The SGI was a briefly-produced solid body SG-style guitar, first launched at the 1972 NAMM trade show, alongside the SGII, and only included in one US guitar brochure, the 1973 solid bodies. It was a replacement model for the also briefly-produced SG100; both were entry level single pickup SG style solid body guitars, though the SGI was fitted with a humbucker, rather than the single coil unit of the SG100. It's single pickup in the bridge position invites comparison to the SG Junior, though this, again, was fitted with a single coil P90. Like the SG100, the SGI took the styling and basic construction (set neck, nitrocellulose finish) of the classic SG guitars of the 1960s, but used less expensive woods (an alder body and maple neck, rather than the mahogany of the high end SG models) and simpler construction methods (bodies only routed one side, electronics pre-assembled onto a control plate) to create a great looking, and playing but competitively priced guitar.
The SGI was first listed in a Gibson US price list in June 1972 (with a price tag of $229.50), and remained until February 1974 ($259), and was gone by May 1974; however shipping figures suggest a very small number of guitars were shipped as late as 1978, with around 80% of them sporting a Cherry finish.
Almost half of the SGI guitars produced were shipped in 1973. The Shipping figures are as follows:
1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | total | |
SG-I Cherry | 241 | 844 | 548 | 136 | 68 | 7 | 1844 | |
SG-I Walnut | 85 | 210 | 109 | 18 | 40 | 23 | 2 | 487 |
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