Guild S-100 Polara

MARCH 2019 TOTAL GUITAR
THE TG TEST
101
T
hings you probably know about
the Gibson SG Standard. Angus
Young of AC/DC loves them. So
does Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi,
Robbie Krieger of The Doors, and
Modfather Paul Weller. If you’re
up on your Gibson history, you’ll
be aware that the SG was the
replacement for the original poor-selling
single-cutaway Les Pauls. The SG was named
the ‘Les Paul’ on its launch in 1961. It was
rechristened the SG [aka ‘Solid Guitar’] in 1963.
What you might not know is that the SG
Standard is the biggest-selling Gibson solidbody
of all time. Players discovered that something
magical happens when you whack two
humbuckers into a lightweight mahogany body.
It didn’t take long for other manufacturers to
pick up on it too. That’s why the latest Gibson
SG, the 2019 Tribute wasn’t born into a vacuum.
Tough contenders like the Yamaha Revstar
RS620, LTD Viper-400M and Guild S-100 Polara
take some of their design cues [mahogany
construction, 629mm [24.75"] scale length,
great upper fret access] from the SG. They also
intend to divert your attention from the guitar
that made their existence possible in the fi rst
place. Let’s see how they get on...
SG-STYLE ELECTRICS
UNDER £900
TGR316.gear_test.indd 101 31/01/2019 19:19