Faded
I had a beloved faded Gibson SG I bought at GC's last Fourth of July sale for a little over five bills, discounts and coupon included in Rockville, Maryland. Had it in my hospital bed on the sixth for nine days at the National Cancer Institute for my third kidney cancer surgery and recovery; plugged up to a Vox AmpPlug Lead running into headphones. I had the blues, expressed my emotions with that axe and played a lot of blues straight from my soul.
Worthless nephew I took in when no one else would, fourty three year old bum, stole it from me about four months later along with my Fender Hwy One super strat, immediately placing him in my personal history - where he shall stay.
Got a beautiful American Std Strat and a MK Patriot Custom with the insurance money but not yet a Gibby. Losing that SG hurt. I would definitely have done the Virtuoso treatment. That is a cool looking finish.
I have a great Epi 66 gibson copy SG in gloss trans cherry, stock, that sounds incredible; as well as a super great sounding, believe it or not, ESP LTD bottom of the line Viper 50 with hot open coil humbuckers and a black cherry finish. I'm playing it right now. Great tone, heavy, hot, and smooth. Liked it better than the Viper 400 with the EMG's. Also cost me less than one fifty mint plastic still on used.
I do play a white ESP LTD Viper 1000 Deluxe at a local store that has gold plated Seymour Duncan pups - a Custom five in the bridge and 59 in the neck, and it sounds way better than you might think and feels super great to me. I usually play it thru a SuperSonic Fender. Sounds way better than the EMG version to me, personally; way less digital, smooth and heavy sounding with lots of heat.
Just as great is the new gold top EC 1000 Deluxe with the alnico II pro Seymour Duncan nickel plated pups and twenty four frets, de-blinged. This is a great guitar.
Summing up my observations though, I can see where I would be VERY happy with either the Gibson Faded SG or LP with the Virtuoso treatment. I think the Burstbucker Pro pups on the LP, plus the LP vibe might capture my heart though, along with the classy looking inlays on the LP's board compared to the simplistic dots on the SG.
My Epi Tribute is, however, loaded up with a lot of prime Gibson USA components, plus a lot of other high quality parts; that come together to do a great job of honoring the life of Les Paul in a really quality way. And I'll tell you what, it captures the vibe of the shade in certain lighting, like in the early morning, that has more than once caught my eye and had me standing there looking at it and saying to myself, "this is something special, you can see and feel its spirit". I think they wound up with more than they bargained for when they produced that tribute. I think they wound up going beyond what they thought they were doing and I bet they know it.
Anyway, at this point in time I think I would go with the Gibson Faded LP and apply the Virtuoso treatment to it, and be real happy with the burstbucker pros.
Note: The American Std Strat with the anaconda pickguard mod is shown in my avatar. Looks way better up close. Great guitar.