Been wanting one...

[charliechitlins]

Swapped for an amp.
Pretty cool guitar.
2022, I think.
Still had plastic on the PG.
Not exactly immaculate craftsmanship.
Wavy paint, some sloppy routing, wiring not exactly sanitary...
No biggy.
Sounds and plays great.
Probably the most acoustically resonant solid body I've ever played, which is saying something; I'm just not sure what.

 

[corpse]

Hysteric or USA?

 

[MarcB]

I’ve never played a Jr.. i really should try one out.

 

[gmann]

Hysteric or USA?

Not a Historic.

 

[renderit]

Hard to beat the simplicity of a Special OR a Junior, I don't think it is possible to screw one up.

I like my 59 Junior better but my 58 Special is pretty damn sweet.

They are both the real deal.

Collings built 290 DC is excellent as well. A little clearer but gets the tonez.

 

[charliechitlins]

I really like this one.
Good thing it doesn't look as green in person!
Sorry about the weird/dreadful/giant pic...but you get the idea.

 

[dwagar]

Congrats! I love Specials, I play mine more than any of my guitars.

 

[charliechitlins]

Of the dozens of Gibsons I've owned since about 1977, I've never bought a new one, but this one came with all the case candy.
I was surprised to find a strap and a multi tool with a truss rod tool on it!
A reminder that a guitar needs periodic adjustment for playability and preference.
The inclusion of this tool solidifies the fact that YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO DO THIS STUFF YOURSELF!

 

[jb_abides]

Enjoy!

 

[rockabilly69]

Congrats on your new Special I hope it brings you years of serious rocking!!!

I've owned an original vintage Junior, one vintage melody maker, a few USA Juniors, a few custom shop Juniors, two USA Specials, and one custom shop Special, I never held on to any of them because they just didn't live up to what I thought they should be, a resonant single or double P90 slab mahogany rocking machine. They were good, but I just didn't think they were as good as my other guitars, specifically my Historic LPs.

Then a few years ago, I got a 2010 Custom Shop SG Special that changed all of that. It was a barking machine! The pickups were changed to a Wolfetone Mean and Meaner set, and they are some of my favorite P90s so that was cool with me. But it wouldn't quite stay in tune, so I put a Pigtail adjustable bridge on it. It intonated better, but something changed in the tone so I tried a Music City wraptail, and bang, the tone came back, and it intonated great.
It's a screamer!

But it's an SG, and although I like that shape for slide playing, I'm more of a single cut person. And then last winter, when a few of my closest friends were buying USA Specials and raving about them, I got the single cut Special bug. I looked for a while to find a cool one in TV yellow. I wanted one with the wheat looking TV Yellow, and low and behold, my good friend, and fellow enabler, forum member Professortwang, told me about one that he found in the local classifieds. After way too many phone calls, and texts, I hooked up with the kid selling it, and damn, this Special turned out to be a beast of a guitar. It has that 50's junior honk, and a neck pickup that sounds killer. It's totally stock and I don't plan to change a thing on it. So it took me a while, but I finally landed what I'd been looking for! And this one is the best Special I've played yet and I've played a ton of them. In one of my old bands I actually played a vintage TV yellow special (owned by the other guitarist) and frankly this USA Special is that good! Abd it intonates better than the vintage one did! Gibson USA knocked it out of the park with this one!

Here's me riffing on it the day I got it...

https://soundcloud.com/daniel-weldon-1%2Fspecial-riff-time

 

[J T]

Cool guitar!

I had one of those. When I got it home, I went to adjust the neck, and the truss rod nut just spun around and around. I looked at it and the truss rod was turning too.. Ugh. I brought it back. Never really got to play it.

 

[Xpensive Wino]

My first Gibson was a '55 Les Paul Special. Wish I still had it.

 

[mdubya]

I love my 2019 Original Collection.

It never does me wrong, never sounds bad.

I am playing it today, as a matter o' fact.

 

[charliechitlins]

I have loved a couple SGs and I still love a 65 non-reverse Firebird III.
As close as I can get to a recipe for the sound I love is, solid mahogany, wraptail, P90s, hefty neck.
The more I play this guitar, the more I love it.
I may, though, need to get a "lightning bar" bridge with a little more built-in compensation.

 

[Xpensive Wino]

I have loved a couple SGs and I still love a 65 non-reverse Firebird III.
As close as I can get to a recipe for the sound I love is, solid mahogany, wraptail, P90s, hefty neck.
The more I play this guitar, the more I love it.
I may, though, need to get a "lightning bar" bridge with a little more built-in compensation.

Music City bridge.

 

[Any Name You Wish]

Well, um, I'll be the dissenting voice here. I've played a few juniors and specials and I am just not feeling it. I want to like one, but they just don't feel good in my hands. Then folks rave about them on here. I think the key to these guitars is to turn your amp up to 11. I've been known to change my mind a lot though, maybe someday it will click.

 

[dwagar]

My first Gibson was a '55 Les Paul Special. Wish I still had it.

wow. So was mine, back in about '67.

I should have kept it, but have a '57 now.

 

[rockabilly69]

I have loved a couple SGs and I still love a 65 non-reverse Firebird III.
As close as I can get to a recipe for the sound I love is, solid mahogany, wraptail, P90s, hefty neck.
The more I play this guitar, the more I love it.
I may, though, need to get a "lightning bar" bridge with a little more built-in compensation.

The Music City "The Savvy" Bridge that I put on my SG Special sounds great, but more importantly, intonates great, I also put one on my R4. I uses Tonepros locking studs on my SG and Music City locking studs on the R4, both worked fine.