Limited Editions?

You can't swing a cat without hitting something that is "limited edition" these days. Manufacturers are sticking the "limited edition" stickers on everything, from cars to coke (automobiles to Zima?), in the hopes that we'll convince ourselves that we're just as special as the 500 other schlubs down the street.

Guitar makers aren't any different. Fender wants to believe that every guitar or amp is the naturally blonde Japanese unicorn - a rare prize reserved for those of discriminating taste, now available for slightly more than the standard model (which is a regular Japanese unicorn, in case you're wondering how the metaphor works).

Epiphone is into redheads.

Suffice to say, "Limited Edition" production guitars should be taken with a grain of salt. Limited edition salt obviously.  Regular salt is for losers.

Hold the salt here though.  This one is actually pretty cool.

Gibson SG Limited Edition (1996)

This isn't Angus Young's guitar.  No Heritage Cherry body, no black guard, no chrome hardware. Instead we get blue and gold, combined with the pearly-est looking guard ever seen on an SG.  Add some velvet curtains and a well stocked bar and we're in Persian night club territory.  Sexy, right?

Sexy and empty apparently.

The Devil with the Details

It's pretty clear that this guitar began life as an SG Special - a stripped down version of the SG Standard.  That means no trapezoid inlays, no neck binding, and a silk screened logo on the headstock.

An aside: Remember those "gothic" SGs of the nineties that continued to appear after "gothic" wasn't cool anymore?  The only inlay was still the little moon at the 12th, but they finished them in faded brown and took them to rehab to get off the smack. They were still Gothic SGs, but it was like they got jobs and weren't as fun to hang around with anymore.

Strange then, that this stripped down version of a classic would get the makeover treatment.  In this case it works though, and the combination makes for an SG that stands out from the sea of faded brown and red SGs that clog the market (thanks Gibson).  Gold hardware has never been my first choice, but here it ads a great contrast to the deep blue of the guitar.   In fact, lots of Google searching has failed to even turn up what this colour is called.  

Colour: Either "Fabulous Batman" or "Robert Smith's Dreams"?

Even the pearloid pickguard, which is a questionable decision at the best of times, works here.  Had the dots been replaced with the trapezoid inlays, the whole thing may have come off as just too much.  Here we get a nice balance.

Walks like a duck, talks like a duck

It should come as no surprise that this plays and sounds like an SG (well duh).  The neck is a big 50s profile, the pickups bark, and everything else is as it should be.  The SG is so often is associated with Angus Young riffs that SGs can come off as boring.  Great guitars, but so boring.

Not this one though.  A bunch of choices that nobody would associate with this guitar come together to make something a little out of the ordinary, and something that would definitely grab my attention on Kijiji.  Too bad there seems to be so few of them around.

No, he's not selling this one.

Really Internet? The only video of this guitar is below.  Guess what band he is clearly a big fan of?

If you've ever seen one of these or know more about them, let me know in the comments.