Epiphone’s collaboration with blues maestro Joe Bonamassa continues unabated, with this sexy take on one of JoBo’s own favourite axes. But is a grand and a half just too grand?
The first decent guitar that this reviewer put his pennies away each week for was a white SG Custom, inspired by Alice Cooper’s original guitarist Glen Buxton on the band’s rendition of Under My Wheels on The Old Grey Whistle Test. The SG never materialised, but that’s another story. While Buxton’s Custom was the later 1966 to ’71 style with the large scratchplate, Joe Bonamassa’s own SG comes from the middle of the 1961 to ’66 era, with the small pickguard and ‘lyre’ engraved long Maestro Vibrola that appeared in ’63, just as the twin-cutaway Les Paul model changed its name to SG.
Afaithful recreation of its Gibson forbear, our Epiphone features a two-piece mahogany body with chamfered edges and pincer-like horns, the lower a touch shorter than the upper. Into this is glued aonepiece, slim-taper mahogany neck topped by a single-bound, block-inlaid ebony fingerboard with 22 medium-fine frets.
Joe’s own ’63 Gibson has a relatively unusual neck join, where it tapers smoothly into the body without the usual step. Over the years Gibson tried various methods to give this notoriously weak point greater structural integrity, and while one doesn’t see too many like this, it is a genuine Gibson appointment. The Custom’s headstock is the short Epiphone design that suits it very well. The ‘split H’ pearl inlay is a bold statement, but the five-ply headstock binding is dark orangey yellow as opposed to the creamy white of the neck binding. Apparently, this is to reflect Joe’s own ’63, but it does look a little odd.
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Powering the Custom are three Epiphone ProBucker pickups –a slightly higheroutput 3 at the bridge and twin 2s in the neck and middle positions. ProBuckers are wax potted and feature nickel alloy covers and sand cast Alnico II magnets. Although made in China, their spec is very close to that of Gibson’s own pickups. Anylonsaddle LockTone tune-o-matic style bridge and Epiphone-engraved ‘lyre’ style Vibrola tailpiece complete the picture. It’s all goldplated, too, making this one of the most opulent guitars around (“Don’t even look!”).
Of the various switching options available on a three-humbucker guitar, which obviously include neck and middle pickup combined, or middle humbucker on its own, Epiphone instead opted for bridge and middle together, wired in parallel. Due to their close proximity, and the lighter tone that the SG’s construction naturally brings, far from being an odd choice this proves to be
