One of the '63 SG Specials That Pete Townsend Didn't Break!

This 13-inch-wide SG Special weighs just 6.60 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of 1 11/16 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Solid mahogany body, one-piece medium profile mahogany neck, and bound rosewood fretboard with 22 medium jumbo frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo. Two-layer (black on white) plastic truss-rod cover. Closed-back "single-line" Kluson Deluxe strip tuners with white plastic oval buttons. Two very hot P-90 pickups with outputs of 7.71k and 8.02k. Five-layer (black/white/black/white/black) plastic pickguard. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way pickup selector switch, all on lower treble bout. Black plastic bell-shaped knobs with metal tops. The potentiometers are stamped "134 6202" (Centralab January 1962). Compensated "wrap-over" bar bridge/stud tailpiece and Gibson "Maestro" Vibrato tailpiece with "Walrus-Tooth" handle. Nickel-plated hardware. This totally original guitar is excellent (8.50) condition. The cherry finish on the top, neck, and sides has faded to more of a brownish color. There is a very small stress crack on the treble side of the neck joint, but this is a very old surface crack and does not appear to have moved or worsened for many, many years. There are a few surface marks on the edges of the guitar and on the back of the neck. It is possible that the guitar has been expertly refretted. The P-90s are super hot and the guitar plays like a dream and sounds fantastic! Housed in a later Epiphone deluxe four-latch black hardshell case with gray plush lining (9.00).

"The Les Paul Special was introduced in 1955 as an intermediate model between the regular Les Paul guitar and the lower-priced Junior and TV instruments. Like the latter, the Special underwent two successive body redesigns in 1958 and 1961 while the Les Paul affiliation was discontinued in late 1959. The model was then renamed SG Special without any apparent changes in the specifications other than the removal of Les Paul markings. Overall four variants of the Special can be distinguished between 1955 and 1965...The first variant is primarily characterized by its single cutaway thick-body otherwise similar in shape to the contemporary Les Paul Junior and TV. Up to 1958 the single-cutaway Special was listed exclusively with a limed mahogany finish...In mid-1958 a restyled double cutaway Special was first shown but the new variant was not shipped in quantity until 1959...Simultaneously, the Special became available in cherry red in addition to the limed TV finish, whose shading was changed to a more opaque banana-yellow colour...The double cutaway Special was listed as a Les Paul for less than a year, and in the pricelist dated 1st November 1959 the model appeared as the SG Special. All the specifications remained the same save for the removal of Les Paul markings on the headstock and the installation of an enlarged one-piece guard covering the area between the front pickup and the fingerboard...In early 1961 the SG Special was revamped with the ultra thin body design pioneered on the Les Paul Standard, but most of the other specifications remained unchanged. The model was fitted with a restyled 5-ply black pickguard and by the end of the year a new bar bridge featuring pre-set compensating ridges for better intonation became a standard appointment...By 1965 the (short) Gibson Vibrola tailpiece, so far available as an option, became a standard appointment of the Special" (A.R. Duchossoir, Gibson Electrics -- The Classic Years, pp. 211-212).