Gladiator GG-174-2TS Guitar This is a brand new guitar -- not a demo or a customer return -- but one of the very last ones to ship from the Saga / Gladiator factory. The guitar still has on the shrink wrap on the PUPs, Pickguard and Control Panel. These are now discontinued, and are referred to as lawsuit guitars, as Gibson brought legal proceedings against Saga / Gladiator to halt production, as it is too close to the Epiphone G400 Flametop Deluxe (or the $3k Gibson SG Supra). This guitar is in many ways better than the the Epi version, AND it sold for less -- so Gibson wanted to retain complete control of the high-quality SG copies. This is a thicker bodied SG, capped with flamed maple on both the top and the back. The hardward is all Wilkenson, which is in every way better than the Epi PUPs and hardware. The neck profile is 50s, but not baseball bat 50s, just a gentle, thicker, wider 50s profile. Craftsmanship is beautiful. These are high-quality guitars made by Saga, who also make the Blueridge line of acoustic guitars -- widely regarded by many to be above Eastman as the best of the Chinese-made acoustics. These Gladiators are in that same high-quality level. They sound great, and have high-output Wilkenson PAFs, and they do sound fantastic -- with no harshness, but with plenty of solid PAF tone that breaks up nicely. All in all, a fantastic value in a flamed maple SG copy, with a gentle 50s neck profile. I have 2 of these guitars available (NEW GG-174 2TS, and NEW GG-174 BNS), so please check my other REVERB listings for the others. This may well be your last chance to get a new one of these Gladiator GG-174 lawsuit SG copy guitars, as all the other dealer new stock is by now long gone.