Most beautiful guitar body design of all time? Let’s see some SGs

PhilKing

Philly_Q said:

Kittyfrisk said:

Philly_Q said:

After seeing this thread the last few days, I dug out a couple of my SGs yesterday evening and as always I thought... meh.  I love the look, but I've never owned one I really like.

Daft (genuinely not sarcastic) question time.
If you didn't like them, why did you buy at least two?

It's a fair question.  I do like SGs, I really do.  I've owned 12 (I think) over the last 30-odd years, including a Greco and a few Tokais.  I like the body shape, I like the look, I don't even mind the neck-heaviness.  And It's the perfect guitar for stoner/doom metal....!

I'm sure there's a great SG for me out there somewhere, but I haven't found it yet.

You need to talk to @WezV - he made me a great SG, which is in the John Birch style, it is neck through and has no heel and hang's right, due to having a sunken straplock socket in the end of the top horn.   I have a lot of John Birch stuff on it, but it is a really great guitar.  I'm sure he could make you what you want.  This is another shot of it

roberty

@Philly_Q was the Townshend SG good for stoner/doom as well with the P90s?

I am a bit obsessed with these guys at the moment, he gets a huge sound from P90s

Philly_Q

PhilKing said:

You need to talk to @WezV - he made me a great SG, which is in the John Birch style, it is neck through and has no heel and hang's right, due to having a sunken straplock socket in the end of the top horn.   I have a lot of John Birch stuff on it, but it is a really great guitar.  I'm sure he could make you what you want.  This is another shot of it

@PhilKing I think I remember Wez writing about that SG, back in the Bare Knuckle forum days.  The neck-through definitely makes sense, eliminates that weakness around the neck joint.  Maybe one day I will think about a custom SG...

roberty said:

@Philly_Q was the Townshend SG good for stoner/doom as well with the P90s?

I am a bit obsessed with these guys at the moment, he gets a huge sound from P90s

@roberty I wish I had a good answer to that, I love listening to stoner/doom metal but I'm hopeless at playing it... I'm sure the PT SG would have done the job though!  If I'd kept it I think I'd have put a humbucker in the bridge and left the P-90 at the neck, I think that's a good combo.

PonchoGreg

AK99 said:

^ You definitely have at least one too many SGs Phil. That robot one's never going to do it for you - time you stopped beating yourself up on it and flogged it to me..

Re this thread in general btw.. I tend to start out loving such threads with loads of cracker looking pictures of SGs, but then I start to go into buyer 'shortlisting mode', and starting to scrutinise all of the microscopic differences in features - and in particular the subtle variations in body carves - and end up convincing myself I need to start hunting for The One again.

Every bl00dy time. Damn yis   

Aye... I hear you. And I'm the same with strats - I would discount a 90s / early 00s model because of blocky contours, when it won't make an iota of difference to playability and sound.

It's the one thing that bugs me on the 2000 SG standard I got recently - the horns are definitely less sculpted than on the 2013 Standard I owned for a while (and, of course, the ultra pointy CS models!).

Again, it's total nitpickery, and on the whole I much prefer the 2000 over the 2013.

impmann

Question for the boffins…

I’ve noticed that on guitars fitted with the long vibrola unit the gap between the back of the bridge and the vibrola seems to vary quite substantially - even on guitars that are roughly the same age.
What gives? 

lovestrat74

jumping@shadows said:

I didn’t ‘get’ SG’s until pretty recently, but they’re now a firm favourite. 

I’ve been thinking of working out the body templates and router bits required to make some vintage replicas, as I have some superb old mahogany not quite thick enough for other builds, but we shall see! 

Might as well close the thread now 

p90fool

impmann said:

Question for the boffins…

I’ve noticed that on guitars fitted with the long vibrola unit the gap between the back of the bridge and the vibrola seems to vary quite substantially - even on guitars that are roughly the same age.
What gives? 

The long vibrola cover dictates where it has to be bolted to the body, so slight variations in how deeply the neck is set into the body over the years are highlighted by the gap between vibrola and bridge. 

meltedbuzzbox

impmann said:

Question for the boffins…

I’ve noticed that on guitars fitted with the long vibrola unit the gap between the back of the bridge and the vibrola seems to vary quite substantially - even on guitars that are roughly the same age.
What gives? 

