An All Original and Exceptionally Fine 1966 Polaris White SG Custom

This 13-inch-wide 1966 Polaris White SG Custom weighs just 8.10 lbs. and has a medium nut width of just under
1 5/8 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Solid Honduras mahogany body with beveled edges. One-piece mahogany neck with a medium-to-thick profile and an ebony fretboard with 22 original medium-to-thin frets and inlaid pearl block position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl five-piece split-diamond inlay. Six-digit serial number ("800787") stamped on the back of the headstock. Two-layer (black over white) plastic truss-rod cover with "Custom" engraved in white. Individual Grover Roto-Matic Tuners with half-moon metal buttons. Three original Gibson "Patent Number" humbucker pickups (each with a small rectangular black label with "Patent No / 2,737,842" on the underside) with nicely balanced outputs of 7.56k, 7.70k, and 7.75k. Larger style three-layer (white/black/white) plastic pickguard with eleven screws. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch, all on lower treble bout. The potentiometers are stamped "137 6529" (CTS July 1965). Original black plastic ribbed-side conical-shape "Witch Hat" knobs. ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic non-retainer bridge with nylon saddles and "Lyre" vibrato tailpiece. All hardware gold-plated. There are a few very small surface chips on the edges of the body and some slight shrinkage of the white paint finish on the sides of the headstock. In summation, this forty-three year old SG Custom is a totally original and exceptionally fine (9.00) example of the earliest of the larger pickguard and revised neck-joint versions which first appeared in late '65 / early '66. Housed in a slightly later (early seventies) Gibson black hardshell case with purple plush lining (9.00).

"Considering all the Les Paul models as a whole, sales declined in 1960 after a peak in 1959...[and] by 1961 Gibson had decided on a complete re-design of the line in an effort to reactivate this faltering model. The company had started a $400,000 expansion of the factory in Kalamazoo during 1960 which more than doubled the size of the plant by the time it was completed in 1961...One of the first series of new models to benefit from the company's newly expanded production facilities was the completely revised line of Les Paul models. Gibson redesigned the Junior, Standard and Custom models, adopting a new, distinctly modern, sculpted double-cutaway design. The 'Les Paul' name was still used at first, but during 1963 Gibson began to call these new models the SG Junior, the SG Standard and the SG Custom...The transition models -- those produced between 1961 and 1963 -- had the new SG design but the old Les Paul names, and these are now known to collectors and players as SG/Les Paul models...SG-style solidbodies have attracted a number of players over the years, including John Cipollina, Eric Clapton, Tony Iommi, Robbie Krieger, Tony McPhee, Pete Townshend, Angus Young and Frank Zappa" (Tony Bacon, Electric Guitars: The Illustrated Encyclopedia, pp. 134-136).