Chords for Cars guitarist Elliot Easton talks about his Gibson SG

_ _ _ _ _ _ [F] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _
_ _ [Cm] _ _ I _ [D] _
_ _ [Am] _ [Gm] _ _ [C] _ _
guess [E] the essence of the guitar is an SG Custom _ and the difference, the main difference
in this guitar and a regular SG Custom is the fact that it has two pickups.
It was never available as a two pickup guitar.
There may be one-offs out there that were custom ordered by _ a player, but it never really
was offered that way.
[Db] _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ [Dbm] _ And also I feel that with the long neck and the neck joint being what it is and stuff,
I prefer to just leave the wood in there without carving out any extra wood. _
_ _ So it occurred to me that this was something that hadn't been [E] done and the genesis of this
model was that I ordered just a regular SG Custom for myself with two pickups.
And it came out great and I thought, you know, this is really a great guitar.
And I'd always thought that the white SG Custom with gold parts was one of the most beautiful
solid body electric guitars ever _ introduced.
_ _ _ _ So I approached the guys and I said, you know, what do you think about maybe making this
a regular model?
And it grew into the Inspired By _ series which was [D] being started at that time and now it's
available as a guitar.
I think it's a great guitar.
_ [A] You _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ know, [Bb] and I put all sort of little personal touches into it _ that _ kind of make it me.
You know, for instance, I love like lounge and tiki kind of stuff and that whole culture,
that Polynesian thing.
And so on my guitar, rather than the lyre that's engraved in the standard vibrolo, I've
got a little tiki god engraved, which I think is kind of cool.
[G] Just kind of a fun thing.
And I asked for the guitar to be built _ with _ _ standard Cluson pegs.
I'm not a big fan of huge, tall jumbo frets and the vintage Gibsons that I've owned and
played had a bit of a lower fret and I had noticed that Jimmy Page had requested those
sort of more vintage style frets _ for his model.
I mean there's plenty of, you know, grab there for string bending and stuff like that.
But I just find that for playing sliding around the neck and playing in a legato style, I
don't like to feel those tall frets. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [E] _ [Ebm] _ _ [E] _ [B] _
It's a cosmetic thing, but [Ab] I think it's kind of a fun concept was that, you know, we all
know the white Les Paul SG Custom with gold parts.
And I wanted to offer it in another color and I was thinking about what would be a great
color to go with.
_ And so what I did was I asked them to do it in Pelham blue.
And then for people who don't like the sort of fancy tuxedo quality of the white with
the gold hardware, I thought it would look great with the nickel.
And so that's how this Pelham blue with nickel hardware came about.
It's a little bit dressed down from the white one and some people prefer that vibe, you know.
And it's just also it's just a beautiful color.
I think it really complements the sculpting on the body and it picks up, you know, all
the all the bevels and stuff really well. _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ [E] The headstock veneer of Customs is what they call the split diamond headstock. _
_ _ Gibson never [Bm] had a special one for left handed guitars.
And so the crossbar always slanted this way.
And I actually talked them into doing like a mirror image for the inlay, which [F] was kind
of a coup. _
So, you know, it very much is a mirror image.
It has all the advantages and all the aesthetics that a right handed guitar would have without
really any [D] compromise.
_ _ [A] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
I selected 57 Classics to be the pickups that come standard in the guitar.
And I did that for a reason.
I have to do everything from twangy rockabilly style stuff to jangling chorus stuff all the
way to like screaming leads.
And I found that this pickup has a nice wide frequency range and it sounds really good,
you know, in all the settings I use and I find it to be very versatile pickup.
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ I don't use the vibrato _ [E] _ particularly, but I thought that having the vibrola on there,
I mean, for me, it's sort of a hood ornament and it really captures that mid 60s vibe.
And I think, you know, it makes it look right to me.
And I think that's important, too.
The other thing I decided for the guitar was that I didn't want my name [B] on it in any sort
of inlay or anything on it that was permanent.
And the reason I did that was because I believed so much in the guitar that I didn't really
think it depended or relied on a player being a fan of mine or a fan of the cars or whatever
it is to appreciate the guitar.
And so my signature appears on the truss rod cover and a little spacer between the bottom
of the fingerboard and the top of the neck pickup.
It's like a dream of a lifetime.
What guitar player starting out as a kid, like, you know, if you told him someday you're
going to have a Gibson guitar with your name on it, he'd say you were crazy.
It's been so much fun for me to do this [E] and all the artists and the builders and technicians
over there have been so great to me that I'm just, you know, [Bb] the end result is pretty amazing.
[Ab] So [Db] I couldn't be more pleased. _ _ _
_ _ [Gb] _ _ _ [Cm] _ _ [Bb] _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _