1965 Gibson SG Standard Cherry Red

This vintage 1965 Gibson SG Standard Cherry Red is one of my favorite 1960s era Gibson electric guitars to ever come through the shop. I'm always a Gibson guitar collector but I'm especially looking to buy 1960s era Cherry Red Gibson SG guitars. You can contact me here to sell a Gibson guitar. 

If you're looking for more information on how to date Gibson SG guitars, check out How to date Gibson guitars. 

This 1965 Gibson SG Standard electric guitar came from the family of its original owner via a repair shop in Texas. They even included a picture of the guitar at the original owner's house in what appears to be the 1980s! The SG Standard is a thin solid body electric guitar first introduced as the "Les Paul Standard" in 1961. It didn't officially become the SG Standard until 1963, although most people call all guitars that look like this "SG". 

In order to correctly identify this as a 1965 Gibson SG Standard, we can use its serial number as well as the features. The serial number range 289xxx was used in 1965 and represents a transitional time period for Gibson guitars. We're lucky enough to have a scan of the Gibson shipment ledger to know exactly what date this guitar shipped: April 26th, 1965. 

We can also use a couple of features on this 1965 Gibson SG Standard to help date it: the neck width at the nut and the hardware finish. The nut width (width of the neck measured at the nut) is 1 11/16" which is what Gibson collectors call "wide nut". Gibson slimmed the neck width to 1 5/8" then all the way down to 1 9/16" by the end of 1965 so this is one of the last with the wide nut. Not only that, but the metal parts that Gibson used changed from nickel finish to chrome finish in 1965. All of these features support the 1965 year of manufacture.

Check out How to date a Gibson Les Paul for more information on Gibson guitar dating. 

You can check out more pictures of this guitar here: 1965 Gibson SG Standard guitar.