Gibson SG Standard ’61 Review – Is It Worth It?

Hello there, and welcome back to yet another honest guitar review article! This time, we will look at one of my recent guitar purchases, the legendary Gibson brand, the Gibson SG Standard ’61 review!

My regulars may already know that I got an Epiphone SG Custom Ebony over three years ago and have had the chance to test it in the long term with my other electric guitars. Even though the SG design may not be for everyone and may need some improvements, I still believe it’s one of the best guitar designs in the history of electric guitars.

Check out my Epiphone SG Custom Ebony review here

They are among the easiest guitars to play and can cover a lot of ground if you like double humbucker, traditional electric guitars. Having said that, my Epiphone SG Custom Ebony developed some issues with the fretwork, and I eventually got that PLEK’ed by Thomann. Now, it plays like butter and feels very reliable.

Check out my Thomann Guitar Service review here

As I have been satisfied with my Epiphone SG for the long term, I decided to get myself a “proper” and “authentic” one and kind of wanted to end my SG G.A.S. for good!

After doing some quick research, I decided to go for the Gibson SG Standard ’61 model in Silver Mist colour. Here I’d like to share my brutally honest review with you along with lots of photos and a no-talking demo video.

As a bonus content for you, I’d like to also share a quick comparison video that I did for my Gibson SG Standard ’61 and Epiphone SG Custom Ebony which you will find in the article.

As we always do, before we dig into all the nitty-gritty details, I’d like to briefly introduce the Gibson company to those who have never heard of it.

About Gibson

Founded in 1902 by Orville Gibson in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Gibson initially focused on mandolins and archtop guitars. By the 1920s, they pioneered the L-5 model, one of the first archtop guitars with f-holes, which became a favourite among jazz musicians.

In 1936, Gibson introduced the ES-150, one of the earliest commercially successful electric guitars. Jazz legend Charlie Christian famously used it.

Production slowed during World War II, but Gibson continued innovating. The ES-175, introduced in 1949, became a popular hollow-body electric used in jazz and early rock ‘n’ roll. The post-war period saw a growing demand for amplified instruments, setting the stage for Gibson’s electric revolution.

Gibson’s transformation in the 1950s was remarkable. In 1952, they collaborated with guitarist Les Paul to introduce the Les Paul Standard, which featured a carved maple top, mahogany body, and P-90 pickups.

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This era saw key refinements, including the addition of humbucking pickups in 1957 (PAF pickups), which defined the warm, powerful Gibson sound. Other notable releases included the ES-335 in 1958, a semi-hollow design that bridged the gap between hollow and solid-body guitars, and the futuristic Flying V and Explorer models, which were ahead of their time in design.

In 1961, Gibson introduced the SG (originally intended to replace the Les Paul), featuring a lighter, double-cutaway design that provided better upper fret access. It quickly became a favourite of rock guitarists like Angus Young and Tony Iommi.

Meanwhile, the ES-330 and ES-345 added versatility to the semi-hollow lineup. Gibson guitars were instrumental in shaping the sound of the 1960s, with players like Eric Clapton and B.B. King (with his signature Lucille) bringing them to the forefront.

The 1970s saw Gibson moving production to Nashville and expanding their lineup to meet growing demand. Popular models from this era include the Les Paul Custom and Les Paul Deluxe with mini-humbuckers.

However, this period also marked a decline in quality due to cost-cutting measures under corporate ownership, leading to criticisms from players. Despite this, models like the L-5S solid-body and Marauder gained a cult following.

Facing competition from brands like Fender and emerging Japanese manufacturers, Gibson refocused on quality with reissues of classic Les Pauls and SGs. The 1980s also saw the popularity of the Flying V and Explorer among metal and hard rock musicians. The introduction of the Les Paul Studio in 1983 provided a more affordable, stripped-down version of the classic model without sacrificing tone.

During the 1990s, Gibson capitalized on the vintage guitar boom by introducing historically accurate reissues of their 1950s and 1960s models, such as the 1959 Les Paul Standard reissue. The decade also saw the release of the Nighthawk, a modern take with versatile pickup configurations.

