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The Gibson Tribute is a Standard/Special Sg minus the Binding and pickup covers both not that important anyway great craftsmanship and love the Maple neck tone and feel is fantastic with the 490R and 490T humbuckers.. lightweight all around fantastic Sg

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After sending back 3 SG Standards and a few Les Pauls I FINALLY got a great SG tribute. It came perfect no set need just tuned it up and away I went !!! Fantastic guitar only thing don’t waste your time trying to put on the poker chip because Gibson doesn’t give you a long enough toggle switch nut to catch the Threads on the dogs which chip is too thick so I had to order a longer nut from stew Mac I’m waiting for it to get here other then that it’s a great guitar……if Gibson really wants to it can put out dynamite products!!!!

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I just received my SG Tribute Thursday and I am very impressed. This is a no excuses SG. In my opinion they nailed the neck profile. It has a super low action too. The tech in me always comes out when I get a new guitar. The neck needed a slight truss rod adjustment and I got the string height. I oiled the fingerboard twice - it was very dry. Just like my LP Tribute was when I got it. I dressed the fret ends and slightly rounded the edge of the fingerboard. I plugged the guitar in and it does not disappoint. It has that SG snarl and bite. Chords and single notes alike are thick and well defined. To put it simply, it is 100% Gibson SG in every way. There were not many flaws, but there are a couple of issues. There were a few fret ends that were kinda sharp. The neck angle is the steeper one they started using at some point around the year 2000. The steeper angle makes it necessary to raise the bridge pickup so high that their base plate is showing. That also means that the strings go over the pickup at such an angle that there is no way to have the pickups parallel with the strings without taking the whole assembly off and bending the pickup legs at an angle to make it the pickups level with the strings. There is a little problem with a seam between the neck and the fingerboard. This one is unnoticeable while your playing. Lastly, and this is the one that really annoyed me; the toggle switch traditional with a recessed nut. Instead, it has a short threaded post and a nut that barely catches the threads. There is a black poker chip included with the guitar that is impossible to install unless you shell out $25 for the proper Switchcraft SG toggle switch. I’m sorry, but this is an issue for me. The poker chip was obviously intended to go on the guitar. Gibson’s customer service doesn’t care. They will only provide you with links to dealers who will sell you the switch. They almost did it. They delivered a near perfect product but just couldn’t put the cherry on top. Customer service is just somebody reading off a script. Don’t expect any help.

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This is a very well made guitar! The one I received was already set up. There were no sharp edges from the frets. You could play golf with this guitar and it won't go out of tune. It doesn't have the sustain my LP Standard has, but it still sounds great. It has been dubbed a great "beginner" guitar, but I think it's a great guitar in just about anybody's hands.

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this is all ya need . . it is everything one would expect from Gibson ! this guitar is by far a great value if not Gibsons best bang for the buck . .490's are killer tonal monsters and the action can be set as low as you like due to it's factory plek job . . the awesome satin guitar finish breathes resonance into your mid section . . GREAT GUITAR GET ONE

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It's a kick ass rocker. Though I changed the strings to 9's. Made a huge difference to me. This ax shreds. Killer quality. Yay USA made. You have one in ur hands for 5 minutes u wont wanna put it down .I love it.Rock On!!!

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I have been playing for over 50 years. I own a Maple Topped Les Paul that cost a fortune. I originally decided to get an SG as a lighter, easier to maneuver Les Paul. Man, was I wrong. This guitar is absolutely the perfect solid body rhythm guitar. I don't know how they did it, but the body resonates like a semi hollow guitar. The neck pickup has as much bite as the bridge. This thing sounds fantastic even unplugged. I wish I'd have gotten one years ago.

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After sending back 3 SG Standards and a few Les Pauls I FINALLY got a great SG tribute. It came perfect no set need just tuned it up and away I went !!! Fantastic guitar only thing don’t waste your time trying to put on the poker chip because Gibson doesn’t give you a long enough toggle switch nut to catch the Threads on the dogs which chip is too thick so I had to order a longer nut from stew Mac I’m waiting for it to get here other then that it’s a great guitar……if Gibson really wants to it can put out dynamite products!!!!

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Just delivered a half hour ago, only took one day. zZounds is the best in the business and I can't even imagine doing business with another company. I bought this axe as a beater to practice on so I don't have to use my expensive guitars. It's not as pretty as the Specials and other entry level SG's Gibson was churning out between 1982 and 2014, but it plays and sounds marvelous. It has the nice rounded neck that fits comfortably in the palm of the hand, and has extremely low action on the strings. Only drawbacks are the fretboard edges are sharp and the fret ends need a little filing, but that's nothing that can't be quickly remedied in an hour. All in all the question comes down to whether or not it's worth the price asked for it. Well that's a subjective opinion so I'll leave it alone and up to the purchaser, however, since the build quality will enable this instrument to last virtually forever, and the playability and tone are exceptionable and it has no nose dive I'll say yes, with inflation etc. it's worth the price tag.

