1960 (SG) Les Paul Special prototype!

[fernieite]

Just stumbled upon this article. Enjoy.

This unearthed 1960 prototype reveals what the Gibson SG Special nearly looked like

Meet the SG Special's rarely seen slab body forebear

www.guitarworld.com

 

[fernieite]

This reminds me, shouldn't this forum section title be edited to 1960- 1969 SGs?
We've already seen a few examples of (SG) Les Paul standards from 1960. @MikeSlub ?

 

[blueline]

This reminds me, shouldn't this forum section title be edited to 1960- 1969 SGs?
We've already seen a few examples of (SG) Les Paul standards from 1960. @MikeSlub ?

Just to echo the above sentiment, the same shop that has this prototype Special also have a 1960 LP Standard in the new sculptured styled. It has a inked serial number in the 0-88XX range.

https://wellstrungguitars.com/guitar/les-paul-sg-standard-cherry-6/

 

[Big Al]

Prototype????
Says who?. Larry Allers designed the SG with body bevels. This is just an oddball. I don't believe this was a prototype of anything and is just another one off, possibly an employee guitar. Interesting, sure, as a good example of why the total original design was so beautiful and functional. The slab body 1958-1962 Special is much better, imo, than this slab.

 

[blueline]

You could just find out the serial number of this so called prototype and match it to the 1960 sculptured LP standard. The bevelled LP standard was already in production about 0-8000 and the bevelled prototypes were even earlier. The special has always had a different path than the LP standard picking up the SG name and sporting slab double cutaway body.. The article at one point suggests that the SG special seen here is an idea for the SG Special only to denote its lower status to the bevelled LP standard. So I don't think anyone actually thinks this Special is the prototype for Larry's bevelled LP standard design. Maybe the shop is tryng to imply this.
The shop is a little loose with the term prototype as they also promoted the 1960 sculptured LP standard pictured above as a prototype which it clearly is not.

 

[blueline]

Looking at the partially visble serial number it looks a 6 digit serial number 010xxx that would place well after the production of sculptured Les paul stamdards that are in the 08xxx. So no this is not a protoype to the standard.