Epiphone SG Special P-90 Sparkling Burg

And I gotta admit it's great. Package arrived in good condition. Straight out of the box guitar was ready to play, but there were things to improve upon. After basic setup (truss rod, bridge, intonation, pickups) the guitar plays feel great. Finish had some minor flaws - flat dent in the wood at 16th-17th fret in the low E string area (~2mm, barely noticeable). There was also little discolouring in the finish at the back of the instrument where neck joins the body (also ~2mm, barely noticeable). After 2 weeks I say tuning stability is 8.5/10. With action I got as low as 6/64" inch on a low E string and 4/64" inch on a high E string with some minor fret buzz, but I assume it's adjustable by someone more experienced. I'm sure a good tech will set this instrument up to play perfectly. Not many instruments with P-90 pickups in this price range. For those who were wondering, like me - it's true what they say P-90 is not a regular single coil but it's also not a humbucker it's right in between. I couldn't really believe that until I've heard it irl. It's a cool sound from soild pickups. I imagine Seymour Duncans or DiMarzio's sound more well-defined but stock one are enough I promise. I wonder how it holds up against a similarly specced Harley Benton. All in all, you'll be very satisfied with this guitar, it's a classic rockin' SG after all, and it looks absolutely killer. Also, no neck dive on my Fender strap.

EDIT: After year and a half with this guitar I have to elaborate on few things I wrote here. First the positive ones: the neck is very slim but it was comfortable to me. Tuning stability still very good. Now to downsides (which you should treat very subjective). Overall comfort - after I spent some time with it - playing in a sitting position was great, but standing was less comforatble to me. Weird center of weight. And the neck dive actually is there, so what I wrote earlier was wrong. Also I grew to dislike the stock pickups and ended up switching them to Tonerider Hot 90 which I grew to dislike too. Stock didn't have enough definition and Hot 90s got too midrangy and boxy-sounding as a result. Could be that it's not right tool for the job, I look for a well-defined and clear clean tone, very slightly overdriven. They sounded very cool and cut easily through the mix when played through pushed tube amps like Orange Rockerverb Mk1 or Marshall JCM 800.

TLDR After some time:
Negatives:
- the guitar got uncomfortable
- there actually is neck dive,
- I couldn't find a way to make it sound good on clean/mild overdriven tone (too midrangy)

Positives:
- good tuning stability
- slim, easy, playable neck
- sounds better with more gain

Okay, let's be fair. I had the Gibson SG Special. I only sent it back because it was out of my budget. But there's just literally no comparison. The Gibson had a butter smooth action. Excellent hardware. Everything about it was perfect. The Epiphone Special SG pales in comparison. It just feels in another league. Yes, it's $1,000 less, but you can feel the difference for the $1,000. It feels like a mass-produced, cutting corners type of guitar. Any aspect you want to look at, from the tuners, to the neck, to the frets, to the pickups, the bridge especially, all just feels cheap. That's why it's $1,000 less. Plus, the one that I received had finish issues. There was a scratch on the back side and on the neck, there was a stain, a blemish. Unacceptable for a new guitar. And the intonation screws were basically falling out of the bridge. Nobody even bothered to screw them in. Obviously, the guys in China are on a clock to crank out guitar after guitar. And there was basically no setup…. hardly minimal. I tried to bargain with Thomann. They offered a €15 discount. So funny I forgot to laugh! To be fair, they're also on a budget. They don't check their guitars. They don't set up their guitars. They don't even unbox them and control them. They just pass them on. And therefore, pass the responsibility to the factory. Which I don't think is a great policy. Because other internet dealers, Sweetwater in USA, they look at every guitar and set them up. In this day and age where people need jobs, it would be a great idea if Thomann would pay people to open the boxes, do the quality control, and do a brief minimal setup. They'd get many fewer guitars returned. For a beginner, this is probably an okay guitar. You're not going to know the difference anyway. You might have to take it to somebody to set it up for you. Otherwise, it doesn't come close to the Gibson. Of course I sent it back. On that note… Take pictures of your guitar as soon as you take it out of the box, even take a video as you take it out of the box and control it because I sent back that Gibson I was speaking about. I didn't do anything to it. Then lo and behold, Thomann sent me pictures that I had made scratches and even a pretty deep ding, which I didn't do, but I had no recourse. So if you're going to send it back, do the same. Take pictures, take a video. that way nobody can accuse you of damaging a guitar. They charged me 200 euro for that. I'm still not happy about that.

The frets were still sharp on the ends so not smoothed, there were a couple of high frets, the bridge was set way high could not be adjusted for intonation on the higher three thicker strings for the higher frets. The bridge ran out of range and could not be pushed further forward for the low strings to intonate. Was bought for playing Paranoid which starts on the 3 low strings on frets 12 and 14. So had to buy a new better bridge. Looks the part but needs work to make it play. And on Gods Earth why those thick 10s strings??? The normal gauges for rock music and these guitars in particular is 9s down to 7s. The 9s are considered thick strings by rock guitarists standards.