The SG generally has a solid mahogany body, with a black pickguard. The 24.75″ scale mahogany neck joins the body at the 22nd fret.[4] The SG’s set neck is shallower than the Gibson Les Paul’s. The SG features the traditional Gibson combination of two or three humbucker pickups or P90 pickups and a Tune-o-matic bridge assembly, wraparound bridge, or vibrato tailpiece, depending on the model.

The SG Standard features pearloid trapezoid fretboard inlays, as well as fretboard binding and inlaid pearl “Gibson” logo and crown; the SG Special features pearloid dot inlays and an inlaid pearl “Gibson” logo, without a crown. The Standard has a volume and a tone control for each individual pickup, and a three-way switch that allows the player to select either the bridge pickup, the neck pickup, or both together. The SG does not include switching to coil split the humbuckers in stock form.