Gibson continued experimenting with new technology, including the Robot Guitar (2007) with automatic tuning. The Les Paul Traditional and ES-339 offered modern updates to classic designs. However, the company faced financial struggles, leading to bankruptcy in 2018. Under new leadership, Gibson refocused on core models and improved quality control.

Today, Gibson thrives by embracing its heritage while offering modern innovations. The company reintroduced classic lines under the Original Collection and Modern Collection, catering to both purists and contemporary players. New signature models and collaborations with artists like Slash and Adam Jones (of Tool) continue to push the brand forward. Gibson’s legacy remains deeply intertwined with the evolution of popular music, and their timeless designs continue to inspire generations of musicians.

Gibson SG Standard ’61

Gibson’s SG Standard ’61 series pays homage to the original SG design introduced in 1961. The SG, which stands for “Solid Guitar,” was initially launched in 1961 as a redesign of the Les Paul model.

Over the years, Gibson has released various reissues to celebrate this classic design. Notably, the ’61 Reissue was introduced in 1992, offering a faithful recreation of the original model. In 2014, Gibson produced the SG Standard ’61 as an exclusive model for Guitar Center and Musician’s Friend, which was essentially a continuation of the 2013 Standard with added features like coil splitting.

More recently, Gibson has continued to offer the SG Standard ’61, featuring specifications reminiscent of the early 1960s models, such as a SlimTaper neck and BurstBucker pickups.

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They also released a series of custom colour options which wouldn’t be available within the standard series and added Silver Mist, Tobacco Sunburst, TV Yellow, Cardinal Red Burst, Pelham Blue and Translucent Teal on top of the infamous Vintage Cherry.

As you can see, I went for the Silver Mist model as I believe it’s one of the best colours in this range and really has a sweet contrast with the rest of the colours on the guitar. I also like the Tobacco Sunburst a lot, I think it can easily be one of the legendary colours on SGs. Not sure why it’s not so popular :).

Thomann made the whole process extremely smooth, as they always do, and I received my SG in a couple of days. Gibson SG Standard ’61 features a classic and much-loved thin SG body with a mahogany body and neck, rosewood fingerboard, small pickguard (as opposed to the bigger one, “The Bat Wing,” found on the Standard series), and beautiful-sounding Burstbucker pickups.

The guitar was absolutely stunning and I was welcomed with the smell of nitro finish for the first time in my life! 🙂 Before we dive into details and my review of this instrument, let’s have a quick look at the tech specs first.

Gibson SG Standard ’61 Tech Specs

As you can see from the tech specs, it’s a well-known, much-loved guitar design featuring double humbuckers. I picked up the ’61 over the Standard series mainly because of its neck profile, pickups, electronics, and some visual aspects, such as the smaller pickguard.

The initial setup wasn’t so good, as the action was pretty high for anyone’s standard, and I had to adjust it. After the guitar was settled in my living room and started becoming more stable, I wanted to record a no-talking demo video to present as many sounds as possible.

I’d like to share the no-talking demo video with you first and then go into detail about each part and section of the instrument. In this video, my Gibson SG Standard ’61 Silver Mist is plugged into my pedalboard, mostly using Boss SD-1 as my booster and my Marshall JVM 410HJS amp. I also used my CAE Wah in some bits of the demo.

As always, I used my Two Notes Captor X with Celestion G12 impulse responses and recorded the signal via my RME Babyface PRO FS audio interface. I only added Lexicon PCM Native Bundle reverb for ambience and room feel.

Gibson SG Standard ’61 Review & Sound Demo (no talking)

Gibson SG Standard ’61 Review

As I mentioned, the initial setup was pretty bad. It wasn’t in a playable state and I had to adjust the truss rod as well as the string action using the Gibson tool provided. My first impression was not the best with this instrument.

The nitro finish also kept fuming for days. Since I live in a small flat, I started disliking this feature (if it’s called a feature!). I guess this is how guitars were made back in the day and they wanted to keep this as traditional as possible.

Headstock

It comes with this traditional Gibson headstock which turned out to be way thicker than I expected. As I have been playing with Epiphone SG Custom Ebony for a long time, I was a bit surprised how much my Epi’s headstock was thinner.

