NGD: SG Fever is running hot...! 8-11-23 Update: Demo added

MichaelW

MichaelW

Well-known member
Well, shortly after getting my first SG I got my second!

Between @fig 's SG Fever thread and chatting with @Coda about his Epiphone SG Special, I just couldn't resist.

I was specifically looking for an SG Special with P90's in Pelham Blue. The only real choices I could find was either the Gibson or the Epiphone.

I'm not aware of anyone else making a Special in blue, at least not as a standard production. I wasn't prepared to spend Gibson money on this so I went with the Epiphone.

Once again, I'm impressed with the value of the Epiphone line. Really nicely built guitar for around $400 delivered.

The finish is a "faded Pelham Blue" and is really well done. It looks gorgeous.

The fretwork and fingerboard on my example needed some work but nothing too bad. The fret ends needed some light dressing and the fingerboard was a little rough.

As part of their "Inspired by Gibson Line" this one came with CTS 500k pots. (But not the Orange Drop caps). Unfortunately they used all linear pots and I prefer log taper.

So I did my usual fluff and buff on the frets and fingerboard, I also did my usual gutting and re-wiring with CTS 525k Log pots. Orange Drop caps as opposed to my usual Russian PIO caps.

The pickups are the same ones that came in my Epiphone Les Paul Special. The Pro90's. Not bad pickups but the neck pickup is a bit muddy for my tastes.
I do have another set of P90's on order that should be here sometime next week from Planet Tone.

Looking forward to hearing it with the new pickups once I get them popped in.

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The Indian Laurel fingerboard on this one is pretty nice. I like the color and the grain. As I said it was a little more rough than I prefer so I had to scrap it smooth and applied a few coats of Danish oil before buffing it out.

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I removed the Graphtech "Nubone" nut and cut a bone nut for it.

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I also installed a Music City Wrap Around tailpiece. I love these things and they are a worthwhile upgrade for any Gibson style wraparound bridges.

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And I added some knob pointers.....

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Continued in next post.....
 
Awesome! I was the exact same way, wanted an SG since a guy in a band I played with got a really nice Gibson SG and completely blew all of us away when he brought it to practice and plugged it in. He was very big I to Zappa and was an incredible guitar player, he made that guitar scream! I always wanted a white SG, and after doing a ton of research I figured Epiphone would be plenty fine to test the waters. Boy was I pleasantly surprised! I'm 100% completely satisfied and have no curiosity about getting a Gibson SG. No doubt Gibson makes a fine guitar, most of the time, but Epiphone makes some guitars to be very proud of.

I would love to get my hands on those prototype zhangbucker p90's you had and put those in my SG. Just got another Roland GK3 midi pickup to an install on my SG. It barely fit, almost peed myself when I installed it and plugged it in and it worked. I use a Roland GR33 to play bass on my guitar when I do my solo shows for my one man band performances.

Your guitars a beautiful and I love learning from your guitar build/update logs.
 
DeadAirMD said:
Awesome! I was the exact same way, wanted an SG since a guy in a band I played with got a really nice Gibson SG and completely blew all of us away when he brought it to practice and plugged it in. He was very big I to Zappa and was an incredible guitar player, he made that guitar scream! I always wanted a white SG, and after doing a ton of research I figured Epiphone would be plenty fine to test the waters. Boy was I pleasantly surprised! I'm 100% completely satisfied and have no curiosity about getting a Gibson SG. No doubt Gibson makes a fine guitar, most of the time, but Epiphone makes some guitars to be very proud of.

I would love to get my hands on those prototype zhangbucker p90's you had and put those in my SG. Just got another Roland GK3 midi pickup to an install on my SG. It barely fit, almost peed myself when I installed it and plugged it in and it worked. I use a Roland GR33 to play bass on my guitar when I do my solo shows for my one man band performances.

Your guitars a beautiful and I love learning from your guitar build/update logs.
Click to expand...
He's still got them. Here.

But I need to do a demo of the Planettone.com Elite Pro neck P90. I like it more than the Lollipop on Gibson scale guitars.
I think you'd like it a lot in the SG. (It's what I've also got coming for this SG).
And for $69 it's a no brainer.
 
I might be wrong but I thought you had the zhangbuckers in a Gretsch. I thought the tone you had in your video was incredible and right up my p90 alley. I'll definitely check out your other lead, really appreciate that!

