John Mayer’s 1961 Gibson Les Paul/SG

John was first spotted playing this guitar at the Beacon Theatre on November 17, 2009, in New York City. Although used rarely at first, the guitar became John’s favorite by the time he recorded Battle Studies, and he ended up using it to record the song Edge of Desire from that album.

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It took me 10 years to… no, more than 10 years, 15 years, to really be able to put a Strat down and play something else. My favorite guitar right now is this Les Paul SG.

John Mayer interview by MusicRadar]

Les Paul SG?

Although most of us will refer to the guitar as a Gibson SG, in fact, the model’s proper name is Les Paul. This is because at the time it was produced, this was its official name since this is the design that directly replaced the old Les Paul model. Apparently, Les Paul himself wasn’t involved in designing this new version, and he wasn’t too fond of it – so he requested the removal of his name from the official branding. This however didn’t happen until around late 1963, and up to that point, SG continued to feature Les Paul nameplates and truss rod covers.

John’s own model features a cherry red finish, a solid mahogany body, 24.75″ scale mahogany neck, traditional Gibson humbucker pickups, and a sideways Vibrola tremolo tailpiece.

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