2004 Gibson SG Faded

[thetragichero]

lent my mockingbird you a buddy so that I could fix up his sg
symptoms he described sounded like a bridge ground issue, but he wants new pickups and some tlc to it as well
I had never seen one in person so I had no idea how piss poor the finishing work was on these (I think my disdain for big G has not been hidden)
no grain fill or top coat, looks like they hit it with a coat or two of minwax and shipped'er off
so I asked if I could fill the grain and hit it with poly, but sand it to a satin sheen to keep with what they claimed they were trying to do
he expressed interest in a green finish, which I've done on ply to good effect, so here's some before pictures and I will continue to update as I work on it

[reTrEaD]

Apr 24, 2019 10:25:13 GMT -5 thetragichero said:

I had no idea how piss poor the finishing work was on these (I think my disdain for big G has not been hidden)

In the '60s, Gibson finishes were rather nice. Not like the better PRS models today which are basically jewels, but still pretty. Some of the more recent Gibsons can be truly hideous.

[thetragichero]

sanded down to 150 grit. hit it with denatured alcohol before dying it and the headstock was sprayed with something that did not like the alcohol, so that has been sanded down and a new silver foil waterslide decal ordered (feel like the silver decal will look better with the chrome hardware, pickups, etc than the sorta goldish original). you live and you learn lol

hit it with the first coat of green dye. will probably need to add some green to the poly when i spray to get it to show color better... mahogany way darker than i've worked with so far

[thetragichero]

okay so I stand corrected




this is green as hell!
I think I will keep the dark green for the body contours and try to go for a slightly lighter green on front/back/side/neck
think it might make for a neat shadow effect

[reTrEaD]

I'm not sure it's green enough, actually. If your dye/stain is compatible with the poly you still might want to tint it. Be bold!

[thetragichero]

will definitely tint some poly coats, because out seems to give it almost a 3d color
I've filled the grain with epoxy and will sand it flat tomorrow

another forum a lot of guys are using marine epoxy to fill grain. comes in too large quantities for my needs, so I've just been using 2 part epoxy. any other better options that I've missed out on?

[reTrEaD]

I wouldn't know, traj.

I refinished a LP jr a couple of decades ago and the wood filler I used then was a single-part type. It didn't take stain particularly well and I ended up just doing a solid gloss black lacquer base with clear lacquer over top instead of letting the woodgrain show through.

[newey]

Cynical1 would be the one to ask, but he hasn't been around much lately. I'm sure if you check through some of his replies to people in the Lutherie category, you'll find some wisdom on wood fillers, sanding sealers, etc.

[thetragichero]

sanded the epoxy grain fill smooth, dyed again
then hit with two coats of clear poly with the green dye added
waiting another day or two (this water based poly cures very quickly), then will sand the few runs and start hitting it with clear

[thetragichero]

and she's finished!










pickups are gfs VEH. swapped the alnico 5 magnet from the bridge pickup with alnico 8. they came with the new gfs "three conductor" kwikplug which puts the series connection on one of the conductors (so one can flip the phase of the whole `bucker or shunt either coil, but no parallel possible). since i was already elbow deep in the guts of the bridge pickup, i figured i might as well rewire both as a normal 4 conductor + shield. rewired, potted in the mixture of paraffin and beeswax i keep in a coffee can (made a double boiler with the small, rarely-used crock pot)



wiring is fairly straightforward: volumes wired like a jazz bass (pickup on the wiper), neck volume is push/pull series/parallel and has a 220k/1nf parallel treble bleed. 15nF neck tone cap, 39nF bridge tone cap (and i got to recycle previously-used ones from the parts bin)



i am hoping that sitting for awhile with string tension will give me some bow on the neck. had to loosen the truss rod more than i'd like to to eliminate fret buzz. once that settles down i will set the intonation - needs it BADLY
i think i may just not be a short scale guitar guy, because the sound/feel of it just... doesn't inspire me. it's setup with 10s instead of the 12s/13s i have on my mockingbird, so that could also be it
all in all a fun project and my finishing skills (and cavity wiring) seem to be improving

[blademaster2]

That is a very clean and professional-looking job. Nicely done. The finish texture looks like other high-quality Gibson finishes I saw in the 1980's.

I admit that the green did not seem as promising at first to me, but it works and the overall look is one that Gibson should be proud to still bear their name.

It is a shame that the sound is not inspiring to you - does your friend feel the same. Despite the effort you already spent on the pups, perhaps different pups would improve it? I would myself probably try a Strat-style pup at the neck position (like a Seymour Duncan SSL-1) to see how it sounds (I have done this by removing the SSL-1 cover so it fits straight inside a HB mounting ring, but I did also drill new mounting holes in the ring to take it closer to the fingerboard).

[thetragichero]

i actually don't mind the neck pickup. a little too bassy/low mids, but not difficult to eq out (sounded great through my muff clone)
right now the bridge sounds uninspiring, but I'm hoping it'll wear on me/it's just new strings/the need to be setup
i also might needed to fiddle with the amps more
i won't be going down the pickup swapping rabbit hole if i can avoid it. I'm confident it'll work itself out