Two of the most popular guitars in history have Goth incarnations. Both are finished in satin black with black Grover tuners, and satin black open coil humbucking pickups. These two instruments are brothers, with celestial-looking moon and star pearl inlay on the twelfth fret--- the only fret marker on the fingerboard. The other quality singling out these two guitars is an ebony fingerboard--- the standard guitar fingerboard being rosewood. Ebony is an extremely hard, black wood Gibson used for the fingerboards on these two guitars. Ebony gives the fingerboard a smoother, slicker feel to guitarists and provides a darker, deeper tone to the guitar. One other distinguishing fact; the SG Goth has a ghostly image of a man, circa 1900, on the back of the headstock.
Gibson has adorned one of its oddest-shaped guitars with Goth styling. The Flying-V, which is well-known for its exclusive shape, is solid black satin with black hardware and black pick guards. Like the Les Paul and SG Goth, the Flying-V has one fret marker only, the moon and star inlay on the twelfth fret with an ebony fingerboard. The Flying-V Goth has a flatter, wider neck than the SG or the Les Paul. It has a lower, factory-set action, which gives the guitar neck more speed but less access to vibrato, and string bending because it is harder to get behind strings when they set low on the neck.
Epiphone, a division of Gibson, also makes a Goth-style Explorer guitar. The Explorer is known for its radical shape that looks great in solid satin black with black hardware. It is equipped with open coil hot-wound pickups for more power. Only one fret marker adorns the guitar, on the twelfth fret there is a "XII," which is 12 in Roman numerals. The Explorer is equipped with vintage-style triangular-shaped tuning heads. The angular shape of the keys compliment the angular body styling.