@impmann I know why you are asking this

Jota

Bigsby

AK99 said:

At the risk - nay certainty - of lowering the tone of this great thread, I felt the urge to post my budget 2001 ebony 'Vintage' SG project beside a real one, to see how close the carves are..




The horns on the original are better - much pointier, down to the larger scallop taken out of the cutaway. 
(10 mins with a spoke-shaver, some black touchup paint and you'd be almost there, I'd say.. )

Carry on.

You could lower the tone even further, and gain a huge advantage in the comparison, if you make it with a 1972 Gibson SG like this one:


Amazingly, Ibanez actually copied this too... though they did still put a little carve on the horns. But those scratch plates. 

p90fool

@Bigsby I love those, but then I take a perverse pleasure in unloved models. Sometimes I feel like I've been staring at the same four guitars in the correct classic formats for 50 years, bring on the 70s mutants! 

Philly_Q

impmann said:

Question for the boffins…

I’ve noticed that on guitars fitted with the long vibrola unit the gap between the back of the bridge and the vibrola seems to vary quite substantially - even on guitars that are roughly the same age.
What gives? 

Good point, and I've never noticed that before - you can see it even in the three posted by @jumping@shadows above.

One thing which has saved me from pointlessly blowing £5k on Custom Shop SG is the fact that 90% of them come with some kind of vibrola, I just want a stop tailpiece.  The vibrola looks good though.

Matt_McG

I've never owned an SG, but I've watched this vid a few times and the sound is so great (both the Debussy and the Radiohead sections).



In terms of looks, faded Inverness Green, Pelham blue or cherry.

Lebarque

Jota said:

Yes, this. I've been lusting after one of those sparkling burgundy ones for a while.

Iamnobody

p90fool said:

impmann said:

Question for the boffins…

I’ve noticed that on guitars fitted with the long vibrola unit the gap between the back of the bridge and the vibrola seems to vary quite substantially - even on guitars that are roughly the same age.
What gives? 

The long vibrola cover dictates where it has to be bolted to the body, so slight variations in how deeply the neck is set into the body over the years are highlighted by the gap between vibrola and bridge. 

With a short vibrola you aren’t governed the same. I looked at loads of pics online when mounting my short one on a NR Firebird and in the end took a best guess - it’s not critical I assumed as the bridge is in the right place.

McToot

PonchoGreg said:

merlin said:

P90s on an SG is the way to go. 

Probably the only guitar I regret selling... Such a cool, versatile thing.

Your big mistake there was selling it to me. 

I regret selling it a lot - especially at the price I did: they're going for £200-300 more now. 

AK99

Bigsby said:

AK99 said:

At the risk - nay certainty - of lowering the tone of this great thread, I felt the urge to post my budget 2001 ebony 'Vintage' SG project beside a real one, to see how close the carves are..

You could lower the tone even further, and gain a huge advantage in the comparison, if you make it with a 1972 Gibson SG like this one:


Amazingly, Ibanez actually copied this too... though they did still put a little carve on the horns. But those scratch plates. 

That's a lovely machine - but - I think I've developed a full-blown obsession with the shape of the horns (oh er missus..). Every time I look at an SG now the first thing I do is check out those scallops.

It's almost like checking banknotes for forgeries - once you pick up on the little key detail(s) that tell you the difference between the right ones and the wrong'uns, you dont bother looking any further

Philly_Q

AK99 said:

That's a lovely machine - but - I think I've developed a full-blown obsession with the shape of the horns (oh er missus..). Every time I look at an SG now the first thing I do is check out those scallops.

It's almost like checking banknotes for forgeries - once you pick up on the little key detail(s) that tell you the difference between the right ones and the wrong'uns, you dont bother looking any further

Except I don't think there is a right or wrong with SG contouring, they've changed it so many times - it's just personal preference.

Have you ever looked into all the different SG neck joints they've used over the years?  Some of them are really weird.

Exorcist

My beloved 62 special. Light as a feather and super resonant. 

Exorcist

My 67RI Custom