Problems in buying a new Gibson SG Standard

Hi to all.

I'm thinking in buying a new Gibson SG standard in natural burst, but I've read some problems as flaws in the finish and the heavy neck.

I don't have stores near my city that has a Gibson SG to try, so it must be ordered.

My question is: these are normal problems and I can order with confidence ? Other thing I must have carefull ?

It's been over a year since I did my shopping. As it turned out, I didn't like the chunky necks of the SG Standards. I found one Gibson I did like, the '61 reissue with the slim taper neck. I ended up getting a Korina Epiphone G-400 (Korean, not the new Chinese). I'm VERY happy with it.

When I was looking, I did see a good number of finish flaws. Most had some orange peel effect around the back neck joint (if you're that picky). The Gibson finish is not as forgiving as the cheaper Epiphone finish, which explains why Epiphones often look better!

Worse yet, I played a lot of Gibson necks that just weren't right. Some of it could've been setup issues, but some had humps, twists, and other ugly malformations.

If you buy sight unseen, be prepared to return, and repeat the process until you get what you want.

Gibson QC is in the toilet IMO. I've played many and even bought one not too long ago that I returned two days later. Granted it was one of their lower-end offerings, but I've gotten far better quality out of much (MUCH) cheaper guitars. In fact, my Chinese Squier Affinity Tele blows many Gibbies I've played out of the water. It's just got a vibe, I don't know...

The Gibson I took home was a Faded V that I had 'cherry-picked' out of many other V's...or so I thought. Turned out that in addition to messed up string spread (due to some monkey's misalignment of the saddle notches) which I noticed at the store and wasn't too concerned about, it had some sort of shielding/electronic issue that caused loud speaker popping whenever something rubbed against the rear of the control cavity, as well as several stripped screwholes on the headstock.

Simply unacceptable. I refuse to dowel holes on a brand new Gibson. Maybe that makes me 'too picky' or something, but I'm sticking to asian guitars as I have had far better luck with them as far as build quality and setup.

As they say, your mileage may vary. But like Jim says, be prepared to buy, return, repeat.

Just a note if you haven,t purchased one yet. I have a les paul and i have a fairly small hand , the neck is wide for me but i got used to it and would never a diff. guitar now! I noticed the SG does have a wider neck BUT check out the SG Supreme.........tapered neck is sweet!!