🔥 SG fever! 🔥

[Laundryroom David]

I made a horrible mistake. I played a Gibson SG through an Orange OR-15 and I may not recover.

 

[Feral Feline]

Black, white, or cherry?

What is the correct answer for all the win: "YES!"

 

[mjh36]

As a programmer, I've had people look me in the eye and lie about stuff, when I had already looked at the record with their user id and was trying to find out why before I went to their boss and told them who did "xyz" as was often my assignment in a business environment.

This makes me question all sellers. I ask myself the question "where does someone that Gibson won't sell to, get a bunch of Gibson bodies and necks?" Couple that with the hiding of the serial numbers to "stop potential counterfeiting" which of course works both ways as in "so you can't verify it's legit" and my spidey senses start tingling!!!!

Now, it is well known that Gibson does not sell damaged goods, so it couldn't have come from a liquidator. Which leaves the only possibilities of theft or counterfeit.

Gibson Caught Destroying Hundreds of Brand-New Guitars In Leaked Video

The recently-leaked video, shot by a former Gibson employee, shows the destruction of hundreds of Firebird X guitars deemed 'unsalvagable'.

www.digitalmusicnews.com

The scams are real my friend, especially on Reverb right now it's tiresome. But I don't think them not being an authorized dealer doesn't mean Gibson "won't" sell to them, or anything nefarious. I'm sure they could be if they wanted to, but it comes with a lot of dealer fees and stipulations. They aren't an authorized dealer for anyone, even Fender which is like 90% of their stuff.

All it means is they can't sell brand new, fully assembled, factory warranted guitars. But they don't, they sell parts. Nothing stopping anyone from disassembling a guitar and selling everything separately as used but mint condition. Even the body is now considered a part. Since you are no longer selling a full guitar w/ warranty you don't need to be an authorized dealer. It's probably just a batch of new-in-box, two-year-old guitars that were in the back of some dealer's warehouse for too long and they got it for a discount. They get a regular supply these in.

They're just a parts shop in New Hampshire, been around a long time, with a no questions asked 45 day return policy, too. Lots of luthiers buy from them. I've ordered a bunch of parts off Stratosphere, it's always been great atleast for me.

 

[mjh36]

I made a horrible mistake. I played a Gibson SG through an Orange OR-15 and I may not recover.

Another victim, this fever is becoming highly contagious!

 

[HamishR]

Years ago when I worked in a guitar shop we had some strange Gibson SG 90s come in. Some had a cool string-through-body thing, with staggered eyelets on the top where the strings came through, and some had a Steinberger tremolo bridge. The Steinberger trems were a disaster. The posts they sat on all bent, making the guitar unplayable. But the SG 90s with the string-through were really cool. They had a bridge HB and a neck single coil and sounded great, played great. In cherry red they looked gorgeous. Probably the only SG I ever seriously considered buying.

Although the SG Junior looks super cool and I like P90s I still haven't found one that sounds good. And then I have a recent USA Epiphone Casino which does the P90 thing, and a Gibson ES-225 RI... Both of those guitars sound incredible. The only guitar which takes precedence over those for me is my Duojet.

A friend of mine has a Gibson SG '61 RI which sounds good. Those I have played in stores recently less so.

 

[andare]

I made a horrible mistake. I played a Gibson SG through an Orange OR-15 and I may not recover.

Good or bad?
Anyway what color did you buy?

 

[Laundryroom David]

Good or bad?
Anyway what color did you buy?

I wish I had bought but it was not meant to be just yet. It was natural walnut. I’m trying out several different kinds if SG before taking the plunge

And it was very good

 

[cdwillis]

Not the best picture, but this is the 2017 SG Standard I picked up a few weeks ago. The previous owner had put a vibrola on it then removed it because it was too heavy. So it's got those two stupid mounting holes I need to fill.





I replaced the stock 57 Classics with a Wolfetone Legend and Marshallhead. I think im going to try an Alnico 2 magnet in the Maragallhead.

