Guitar of the week #95 - Epiphone "1961" G-400 PRO in Metallic Gold

Gold, gold, gold.

One thing most Gibson guitar designs take to very well to is gold. Whether the finish is flat gold or metallic such as the guitar seen here, the Epiphone "1961" G-400 PRO in Metallic Gold, it just works.

The G-400 PRO is a guitar I've mentioned before so I'll just give a quick rundown of the specifications.

Where Epiphone model names are concerned, "Plus" means fancier woods and "Pro" means fancier features. This means the G-400 PRO uses a standard mahogany body with mahogany neck featuring SlimTaper profile, and the electronics feature AlNiCo magnet pickups with push/pull capability on the knobs for a wider range of sounds.

If you've never heard what the push/pull tones sound like on a G-400 PRO, it basically means you can make the guitar sound Telecaster-ish. The brightness of a Telecaster won't be there but the "honk" will be, which for most players is plenty enough to ask for out of an SG style guitar since most play will be done in "full humbucker" mode.

Another nice thing about the G-400 PRO is that it has proper full-size trapezoid inlays on the fingerboard and the "pineapple" inlay on the headstock along with vintage style tuners with buttons that have a slight green to them (which is normal).

Gold SG guitars be they by Epiphone or Gibson do typically hold value pretty well simply for the fact you don't see them often. The Gibson SG Standard for example has no gold finish option (ebony, cherry and sunburst are the only 3 finishes offered). And even on the Epiphone side of things, gold isn't seen that often either.

With the Epi G-400 PRO in gold, yes you are getting a good guitar that comes provided with instant collector value, so it's a good buy all around.

Published 2017 Feb 1