I believe this looks and feels a lot more stable. The truss rod cover is without any signs and model names as you can see below. While adjusting the truss rod, I had zero issues with the adjustment and it went really smoothly.

The one I got has the serial number #213540095. According to Gibson, the serial numbers from the year 2019 to the present feature this pattern:

__YDDDYRRRR – YY is the production year, DDD is the day of the year, and RRRR is the factory ranking for that day beginning with 0001. So it reads as it was made in 2024 on the 135th day and it was the 95th guitar on that day.

Tuners

I didn’t spot any issues with these vintage tuners and they were fully functioning out of the box. However, I did notice some minor finish issues where the black paint meets the silver mist colour on the edges.

As you can see below, there are marks on the edges. You won’t feel these with your fingers though. The one drawback of this finish is that these kinds of marks and anomalies pop a lot stronger than most of the other finishes.

Silver Mist colour is pretty cool but few web stores have been able to photograph this colour correctly. Thomann unfortunately used a lot less light for this finish so it looks like this colour is grey not silver. But in person, it’s just silver.

Nut

The nut seemed to be OK at first and I wasn’t able to spot anything regarding its functionality. I spent some time until the guitar settled in. But tuning was never stable. I am not able to fully inspect it concerning the height and depth parameters to come up with a conclusion.

However, tuning stability never settled in. It was always going out of tune for a week. I think the nut was catching the strings. When such guitars go out of tune due to stretching the strings during playing, the strings usually go out of tune within a pattern.

When you stretch strings, you expect them to go flat. But sometimes a couple of strings would go sharp. That got me thinking that it’s either the nut craftsmanship or maybe even the nitro somehow impacting the nut. This is just my theory by the way. Overall, the guitar was sticky so I thought maybe it impacted the nut slots while waiting in the case for months.

Another thing I spotted was the kind of “glue” marks underneath the nut. You can clearly see shiny bits there. Of course, this is just my assumption but I think this is kind of glue or maybe nitro leftover. I have no clue and I’m just guessing here.

The last thing I’d like to mention is the marks on the nut. It’s visible in the playing position but was very difficult to catch in an image. Here’s the best shot I had below. These marks were on both sides of the nut and were exactly the same colour as the rosewood fingerboard.

Neck

The neck was pretty impressive. One of the easiest necks to play! As I mentioned, one of the main reasons I got this Standard ’61 over Standard was the neck profile. I was expecting this neck profile to be identical or very close to my Epiphone SG Custom Ebony.

However, Gibson’s one was way meatier even though both were stated as Slim Taper profiles. Acoustically, Gibson sounded fuller, fatter and warmer.

My only complaint about the neck is the nitro finish. It was the most sticky neck I have ever played in my life! After a while, you really feel it and it goes away when you wipe away the sweat with a polishing cloth. Maybe it is how these work, but I was absolutely not used to this with any of my guitars.

Fingerboard

We have a nice-looking, dark rosewood fingerboard here. It’s one of my favourite fingerboard materials and this is exactly why I tend to go for the guitars with this board.

I would say the craftsmanship was pretty good, but not perfect with the fingerboard on this guitar. There were a couple of white dots sticking on the board (very small) and also some tooling marks as well. Overall, I really liked how it sounded and felt under my fingertips.

One of the tooling marks that popped was at the end of the fingerboard. As you can see, there’s a shinny spot which looks like this was accidentally polished. But it’s not a big deal as it doesn’t impact playability.

Frets

The frets were spot on! Gibson calls these medium jumbos. It’s also the same with my Epiphone SG Custom Ebony. However, I don’t know if guitar companies have different standards for medium jumbo fret wires.

My Fender American Standard Stratocaster which was made in 2013 also features medium jumbos but I think they are not the same. With the Gibson and Epiphone, I feel like the frets were a tiny bit smaller and shallower. Maybe it’s just how the guitar makes you feel. I’ll never know! 🙂

Although I don’t see anywhere on Gibson’s website mentioning the following. In every review video, people claim that the frets are PLEK’ed. This means after the fret job is done, a machine called PLEK measures the entire fingerboard and fret heights. Then the machine levels the frets based on these measurements so the levelling is extremely precise because it’s done by a machine, not by hand.

