I know I know I know, it's not really NBD since I got this bass several weeks ago, but cut me some slack I've been a very busy boy. So, without further ado:
GIBSON SG STANDARD BASS in HERITAGE CHERRY!
Whew! Please excuse the crummy iPhone pics.
So this is the bass I've always wanted; I've been drooling over photos of it since before I started playing 12 years ago. I know there's an old saying, "never meet your heroes", so when I heard these were finally being offered left-handed I was a bit apprehensive about ordering one. But after doing a ton of research online into what these are actually like to live with, I figured I had sufficiently tempered my expectations and threw down a deposit at Southpaw. Overall, after several weeks I am very happy with the bass! I'll go ahead and list some general pros and cons:
PROS-Just freaking look at it. Go ahead, scroll back up and look at it some more, why don't you? It's an achingly beautiful instrument from top to bottom.
-It plays really really well! I was a bit surprised by this, actually. Owing in part obviously to it being a short scale bass, it plays incredibly low and fast and constantly makes me feel like a better bass player than I actually am. Bravo Gibson!
-The sound this thing makes is MEGA. Commonly people like to dump on this bass for sounding muddy, but I can't honestly understand what these people are on about. I feel like the SG is very woody and thumpy with tons of personality; listening to recordings of rehearsals I can hear this thing shining through the mix and it always makes me smile. ANY hint of muddiness can easily be remedied with even the most basic access to EQ.
-The build quality and fit and finish are excellent. One-piece body on this particular instrument (I did a fist-pump in celebration when I first saw it) and the finish is very evenly applied. The knobs and tuners feel very smooth and high-quality. It's also very light and easy on the shoulders and back.
-Freaking look at it! It gets double points for how mind-bogglingly good looking it is.
CONS-Neck dive. NECK DIVE. Holy moly I've never experienced such tenacious neck dive, even on my Fender Jaguar. This (despite claims to the contrary by many on this forum) is considered a common issue among these basses. I know I could get a 27 inch wide suede strap to solve the problem, but I don't want to look like a total dork so instead I bought a really fantastic looking vinyl strap from Couch that's taken from the interior vinyl from an 80's Mercedes Benz. The bass is so light overall that it doesn't really put any kind of strain on my fretting hand. Instead it becomes an issue if I ever let go of the neck for any reason. I'll figure out a solution sooner or later.
-The bridge, while quite nice looking, is set about a half inch too close to the neck and to get the E string properly intonated I have the saddle sitting so far back it's main point of contact is with the windings at the very end of the string (this is another common issue to the bass) . This has had an effect on the tone and the intonation, and my band mate is building a hard wooden dowel to put at the back end of the bridge to extend the string ends far back enough to get the windings off the saddles.
-You know how I mentioned how good the fit and finish was? Well, like nearly all instruments I've owned, there are a couple small fit and finish issues. There's a small chip in the finish on the G string side of the fretboard (the nitro lacquer extends up to the sides of the fretboard BTW). However, because it's on the G string side I can't actually see it while playing, and even though I know where it is I can't feel it when I'm playing either. There's also a small blemish in the chrome on the neck pickup. These are small issues however, and as I gig regularly (not to mention the fact that the SG has a nitro finish) I'm sure I will have added my own blemishes to the finish in no time.
Once again, overall I am very happy with the instrument. Yeah, it will take some work to get it up to my usual standards, but that's been par for the course for nearly all of my instruments (I put a rather embarrassing amount of time and money getting my Fender Jaguar to my liking, but that's another story). I think it will stand alongside my beloved Atkinson P very nicely both for live gigging and in the studio. Excelsior!
EDIT: Some people may wonder why I was willing to shell out an extra $800 for the Heritage Cherry when the Faded version is essentially the same exact instrument but in a faded finish and without the inlays. I can't exactly logically justify springing for the Heritage Cherry, and I nearly went for the faded instead (the main bonus being that the faded will wear better). I could say that from my research I knew that the fit and finish of the more expensive model tended to be better, and that it was usually made from a 1 or 2 piece body, instead of 2 or 3 pieces for the faded, but that's certainly not worth $800, is it? The fact is, the Heritage Cherry is quintessentially the bass I've always wanted, and that was more important to me than anything else. What's a few hundred bucks in the grand scheme of things?