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This is very nice guitar! Last year I ordered a 2019 SG standard that turned out have some QC issues. I sent it back and ended up getting a Gibson TV yellow special that's turned out to be the best guitar I've ever owned (go figure) but I still couldn't get the SG jones out of my system so I decided to order one of these tributes. I have always like the stripped down looks of the faded specials of the past but I never pulled the trigger on one. These new tributes look to be very similar to the old faded specials but I think that they've done some minor cosmetic upgrades to them. I like the lighter walnut stain on these tributes more than the darker worn brown specials. They also added a silk screen Gibby "thistle" to the head stock which really doesn't mean much to me but I guess it makes it look a little more like a standard. The satin or "vintage gloss" finish looks a little different than the old faded specials to me. It looks more like a semi gloss than the matte finish they applied to the faded specials. I may be in the minority but I like the looks of this SG more then the fancy but boring "cherry" or "ebony" of the standards. I like the visible texture of wood grain and the lighter shade of walnut stain they used on these tributes. The wood on mine was very well matched on the front. On the back you can tell that they used two, maybe three, pieces of mahogany for the body but from the front it looks like one solid piece of wood until you get right up on it. The fretboard on mine was dryish and needed a lemon oil treatment but it wasn't as bad as the fretboard on my Special. There were also no tool marks from dressing the neck binding (because there is none) like there was on my special. I feel as though this guitar would look better with nickel pickup covers and reflector knobs so I will probably add those as an upgrade. The "poker chip" was included in the gig bag but not installed on the guitar. I will probably leave it off as it makes the control area look cleaner and allows more of the beautiful wood grain to show through. The frets and dot makers were well done with no sharp ends. The fretboard played great and the frets appear to have been "plekked". Setup was great and ready to rip right out of the box. Tuning stability was good after I changed the strings and stretched them in good. Pots and controls seem sturdy and responsive. The satin maple neck felt nice as far as the texture but it was a little fat and wide for my liking. I was expecting it to be more like the neck profile on my Special which is fatter than a slim taper but it just fills the web of my hand, between my thumb and forefinger, and doesn't impede the "thumb over top" playing style that I use quite a bit. This SG has a flat area on the back of the neck and thicker shoulders and I fell like it favors more of a thumb behind the neck playing style that jazz players and shredders tend to prefer. It's not a thin "shredder" neck like an Ibanez but the flat spot on the back and thick shoulders made me have to shorten my strap and play the guitar higher up on my torso than I like in order to play some songs but I soon got used to it so it's not that big of a deal. The upper fret access was hindered IMO by the thickness of the shoulders and width of the neck which increases the farther up the neck you get but I use this guitar more for heavy rhythm playing so, again, it's not a big deal to me. If Gibson would improve the neck profile on this guitar I feel as though it would be a much more versatile guitar but then it would compete with higher end SG's so there ya go. The 490s in this guitar are very good pickups IMO. They are slightly hotter than PAF in output with prominent vocal like mids to my ears; great blues-rock p'ups for sure. They are noticeably lower in output than the P90s in my special which is okay because I use pedals to compensate for the differences in tone and output when switching between guitars during a set. They 490t in the bridge is probably my favorite. It can go from a jangly, chordy, rhythm to crunchy power chord riffs using the volume knob on the guitar and it retains clarity and definition when playing heavyish drop D rhythms with more gain. My LP Special is my go to guitar for playing "chordy stuff" (which is about 90% of the time) and soloing but the SG comes out when I need more chunk to my palm muted drop d riffs although the 490s are bright and articulate enough to do do the chordy stuff too. I use this guitar to do a drop D version of "Copperhead road". I play Steve's mandolin riff in the middle position then switch over to the bridge pickup after the "smell the whiskey burning" part and it sounds great never muddy or harsh. It also does the lower gain double drop D Neil Young rhythm stuff very well. The "soft case" that came with this guitar is the same as the ones that you get with the regular Standard. It's very nice as far as "soft cases" go I suppose but, IMHO, it's still not much better than a gig bag in function in that does not offer the same level of protection that a hard case does but at the price point these tributes are going for I feel that that's acceptable because it leaves some spare change in my pocket to get a proper hard case which is a must when traveling with my guitar. So if you're looking for a stripped down Gibson to add to your arsenal I can highly recommend this SG tribute. The thinner nitro finish to me is a plus and trapezoid fret markers won't make you play or sound any better; just ask Toni Iommi, Frank Zappa and Pete Townsend.

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This guitar is ok. I expected better for a USA low end model. The finish and neck are great. But the pickups are kind of week and the fret ends on my $200 dollar Kramer baretta special are better, and it has more bite. At this stage i would have been better buying an Epiphone standard.

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