual humbuckers. I get that there's a certain appeal to getting P90s, and this is a good cheap guitar if you're aiming for that Pete Townshend sound. Otherwise, I'd recommend something like a Squier Jazzmaster if you want a slightly different P90 sound, but it's also very different playability wise, but a bonus is the tremolo as opposed to the fixed bridge on this one. But for a fixed bridge P90 guitar this is a very solid choice. I'd pick this over the Les Paul Special.