Found this in an article on Everything SG
http://www.everythingsg.com/articles/mahoganyrush.htmTommy Iommi SGTop of the Epiphone range is the Korean-made Tony Iommi G-400 model(£640). Of course it's black all over and unsurprisingly it's a tad neck-heavy, because this critter has 24, frets clear of the body for a two-octave range on each string. The unbound rosewood fingerboard is inlaid with pearl crosses and the Gibson USA Tony Iommi humbuckers are completely covered, with no visible pole pieces. Beneath the glossy finish we are assured everything is solid mahogany, and all the hardware is black chrome including the kidney Grover tuners. This guitar is also available in a left-handed version for a mere £10 extra.
The Iommi is no traditional SG, so it's no surprise that it sounds quite different. These pickups are voiced to sound dark and moody, so you'll need a lot of crunch on your amp. To be honest it's not particularly inspiring plugged straight into an old-school valve amp, but it comes to life if you add a distortion pedal to the equation — especially if you start messing around with dropped tunings. If you like the man and you like the look, the Iommi is a fine if specialized rock guitar – but it's not the obvious choice if you want that classic SG tone without paying Gibson-type money.
G-400No, for that you should check out the regular Epiphone G-400 (£389). Besides the Epiphone-shaped scarf-jointed headstock and the unbound fingerboard, this is 'a dead ringer for the '61 Standard. Of course the finish is plastic and the fingerboard is unbound, but the color is fairly close. There's a proper set-neck joint and all the wood is mahogany, but you'll have to make do with generic Alnico V Far Eastern humbuckers and chrome-plated hardware, not nickel.
The neck has that fat, vintage feel and the setup and intonation can't be faulted, though the frets have been left a little rough on top. Acoustically this guitar shows a lot of promise but the pickups aren't quite up to American-made Gibson quality. Against the Gibson Standard, playing the G-400 sounds as if a blanket has been thrown over the amp: detuned riffs sound a little mushy and a lack of bite and attack stops this guitar coming to life. It's more than acceptable for the money, especially when you're playing with overdrive, but the G-400 can't match the range of tones, the precision or the dynamics of its American cousins.
G-310As you move further down the Epiphone line some of the features we associate with SGs start to disappear and production shifts from Korea to China. The G-310 (£275), for instance, only costs around £100 less than the G-400 but the trademark set neck is changed to a bolt‑on with a Fender-style chrome plate. The neck is still mahogany but the body is a very un-Gibson-like alder, and it's far less contoured than the real thing. Fortunately some decent cast tuners and hardware save the G-310 from too closely resembling the 1970s Gibson copies that some of us traded our first decent guitars for. No info is available on the pickups: the fact that they are open-coil humbuckers is all that we know.
So does this guitar really qualify as an SG? We'll leave that one to the purists because the G-310 turns out to be a bit of a surprise package. The bolt-on neck and the reduced-mass headstock make this a very resonant and lively guitar; the tonal vagueness of the G-400 is gone and we're back to that gnarly, belligerent rock attitude with lots of pinched harmonics and grit. Okay, it's not exactly pretty, but the G-310 even handles clean stuff extremely well, despite the power of its steaming hot humbuckers.
SG SpecialTrue to form, lurking at the bottom of the line is Epiphone's entry-level SG – the Special (£189) with a maple neck and laminated alder/maple body. This really is on the basic side, with an unforgivably cheap set of tuners. There's no scratch plate and, despite the twin humbuckers, there are only two controls, master volume and tone, both with a nice silver-topped vintage look.
However, it sounds very different. Where the G-310 sounds much like a bona-fide SG, with that characteristic tonal thickness, the Special is a far more ragged performer that doesn't really sound anything like an SG. The good news, though, is that it's exciting and fun in a garage-y sort of way, and it's actually a very playable guitar.
Hope this enlightens those thinking of getting Epiphone SGs.
Jay