The fretwork was spot on! No sharp edges, no dead notes or buzzing. Perfect job! I think this should be standard in every guitar but it’s definitely a costly procedure.

As you may have read my article on Thomann Guitar Service review, I got my Epiphone SG Custom Ebony PLEK’ed by Thomann. And I can easily say that the fretwork just felt identical. Of course, one should be aware that Gibson comes with this feature out of the factory so need to spend money on this.

Pickups

Here we have a pair of Burstbucker 61 pickups for bridge and neck positions in nickel cover. The pickups sound amazing and I think these are one of the best things about this guitar. They are not high-output pickups as one can guess. But the amount of harmonic content and low end is pretty spot on! I think every guitarist should experience these vintage pickups!

I hope the video I made for this article is helpful for you to understand how these pickups sound. I will also share the comparison video of Gibson SG vs Epiphone SG at the end of this article and you will be able to hear the differences.

Electronics

The electronics are pretty much a standard set for Gibsons. On Gibson SG ’61s, Gibson uses CTS pots (Gibson branded) with Orange Drop capacitors and these are all hand-wired not come with a PCB mount.

The first thing I noticed with the electronic was the moment while I was inspecting the guitar and I barely touched one of the pots to see if they rotate without any issues.

The guitar made a clicking sound and I ended up with this solder particle in the cavity! 🙂 Of course, this is not a big issue but I’d like to document the entire experience. So there we go!

Naturally, I wanted to fix that issue and remove this solder particle. Here’s a gut shot from the circuit. I think it’s a job well-done!

Here you have the standard two-volume and two-tone knobs. I really liked the setup of these knobs out of the factory as they were able to rotate without any issues. However, I never like the design of the SG concerning this section of the instrument. I think it needs a revisit.

What I mean by that is I think the output jack is unnecessarily placed next to these instead of on the side of the guitar’s body. It makes quickly controlling these really difficult.

This goes for the pickup selector switch as well. I would prefer this just like they do on Les Pauls. But traditionally, the pickup selector switches on SGs are placed down there.

Even though this is not a critical design flaw, in my opinion, it’s still annoying. But what is more annoying is how this switch is placed. As you can see, the direction of the switch is either perpendicular or angled towards the right.

This is exactly how the switch was placed on my Epiphone SG as well. However, I was able to adjust its direction by readjusting the switch in the control cavity.

But with the Gibson SG, I couldn’t do it. There’s not enough cable length and you should rework that area so I was a bit annoyed.

Bridge

The bridge is spot on! The one we like here is a standard Tune-o-Matic style bridge. One thing you may notice if you are playing a Gibson for the first time is the height adjustment part of the bridge.

It’s American style, not the one that you can adjust with a screwdriver! 🙂 The Gibson tool provided with the guitar has all the necessary tools included so you can easily adjust the height of the bridge.

Body

The body is made of mahogany and the one I got was extremely lightweight. It weighs around 2.5kg! One of the lightest I have ever seen in online reviews! Even though the Silver Mist is a solid colour, you can still see the wood grain a little bit as shown here.

I think this means the overall finish and paint are very thin. I would say a job well done for this part as well! 🙂

The rest of the section will be dedicated to the hard case and the box content with lots of images. Then we will jump to the review section and the bonus video for a quick comparison!

Hardcase

The guitar comes with a hard case obviously. But this is exactly what happened! 🙂 There was no Gibson box, instead, I received my parcel in a Thomann box and inside there was this case protected by the hard nylon packaging materials.

I’m not really sure if this is how Gibson SG Standard 61s are shipped from the Gibson factory. Maybe in a big box with multiple guitars with hardacses?

Just for your information, the case is made in Costa Rica not in the USA as shown in the label.

Some people on the internet reported that the case was too tight so it caused some damage and stains on the finish as the guitar has a nitro finish. I didn’t have this issue here.

In the hard case, you will find the Gibson tool, polishing cloth, warranty information, quality checklist and the strap.

The Gibson Tool

I think this Gibson tool included is one of the coolest things! I really like how little space it takes and when expanded it offers all the adjustment you may need to execute on your guitar!

