Known today and forever after as the SG Standard, the guitar that replaced Gibson’s biggest endorsement model in 1961 was a complete redrawing of the blueprint. The original Les Paul Standard of 1958 – ’60 – with two humbucking pickups, a single cutaway and a sunburst finish on its carved maple top – is recognized as one of the all-time classic solidbody electrics today, but its sales were flagging in the late ’50s, and in fact the instrument wouldn’t be fully appreciated until a handful of British blues-rockers picked it up in the mid 1960s.
A major departure and a landslide of a hit, the SG Standard has remained in production continually since its release in 1961. Click here to read the article. Credit: Gibson.