Peter Townshend of the Who has used (and abused!) many different guitars during his long career, but is most closely associated with the Gibson SG Special.

The SG range went through numerous changes followed it’s introduction in 1961, but Townshend’s principle onstage “axes” throughout the late 60’s and early 70’s were post-1966 Specials. Produced in “Cherry Red” and “Polaris White” they had pickguards that completely surrounded their twon P-90 single-coil pickups. The factory-fitted vibrato units proved too fragile to withstand his heavy right-hand “power chording”, and he invariably removed them.

The original SG Specials were discontinued in 1971, but a limited edition was produced in 2000.