I pulled the Gibson PCB and replaced with 500k CTS pots and 0.022uf Orange drop caps. My other guitar have logarithmic pots for volume and tone, but I wanted to try linear volume pots in this one. I think I like the linear taper better. The volume doesn't have a big hump and drop at 8 on the dial. It's a much smoother drop and I like how it cleans up more.

 

[andare]

Not the best picture, but this is the 2017 SG Standard I picked up a few weeks ago. The previous owner had put a vibrola on it then removed it because it was too heavy. So it's got those two stupid mounting holes I need to fill.

View attachment 53386

View attachment 53388

I replaced the stock 57 Classics with a Wolfetone Legend and Marshallhead. I think im going to try an Alnico 2 magnet in the Maragallhead.

I pulled the Gibson PCB and replaced with 500k CTS pots and 0.022uf Orange drop caps. My other guitar have logarithmic pots for volume and tone, but I wanted to try linear volume pots in this one. I think I like the linear taper better. The volume doesn't have a big hump and drop at 8 on the dial. It's a much smoother drop and I like how it cleans up more.

Doesn't the vibrola solve the neck dive? I'd love to have an SG with a vibrato!
I have a linear volume pot in my Jazzmaster and I really like the taper with modern wiring. With 50s wiring I dig the log taper in my Coronet. 500k CTS pot too

Your SG is a beauty

 

[cdwillis]

Thanks! It's not super neck heavy, but the Grover locking tuners certainly don't help. With a decent strap it doesn't even tug on my shirt.

Here's my SG Special Faded. The 490r and 490t pickups are long gone. It's got Wolfetone Marshallheads and CTS 500k logarithmic pots. I had Duncan Pearly Gates in it and miss them a little. The Wolfetones sound really good though. I put an Alnico 4 magnet in the neck humbucker and I think the bridge is a rough cast unoriented Alnico 5. Mag swapping was a big thing on the Duncan forum for a while and I still like to experiment.



You can see I added the pickup ring to the bridge pickup. The bridge pickup angle was so far off from the string angle that I thought it was messing with the frequency range of the pickup. It's probably all in my head, but I swear since the screw coil is even with the slug coil the sound is clearer.

 

[andare]

Thanks! It's not super neck heavy, but the Grover locking tuners certainly don't help. With a decent strap it doesn't even tug on my shirt.

Here's my SG Special Faded. The 490r and 490t pickups are long gone. It's got Wolfetone Marshallheads and CTS 500k logarithmic pots. I had Duncan Pearly Gates in it and miss them a little. The Wolfetones sound really good though. I put an Alnico 4 magnet in the neck humbucker and I think the bridge is a rough cast unoriented Alnico 5. Mag swapping was a big thing on the Duncan forum for a while and I still like to experiment.

View attachment 53405

You can see I added the pickup ring to the bridge pickup. The bridge pickup angle was so far off from the string angle that I thought it was messing with the frequency range of the pickup. It's probably all in my head, but I swear since the screw coil is even with the slug coil the sound is clearer.

I never understood screw vs slug coils. What do they do and how should they be oriented?

 

[cdwillis]

From what I understand the slugs have more magnetic strength than the screws because of the amount of material they consist of. If you have a cover on it and the screws are even or poking out of the cover they're going to be a little closer to the strings than without the cover, thus a little more signal being amplified by that coil. Another thing to consider is that the screws screw into a keeper bar that directly contacts the magnet in the pickup. The slug coils (usually) have a non-ferrous spacer like a wooden or plastic shim that keeps them from directly contacting the magnet.

That may even out the signal between the two coils, but the coils themselves may not be wound with the same amount of wire. Seymour Duncan always wound their pickups with balanced coils (until they came out with the 59/Custom Hybrid, newer pickup designs could be unbalanced now). The Gibson Burstbuckers are unbalanced coil winds as are a bunch of Dimarzio pickups.

I make sure the pickup is parallel to the strings. Then I try to match the screws up with the string radius then dropping the G string screw down a little so it's not louder than the rest. I've read that if you lower the pickup then raise the screws accordingly it will sound clearer, but I haven't experimented much with that. I try to get the neck to a spot that sounds clear then adjust the bridge pickup higher to match the output then go back and forth to get a happy medium between output and clarity.

