The first guitar I ever owned was the Gibson SG Special. I first saw this guitar in Pete Townsend's hands in a Scholastic magazine in high school. Remember, back in the late 60's early 70's, there was no internet and very rarely could you find a picture of a guitar (back then I thought a Les Paul was a French named guitar!).

I knew I had to have this guitar! When I decided to take lessons, I asked the music store if they could find one. I didn't want a cheap acoustic to learn on, I wanted a Gibson. Low and behold they found one on consignment for me to check out. When I opened the case, I saw it was refinished from cherry to a type of mahogany stain. I also noticed three holes below the bridge where the original tremolo unit was attached. Like most SG's of the period, the trem unit was removed and a bar tail piece added. My dad ponied up the 200 bucks and said it was my graduation present.

It was weird going to guitar lessons with an electric guitar. The teacher played an acoustic. He would teach me songs by James Taylor, Jim Croce, America and Jose Feliciano. Strange playing acoustic songs on the electric. Anyway after a year and a half of lessons, I struck out on my own to learn rock guitar. I would hole myself up in my bedroom and learn songs off of a three speed record player and I played the SG through an old PA tube amp my dad had lying around. I can still feel the shocks it would give me every once in a while.

I wasn't even sure what year the guitar was made in. I wrote Gibson a letter after I bought the guitar and received an answer that it was manufactured in 1962. Later on in an internet search, I found it was really a 1968 model based on the size of the pick guard. Who knows.

I still have that SG Special. Over the years I refinished it a number of times. Now it's Camaro Blue (I had one back in the 80's and had some leftover paint). I also cut the pick guard to accommodate two humbucker pickups and tried a refret on the neck. Some day when I get a little extra cash, I will have a luthier refinish the guitar to the original condition (Luckily I saved the original P-90 soapbar pickups).

Until next time, visit my website at Electric Guitars Rock!