The Top 10 SG Players Who Changed the World

Minor correction: Derek Trucks is not the son of late Butch Trucks. He's the nephew of Butch Trucks.

I was at Woodstock and the sound Carlos Santana made was awesome. I stopped what I was doing and sat down for their entire show. On Sunday afternoon, I was hungry and tired and started walking out. I noticed a dude with a new Gibson SG. I asked him why he brought such a nice guitar out here. He said he was sitting right by the stage and when the Who ended their show it fell into his lap. That was hard to believe. About a year and a half later - I saw the Woodstock movie. sure as heck just like that guy said, the last thing Pete Townshed did was gently toss the SG over the front of the stage. Great memories.

I'm SO excited you mentioned Sister Rosetta Tharpe! She was absolutely amazing, brilliant and incredibly inspiring!

Carlos Santana at woodstock , my most vivid memory of an sg player.

I'm surprised Carlos Santana didn't make the list. I remember him playing one with P-90's early on. I know he played it at Woodstock.

Let's remember Gary Rossington using his 1961 SG for his work on Freebird!!

Frank Marino is probably the most underrated guitarist.

John Cipollina, of Quicksilver Messenger Service and a special mention of one of the SG-ingest band ever, the Welsh band MAN!

Wow. Not one mention of Sam Houston Andrew and James Gurley of Big Brother and the Holding Company. Cheap Thrills album went platinum. As if Piece of My Heart, Ball and Chain, Summertime etc. were not massive songs on rock rotation until it became known as classic rock. Sam and James both played SG's and the bassist Peter Albin often used an EB bass. Every guitar across the stage sporting that shape. All in cherry finish too. Badass.

A couple more honourable mentions: Glen Buxton of the Alice Cooper band made some of the 70's most righteous rock tones with a white SG custom. And Zal Cleminson used a variety of SGs with the Sensational Alex Harvey Band.

I couldn’t imagine any other SG player in #1 than Angus Young—thank you.

Let's not forget Rod "the bottle" Price from Foghat.

RIP John Diggins (Jaydee Guitars), luthier to both Tony Iommi & Angus Young, who passed away on the 2nd of January this year. I was also suprised that Santana didn't make this list (or even honourable mentions!) seeing as you tend to like mentioning them in your other videos, but pleased that Sister Rosetta Tharpe got a shout-out, though personally I think she should have been on the actual list :)

Props for the Sister Rosetta Tharp mention - she was the baddest Rocker before Rock n Roll even existed. Her playing influenced countless musicians.

In addition to Clapton, Zappa, and Townsend, I bought an SG back then with Jerry Garcia and Leslie West in mind. Jerry Garcia used an SG on Live Dead, probably the greatest Grateful Dead album. And Leslie West was a hero of mine.

I bought my 69 SG after seeing Terry Kath of Chicago playing "25 or 6 to 4." Admittedly he played a lot of different models including Strats and Tellies. But his cherry red SG fit some secret place in my mind.

Early on , John Cipollina lead guitar with SF 60’s band Quicksilver Messenger Service caught my ear with the killer piercing tone of his Gibson SG. I’m a drummer but I know tone and John had it in spades , always with an SG at his fingers. Saw Quicksilver in concert in ‘68. I don’t know the history of his SGs but you might wanna do a little research on him and his SGs. Sure sounds good especially on Quicksilvers’ first two albums. Good compilation you’ve got here in this video. Thanks 🥁🎸😎

Gary Rosington's SG with the piece of wood to raise strings to play Freebird is cool also.

"Let's use it as a moment to practice enjoying each others opinions, cool" What a brilliant statement. It's very close to the remedy to what ails humankind.

Great list! Glad to see Robby Kreiger getting some credit- an often overlooked but fantastically creative player. Also glad you put Alex Lifeson and his double-neck in there. Would LOVE to see a video on his guitars over the years.