 

[mjh36]

Well it arrived unharmed earlier today. What a looker! It seems almost untouched for a 2013. Besides some light pickguard wear it almost looks brand new. Frets show no wear but are oxidized, and one side of the mint-condition case has some good dust. This has sat in a closet and was hardly played.

However, that may be because it's got some decent neck dive, even more than my other two... not sure how I feel about that. Well I know how I feel about that, I hate it. It makes me think I'll probably reach for my better balanced ones and have this around for looks. Which is not my goal! I can always return it and wait for another I guess, but these are exhausting to find. Nice to look at though!

 

[Laundryroom David]

Just this morning I found a pristine used Tokai SG in cherry for sale a couple towns over from me. I am so very tempted. The fit and finish looks impressive. Doing the gear offloading math right now “hmm if I sell that other guitar … “

 

[cdwillis]

I love white SGs. Also fireburst. It's pathetic that they just offer ebony and cherry red 99% of the time.

 

[mjh36]

I love white SGs. Also fireburst. It's pathetic that they just offer ebony and cherry red 99% of the time.

So true, white is so nice on an SG. I wish they varied it up. In fact, they need to do a redo with the SG line. It's been 4 years. The moderns have had the same two bursts forever now. Everything is cherry or ebony with a couple pelham blues sprinkled in. Keep the construction specs they have going, but throw in some even a few more colors even if it's a limited edition. Those use to happen all the time.

 

[mjh36]

And also on a sad note.... returned the white SG today....

Tried 7oz of bb pellets in the control cavity. Plus my wide strap. Still tugged on the shoulder too much, more than the others.

Not adding more than a half pound to a guitar, just on principle alone.

Also, I think it scratched my white SG itch for a while. I may kind of move on from SG's after this believe it or not.

I think the fever is breaking.

So far I've bought four, kept two, and needed to add weights to bring it to how I like it.

I know a great balanced SG is out there for me, but I'll have to let it come to me on it's own pace.

I could look for tremolo models. But I also have been eyeballing goldtops and les paul specials/P-90's a lot. I'm basically letting @MichaelW kind of shop for me, then I just buy what he buys because it looks too good. Help.

 

[Silver Blues]

Years ago when I worked in a guitar shop we had some strange Gibson SG 90s come in. Some had a cool string-through-body thing, with staggered eyelets on the top where the strings came through, and some had a Steinberger tremolo bridge. The Steinberger trems were a disaster. The posts they sat on all bent, making the guitar unplayable. But the SG 90s with the string-through were really cool. They had a bridge HB and a neck single coil and sounded great, played great. In cherry red they looked gorgeous. Probably the only SG I ever seriously considered buying.

Although the SG Junior looks super cool and I like P90s I still haven't found one that sounds good. And then I have a recent USA Epiphone Casino which does the P90 thing, and a Gibson ES-225 RI... Both of those guitars sound incredible. The only guitar which takes precedence over those for me is my Duojet.

A friend of mine has a Gibson SG '61 RI which sounds good. Those I have played in stores recently less so.

Sophia Tremolos features a couple of SG-90s with their systems installed on their YouTube channel, and when I saw them, I immediately wanted one. They look so interesting.

 

[finebyfine]

White SGs are so fucking cool. Somehow made the least appealing (to me) guitar color just look perfect. Bummer it wasn’t for you but your perfect SG is out there. Just channel lil you watching jimmy page or iommi for the first time and you’ll believe it.

This thread is killing me I want another sg so bad

Edit: someone snag this so I don’t

 

[SillyOctpuss]

White SGs are so fucking cool. Somehow made the least appealing (to me) guitar color just look perfect. Bummer it wasn’t for you but your perfect SG is out there. Just channel lil you watching jimmy page or iommi for the first time and you’ll believe it.

This thread is killing me I want another sg so bad

Edit: someone snag this so I don’t

View attachment 53689

That's definitely not a matsumoko build. It's also probably bolt on. A lot of the guitars from Japan in 70s were terrible. I've had enough of them to know.