SGs, QC and what to do?

Headphones

I recently bought a Gibson SG new, from a shop a couple of hours away from me (the shop staff were wonderful BTW).

It is a fine guitar in many ways, though I was aware of a few foibles in  the shop - the set up was awful (action ~finger depth!), one pickup much louder than the other, some minor scuffs near the knobs (it's a satin finished one), but it felt and sounded great and looked like it would respond to a set up.

Five minutes at home with the tools and the set up issues were gone and I started to enjoy it.  The pickups responded reasonably to a screwdriver, but always remained imbalanced.

Then the output jack started crackling and buzzing.  Well, only when I moved.  Looking in the back for the dodgy lead I discovered that it was a PCB version, and the jack was fouling the backplate; finding several washers fitted I removed them, thinking the problem would go away - of course it didn't and the socket is clearly faulty.  Still, a swap myself would be quicker than a trip to the shop.

Then I idly checked the pickups to find that one read 8k, the other 26k!  Quite an imbalance...  a prod with the meter and it's clear one coil is shorted to ground on the neck pickup.  It does sound wonderful though...  Much better than the full fat bridge one.

I should also mention that I've fitted a third strap button, on the rear of the top horn (as for the HP ones) - and the guitar no longer tips forward on a strap.

SO what do I do? Do I:

A - dive into the pickup and find the short (the coils read ok so it's probably either the cable or the termination), fix the jack and carry on (risk I break it more)
B - Live with it as is (and fix the jack)
C - swap the pickups for a set of P90s and rewire it old school
D - ask the shop to mail a pickup to swap
E - Go back to the shop and ask for a repair (which may take several visits)
F - seek a refund (the extra button...)
G - pop to a local shop (gibbo dealer) and see if they'll warranty fix
H - Sulk
I - something I haven't thouught of.

I suspect E is what I really should do, but the travel is not something I want to lose all that time too, so I'd welcome your thoughts.

I suppose this is the world teaching me that Gibbo's QC issues are not just rumours!

Musicman20

I’d ask for a repair over email and send photos / vids of the issues. 

Good luck!

GoldenEraGuitars

Any chance of a refund evaporated when you drilled the extra strap button hole.

So... phone the shop and explain it all to them. See what they say.

Im a tad baffled as to how you were able to make a proper judgement of the guitar if the setup was that bad..

Philly_Q

lonestar said:

Im a tad baffled as to how you were able to make a proper judgement of the guitar if the setup was that bad..

Likewise.  Was it a really good price?

Headphones

Unbaffler - I dropped the bridge down in the shop to something like the right height (light strings and thumbwheels) and checked for lumps, bumps and dodgy frets with the aid of the strings; finding none, it really only looked like adjustment was needed, so I took a gamble.  In terms of frets and woodwork, it is all sound (jolly good in fact) - it's really just the dodgy electrics letting the side down.
The price was reasonable rather than wonderful, negotiating before you've decided is always wiser!

carlos

Gibson, Gibson. 
I'd call the shop and explain all you've written here. State clearly you don't want a refund as that will ease their minds. Then ask for a professional repair and possible pickup replacement.

DefaultM

Are you sure there's not something wrong with the bridge pickup? 26k seems very high. 
22k is the highest I've got, and I bought that with the selling point being that it was a very powerful pickup.

NelsonP

Funny. I recently bought an Epiphone and am in a similar position. In my case the shop is at the other end of the country and I bought the guitar online.

Thed problem with the guitar is that a couple of the frets are not level, so I'm getting buzzing and muted notes on them.

I've contacted the shop and they would be prepared to fix it under warranty. But they are a long way away so I'd need to courier the guitar to them. With insurance this would probably cost as much as taking it to a local tech for a setup and fret dress.

The local tech in question is an authorised Taylor repaired so knows his stuff.

Which way would you go? Courier and warranty repair (by random tech chosen by epiphone) or local tech of your own choice, which may invalidate the warranty?

Headphones

This is the challenge of the demise of the local guitar shop I guess...

I'm reasonably confident that the bridge pickup is fine, or at least as intended.  Both coils register the same, with no earth shorts and the numbers are in line with Gibson's specs for these particular mini humbucker types.

Winny_Pooh

I'd personally buy an S2 Mira but it's too late for that, so take it back to the shop for a replacement pickup and jack.

ICBM

Remove all the PCB nonsense and rewire it with separate pots (CTS) and jack (Switchcraft), using the existing pickups. If you like the split neck pickup, consider fitting push-pull pots to do that on purpose, and the bridge one as well.

rlw

NelsonP said:

Funny. I recently bought an Epiphone and am in a similar position. In my case the shop is at the other end of the country and I bought the guitar online.

Thed problem with the guitar is that a couple of the frets are not level, so I'm getting buzzing and muted notes on them.

I've contacted the shop and they would be prepared to fix it under warranty. But they are a long way away so I'd need to courier the guitar to them. With insurance this would probably cost as much as taking it to a local tech for a setup and fret dress.

The local tech in question is an authorised Taylor repaired so knows his stuff.

Which way would you go? Courier and warranty repair (by random tech chosen by epiphone) or local tech of your own choice, which may invalidate the warranty?

Surely if the guitar is quite new and has a fault, you do NOT have to pay postage.

rico

I would explain all the faults and see if they will foot the bill for work by a tech you trust. 

ICBM

rico said:

I would explain all the faults and see if they will foot the bill for work by a tech you trust. 

