1970's Gibson SG's

supes

1970's Gibson SG's - I really like the look of them and quite fancy one. However, what puts me off is the fretboard. Does anyone know if all the early 70's SG's had an ebony board? because that's all i can find!

i've had a couple of guitars with ebony fretboards and i just can't get away with them.

Philly_Q

supes said:

1970's Gibson SG's - I really like the look of them and quite fancy one. However, what puts me off is the fretboard. Does anyone know if all the early 70's SG's had an ivory board? because that's all i can find!

i've had a couple of guitars with ivory fretboards and i just can't get away with them.

Ivory?  Do you mean ebony?

supes

Thanks @Philly_Q  

Philly_Q

I think some of the early '70s models did have ebony boards, but there were certainly rosewood-board models too, for example:

ICBM

Philly_Q said:

I think some of the early '70s models did have ebony boards, but there were certainly rosewood-board models too, for example:

Did those all have the goof hiders around the pickups? I can't remember... truly abysmal quality control if they were needed even for routs that are covered by pickup surrounds.

I also had one of these absolute abominations -



 - which I bought for £50 sans pickguard, strings and bridge, and with a ragged DiMarzio-shaped hole where the bridge pickup used to be. I filled all the routs with wood, veneered over the top, re-routed it as an SG Standard with all the normal hardware and painted it cherry red.

It was still shit.

HerrMetal

If the SGWiki is to be trusted the unbound Ebony boards only featured on the SG Standard for a short period, from early/mid 1973 until late 1974 when rosewood with binding returned.

Philly_Q

HerrMetal said:

If the SGWiki is to be trusted the unbound Ebony boards only featured on the SG Standard for a short period, from early/mid 1973 until late 1974 when rosewood with binding returned.

I was looking at that earlier and couldn't find that spec - but in my mind's eye I was picturing 1970s SGs with unbound ebony boards.

rpr

SG Special has rosewood 
https://www.guitars4you.co.uk/guitars/6066-gibson-sg-special-used-circa-1973-walnut/ ;

 

Philly_Q

ICBM said:

Did those all have the goof hiders around the pickups? I can't remember... truly abysmal quality control if they were needed even for routs that are covered by pickup surrounds.

Good question, I don't think they all had goof hiders, but what's going on with the third one here?  Those mounting rings are huge.

Kittyfrisk

Definitely a very personal preference thing.
To me, ebony is the perfect fretboard wood & would always be considered a desirable upgrade.
YMMV 

supes

Kittyfrisk said:

Definitely a very personal preference thing.
To me, ebony is the perfect fretboard wood & would always be considered a desirable upgrade.
YMMV 

I'm sure it's not the case, but the ones i've played feel like a "slow" fretboard, and felt harder to play at speed. I've tried a couple and just can't get away with them. Other SG's i've played have killer necks!

SteveRobinson

I had a 73 SG here the other week and the owner was convinced the pickup routs had been enlarged because you could see them either side of the pickup surround. They were just very badly manufactured.

I refretted it and made it into a really nice playing guitar. The embossed pickups were long gone and replaced with burstbuckers 1&2.

Rosewood by the way!

AK99

Philly_Q said:

I really don't like the plastic panel that holds the volume and tone controls there, but that thing has a flippin' really nice grain pattern. I could definitely live with that