Here’s a photo of the tool expanded fully. You can remove the truss rod cover, adjust the truss rod, adjust the bridge and do the intonation without needing anything else. However, you should be careful while using this as it doesn’t give you a standard adjustment length as with separate adjustment tools.

So be careful about applying too much force and bending the tool.

Hardcase Keys

Also, please be aware that you have the keys inside of that small, white envelope. You have two keys here and I checked both and didn’t see any issues. Both worked fine right out of the box!

Gibson Strap

Here we have the included Gibson leather strap. I believe it’s leather. Personally, I didn’t like it. There were constantly leather particles on my guitar and on my shirts while using this. I believe this is how it goes with leather stuff. I may be wrong, but I just put this right back in the case.

Gibson Polishing Cloth

Gibson also includes a polishing cloth as shown in the photo below. I think this is just a standard polishing cloth, nothing fancy. But it’s good that they include such items with the guitar.

Pre-Pack Checklist

Last but not least, you have your pre-pack checklist combined with the warranty information sheet. As I mentioned, the initial setup wasn’t pretty good so I don’t know if these mean anything to anyone.

Your guitar may come in a better setup or better quality with all the pieces I mentioned above. You will never know before you get one for yourself! 🙂

Before I provide you with my verdict, I’d like to share the quick comparison video between my Epiphone SG Custom Ebony and Gibson SG Standard ’61 as promised. I played a couple of quick guitar parts for this video, using exactly the same gear and also I adjusted the pickup heights on my Epiphone to match the factory Gibson setting.

Please check out this video as I believe this will tell you a lot!

Epiphone SG Custom Ebony vs Gibson SG Standard ’61 Comparison

Verdict

Well, after spending a couple of weeks with my Gibson SG Standard ’61, I returned it to Thomann! The main reason was the tuning stability and the nitro finish which caused a lot of fuming in my room as well as making the guitar neck very sticky!

As I mentioned, this was my first nitro guitar experience and I may sound ridiculous to complain about these issues. But personally, I didn’t like it. I think it’s a great guitar, sounds, feels and plays really well. But I would definitely change a couple of things about this instrument.

After I made the comparison video and just listened to both guitars under the same conditions, I felt like I couldn’t justify the price tag anymore. I’m not here to claim that my Epiphone SG Custom Ebony beats Gibson as it had developed serious issues with the frets in the long term and after I got that PLEK’ed, it was fine.

So still we are comparing a Chinese-made Epiphone with the PLEK feature addition that makes the guitar cost around 750-800EUR while we have an American-made, authentic Gibson, that already comes with PLEK’ed frets which cost around 1850EUR.

Mind you, after I returned it, I noticed Thomann increased the price of some Gibson SG ’61s colour options up to around 1950EUR. I think it’s about the increased cost of imports and taxes for the new and upcoming batches of imports.

I simply can not justify the price difference and the quality you get for that amount of money. So I am not able to recommend anyone to blindly pick up a Gibson version.

I think Epiphone after PLEK’ed sounded and played as fine as a Gibson. Of course, there are other factors that you need to consider such as resale value, and the quality of components and parts. But still, you can buy an Epiphone SG and invest in it. You can still save a lot of money by doing this at the end.

What I recommend to my readers is that if you are sure about the guitar design you want to buy, make that decision and buy it from Thomann. While you are doing this, also order the PLEK service and wait for your guitar. I guarantee you will be shocked by the results and save a lot of cash!

Where to Buy Gibson SG Standard ’61?

As you may already understand, I got mine from Thomann as always. I think Thomann is the best music store ever for people in the EU. No one can really beat their price tags! Even though Thomann had to increase the price of some Gibson SGs recently, it’s still very competitive.

Check out Gibson SG Standard 61s on Thomann here

Most of the other sellers on the internet and also on Reverb had already listed their Gibson SGs for a lot more money (they had to because of commissions on Reverb) when these guitars were first released.

Check out Gibson SG Standard 61s on Reverb here

I hope you have enjoyed this real guitar review article and the materials provided here. Thanks for visiting my blog and supporting me so far! I will hopefully see you in the next review here!

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