And save themselves the cost and risk of two courier journeys for it.

As a general rule I would never courier a guitar (or amp) for something that can be fixed locally - even well-packed and insured.

impmann

rico said:

I would explain all the faults and see if they will foot the bill for work by a tech you trust. 

I'm not picking on Rico here - as there are other similar comments, not just here...

Thing is, the shop won't foot that. If there's a fault under warranty it goes back to *Gibson* for repair, at no cost to the shop. Even if the shop refund on the guitar, that's the same course of action so it'll come back fixed (FOC) and will then be sold as before. The mark up on Gibson guitars is pretty shockingly low so I doubt if they'd foot that out of their own money...

HOWEVER - as you have now fitted a third strap button, the store can't sell it as it was. Whilst it may have solved your balance issues, its *has* de-valued it. So, I think they would rightly say it needs to go back to Gibson for repair and will then be returned to you once fixed.

As for the faults - well, the pickup issue is bad. And frankly 26k? Fuck me, unless you DJent like a bastard, that's going to be a muddy mess. And PCBs have no place in a guitar IMHO. And from the tone of your thread, I think you share those views so long term you'll be swapping it all out anyway.

Therefore, if it were me and I liked the way it played and felt, I'd just buy a set of pickups that suit my playing and swap the pots/jack for puckka stuff (and take the opportunity to fit 500ks - these days Gibson fit 300k pots to some of their stuff).

NelsonP

rlw said:

NelsonP said:

Funny. I recently bought an Epiphone and am in a similar position. In my case the shop is at the other end of the country and I bought the guitar online.

Thed problem with the guitar is that a couple of the frets are not level, so I'm getting buzzing and muted notes on them.

I've contacted the shop and they would be prepared to fix it under warranty. But they are a long way away so I'd need to courier the guitar to them. With insurance this would probably cost as much as taking it to a local tech for a setup and fret dress.

The local tech in question is an authorised Taylor repaired so knows his stuff.

Which way would you go? Courier and warranty repair (by random tech chosen by epiphone) or local tech of your own choice, which may invalidate the warranty?

Surely if the guitar is quite new and has a fault, you do NOT have to pay postage.

I should have said that the guitar was used. It was sold from new to the previous owner who part ex'd it on another guitar. Since the shop knows the full history of the guitar they are prepared to honour the original warranty. However, I would need to get the guitar to them first.

Anyway, I would have thought that a decent tech could sort out the uneven frets for the price of a setup plus a bit extra.
I'm looking at this one....https://www.theguitarengineer.co.uk/

I think I'll take it there for evaluation first, mainly based on my fear of couriering the guitar to the other end of the country and back. If it looks like a straightforward fix then I will just get it done by the tech.

Thanks for the advice folks.

Bigsby

I bought an SG last year which turned out to have some major QC issues - such as glue on the fretboard. For various reasons I didn't want to go down the return/refund route, (the dealer was Thomann in Germany, who were very helpful). So I contacted Gibson directly for warranty work. Took a few back & forth emails and some BS from them, but in the end they agreed to get all issues fixed by a Gibson authorised Luthier. There seem to be very few of these in the UK, and it did involve couriers - arranged by the luthier and paid for by Gibson. I think Gibson will tend to do this for warranty work, rather than return to their European HQ.

Because your shop is reasonably local, Gibson might insist you initially take it to them, but whether you deal with the shop or Gibson, your issues should all be dealt with at no cost to you. So you could have it fixed to factory spec, and then choose if you want to modify it in the future. Then again, if you'd rather deal with it yourself, ultimately that's your call.

mar10

Kill it with fire 

andyp

I have a satin SG - a 2016 Faded model that I bought new. I had a weird intermittent crackling from the control cavity cover plate from the start and after a couple of visits back to GG in Glasgow and the issue remaining a mystery, I managed to figure it out myself (total Novice at this point)... the PCB was basically too fat for the shallow cavity in my SG (and I suspect maybe all / many SGs).

The original pickups (490R/T set) went wonky somehow so they were replaced with new ones (same spec) under warranty by the shop. I was told it would be a fair few weeks and eventually with no more news I asked them to use a pair from a guitar on the wall and they could put the new ones in that when they eventually arrived. I still had the crackling issue though and when I twigged it was the PCB arrangement I asked my old man to remove the PCB and fit CTS pots and rewire it. The guitar was transformed. I don't have any of the crackling issues that I had before and it sounds noticeably clearer than it did with the PCB. I honestly couldn't recommend junking the PCB setup strongly enough. I absolutely love my SG but these were frustrating issues to have - I can handle the pickups failing, but the PCB thing was a joke to be frank, it was clearly too big for the cavity on my guitar. As it is now, the SG is a fantastic guitar all round, it was well worth the relatively small outlay to rewire it, although the labour element was free as my old man did it.

I know this probably only helps with your issue a little bit, if at all, but I felt there are some similarities with your guitar and my experience with mine.

Phil_aka_Pip

Why would you need a PCB in a guitar like an SG? As if the caps couldn't be soldered straight to the pot lugs - it's just adding cost and complexity, not to mention unreliability ...

p90fool

Phil_aka_Pip said:

Why would you need a PCB in a guitar like an SG? As if the caps couldn't be soldered straight to the pot lugs - it's just adding cost and complexity, not to mention unreliability ...

On a production line it actually saves costs and complexity - assembly time costs more than the components. 
Fitting a PCB is a drop-in job.