Premier Guitar features affiliate links to help support our content. We may earn a commission on any affiliated purchases.

Epiphone Prophecy SG: The Premier Guitar Review

Don't let the rock stance fool you. This SG is a master of versatility.

Practical features. Upmarket looks. Surprisingly broad palette of stellar tones from flexible pickups.

Heavy for an SG.

$899 street

Epiphone Prophecy SG
epiphone.com

4.5
4.5
4.5
4.5

The guitars in Epiphone's new Prophecy Collection, which includes the Prophecy SG reviewed here, perform an impressive balancing act. They streamline the classic Gibson four-knob control array, trade PAF-derived pickups for Fishman Fluence units, and style the guitars in a manner that screams "rock" with an exclamation point. But for all the streamlining, these instruments are enormously flexible, and they retain important cosmetic touchstones that emphasize the family connection to parent company Gibson's most iconic designs. Epiphone also maintained balance when it comes to price. The Prophecy SG is a reasonable $899.


Like the other Prophecy instruments in the collection—which include a Les Paul, Flying V, and Explorer—the China-built SG borrows a few styling moves from Gibson's Custom Shop-level instruments as well as unique cosmetic touches. On the SG, these include a 5-ply bound headstock, a split-diamond headstock overlay, and a bound ebony fretboard with fancy block-and-triangle pearloid/abalone inlays. On our review model, an appropriately menacing aged-gloss black finish conceals the ½" maple cap which Prophecy models wear atop otherwise solid mahogany bodies. But you can also opt for a flashier red- or blue-tiger aged gloss flame-maple veneer.

Custom Touches

The set neck is solid mahogany with 24 jumbo frets. The profile, however, is a contemporary asymmetrical version of the SlimTaper neck profile, which is thicker on the bass side. I prefer it to the SlimTaper of old, which always felt a little flat in my fretting hand. Scale length is a traditional Gibson-style 24 3/4".

Epiphone certainly didn't reach for the bargain bin when it came to hardware. The Prophecy SG features Grover locking Rotomatic tuners, a black Graph Tech NuBone nut, and a LockTone Tune-o-matic-style bridge and stopbar tailpiece—all upgrades from Epiphone's less expensive models.

Even unplugged, the Prophecy sounds and feels lively and rings with sustain.

The Prophecy SG's most significant new features, though, are the Fishman Fluence pickups that effectively make up the guitar's engine room. These active humbuckers offer three voices via the push-pull pots on the master volume and tone knobs: modern high-gain humbuckers with both pots in, vintage-like PAF humbucker tone with the bridge knob up, and a hum-free single-coil tone with the volume knob up. Between that and the 3-way toggle switch, there are a lot of sounds to play and create with.

Prophet Margin

Our review Prophecy SG was set up well and played great right out of the case, though it's a little on the heavy side for a slim-bodied SG, at around 8.5 lbs. Even unplugged, the Prophecy sounds and feels lively and rings with sustain. Those characteristics remain very present when you plug it in, too.

The high-gain humbucker settings pack plenty of power. Played through the lead channel on a Marshall-style Friedman and a high-gain Axe-Fx preset, the pickups seemed to sustain almost endlessly. But I also heard a certain sweetness you don't find in many over-wound or hot ceramic pickups. That said, the PAF setting is probably my favorite of the available voices. It moves from crunchy to full, articulate clean tones with a lot of personality. It also handles high-gain environments with a classy edge. The single-coil sounds are welcoming, too. I sensed a little hum when I mated the single-coils to high-gain amps or presets, but they are impressively quiet otherwise.

The Verdict

The Prophecy SG has tons of tone on tap, and is much more flexible than its rockist stance and 2-knob control array suggest. It's an impressive guitar for the money, and the bundle of upmarket features and high build quality put it over the top when it comes to bang for the buck.

Epiphone Prophecy SG Demo - First Look

Keith Urban’s first instrument was a ukulele at age 4. When he started learning guitar two years later, he complained that it made his fingers hurt. Eventually, he came around. As did the world.

Throughout his over-30-year career, Keith Urban has been known more as a songwriter than a guitarist. Here, he shares about his new release, High, and sheds light on all that went into the path that led him to becoming one of today’s most celebrated country artists.

There are superstars of country and rock, chart-toppers, and guitar heroes. Then there’s Keith Urban. His two dozen No. 1 singles and boatloads of awards may not eclipse George Strait or Garth Brooks, but he’s steadily transcending the notion of what it means to be a country star.

Read MoreShow less

Big time processing power in a reverb that you can explore for a lifetime.

An astoundingly lush and versatile reverb of incredible depth and flexibility. New and older BigSky algorithms included. More elegant control layout and better screen.

It’s pricey and getting the full use out of it takes some time and effort.

$679

Strymon BigSky MX
strymon.net

5
5
4
4

Strymon calls the BigSky MX pedal “one reverb to rule them all.” Yep, that’s a riff on something we’ve heard before, but in this case it might be hard to argue. In updating what was already one of the market’s most comprehensive and versatile reverbs, Strymon has created a reverb pedal that will take some players a lifetime to fully explore. That process is likely to be tons of fun, too.

Read MoreShow less
Fender Player II Stratocaster HSS & Jaguar Demos
- YouTube
Refined necks and delectable sounds elevate the jamming experience in this evolution of the accessibly priced Player Series.
Read MoreShow less

The 2018 CCL Deco Custom, in all its Pelham blue glory.

This reader solicited the help of his friend, luthier Dale Nielsen, to design the perfect guitar as a 40th-birthday gift to himself.

This is really about a guy in northern Minnesota named Dale Nielsen, who I met when I moved up there in 2008 and needed somebody to reglue the bridge on my beloved first guitar (a 1992 Charvel 625c, plywood special). Dale is a luthier in his spare time—a Fender certified, maker of jazz boxes.

Read MoreShow less