Extremely Rare Polaris White SG Special

This 13-inch-wide SG Special weighs just 6.60 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of 1 11/16 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Solid mahogany body, one-piece mahogany neck, rosewood fretboard with 22 jumbo frets and inlaid pearl dot markers. Inlaid pearl "Gibson" headstock logo. Closed-back Kluson Deluxe strip tuners with white plastic oval buttons. Two hot P-90 pickups with outputs of 7.94k and 7.87k. Five-layer (black/white/black/white/black) plastic pickguard. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch. Black plastic bell-shaped knobs with metal tops. The pots are stamped "134 6232" (August 1962). Nickel-plated hardware. There is one small mark on the top of the guitar and two small chips to the paint surface on the lower bottom edge. Minimal finish checking and a little bit of chipping to the back of the top of the headstock. An exceptional example of this very rare guitar in excellent plus condition. Housed in a later Epiphone black hardshell case with burgundy plush lining.

The Les Paul Special was introduced as the TV Special in 1955 as an intermediate model between the regular Les Paul guitar and the lower-priced Junior and TV Junior instruments. The Special underwent two successive body redesigns in 1958 and 1961, while the Les Paul affiliation was discontinued in late 1962. The model was then renamed the SG Special without any apparent changes in the specifications other than the removal of Les Paul markings.

In 1963, Gibson shipped 374 SG Specials in Polaris White as compared to 1,017 in Cherry. However, in total, between 1962 and 1968, they shipped only 1,956 in Polaris White as compared to 16,090 in Cherry.