Which # was the zhangbucker proto you used?
 
DeadAirMD said:
I might be wrong but I thought you had the zhangbuckers in a Gretsch. I thought the tone you had in your video was incredible and right up my p90 alley. I'll definitely check out your other lead, really appreciate that!

Which # was the zhangbucker proto you used?
Click to expand...
I actually did have it in the Gretsch but I moved it to one of my Tele's at some point.

I don't recall the number exactly but he's had that pickup on his "Specials" page since I got mine so I think it's a regular thing now.
 
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MichaelW said:
I actually did have it in the Gretsch but I moved it to one of my Tele's at some point.

I don't recall the number exactly but he's had that pickup on his "Specials" page since I got mine so I think it's a regular thing now.
Click to expand...

Do you know the name of the p90's? I'm not sure which one was the prototype.
 
That looks just like mine!…

Mine was actually a bit of a saga. I ordered it and it arrived jacked: the binding was marred in several places. I was both shocked and upset; I was expecting a 100 % clean guitar, and bought it from Sweetwater…the place with the 56 point inspection. Looking over the paperwork that came with it, I noticed that the box next to “binding” was not checked, which the form told me meant it was not applicable to the guitar. Ok…

I got ahold of them to start a return/swap…except now they were out of stock. By this point I decided to keep it. I felt bad; the guitar didn’t stand a chance, and it wasn’t its fault. Sweetwater said they would partially refund me, and asked what I thought was reasonable. I said $100. They gave me $50…

I couldn’t be happier. I’m glad I kept the blem. I have no issues with Sweetwater, either…

There are too many options when it comes to pickups. I don’t mind the stock ones. It did take me quite a while to balance the pickups out. Bridge pickup was a little higher than I expected, and the neck pickup is waaaay lower than I expected, and tilted down towards the bass side. You can get a lot of tones out of it…

Grab the $15 leather strap from Sweetwater and neck dive who?…
 
I used to have an Epiphone Dot (good, but not great guitar) and it had that kind of elongated headstock which looked so much better than the clipped bookends.
 
Ok, I mentioned in my "Mailbox" post that I finally got the pickups I ordered for this guitar along with a bunch of other pickups.

I installed these today and was so blown away at how they totally transformed this guitar, I wound up spending all afternoon just playing it.
Never got around to the other pickups. That'll have to wait till next week.

I can't begin to say how pleased I am to have found Planet Tone pickups. I've tried their P90's and Mini-Hum now and they've just absolutely blown me away.

It's really curious in that at the ridiculously low price point they kinda look like import budget pickups. From the lead wire used, to the covers he uses. They kinda look cheap. But holy crap the tone is just amazing. The bar for me has always been Lollar for single coil and P90's.

I have yet to find any Strat or Tele pickups that I like better than Lollars but as for P90's, I kid you not, these Planet Tones are right up there with the Lollars. And Jose has some winds that Jason Lollar doesn't offer.

Case in point, I generally like a lot of bell like clarity in a neck P90 but a lot of beef in the bridge. The closest thing I can get in a Lollar is his 50's wind, which I have (had) in a couple guitars. But the Planet Tone Elite Pro A2 neck pickup I like a skootch better. It sounds something like in between a Strat pickup and a standard P90. Which is a sound I really love in Gibson style guitars. THAT's the 50's sound that I gravitate towards even though in the 50's the Gibson P90's were kind of all over the place in terms of output and tone.

The bridge pickup is an Alnico 5 overwound 1956 that comes in around 10.5k. As much as I love the neck pickup, I already knew what to expect as it was my second Elite Pro from them. But this bridge pickup, holy crap! It sounds sooooooo good to me. It's got the snarl, the bite of a gnarly P90 but it never loses its articulation or dynamics. It might be the best bridge P90 I've ever played. Simply amazing.

I liked it so much that after 10 minutes of playing it I ordered another one to replace the Lollar bridge pickup in my Tokai P90 Goldtop. For $70 it's a total no brainer.

While I had the strings off I also decided to "age" the Music City tailpiece on this guitar so it matches a little better with the "Aged Pelham Blue" finish. Nothing to extreme, just some "patina"/

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Anyway, I put together a short demo for Jose at Planet Tone.
Sorry for the recycled riffs, I'm kinda short on new ideas lately, heh.

 
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