Can someone clear this mystery up for me?

[Dcurran87]

Guys, I'm so appreciative of all of your input and advice so far. I think I'm really going to enjoy my time here at ETSG :)

I went and visited the guy with the well worn '05 standard first....left with it....and didn't even bother looking at the 'smokey' one.

As soon as I held the '05 I couldn't let it go, the neck just fitted into my hand perfectly. It was clear to me why it bad been previously well played. I took a good look at the frets and I don't think they are as bad as the pictures suggested. I'm confident I will be able to level & crown myself if needed - and as for the nibs (oops!!), I think they will be ok lol. I just had a bad feeling about the smokey one the more I thought about it so feel like I've lucked out with the 05.

Anyway, I'll do a proper NGD soon - I'm going to try to do a whole cleanup and string change today - if my newborn son gives me a couple of free hours that is!

I'm completely buzzing to be a SG owner!

 

[Astral Traveler]

Guys, I'm so appreciative of all of your input and advice so far. I think I'm really going to enjoy my time here at ETSG :)

I went and visited the guy with the well worn '05 standard first....left with it....and didn't even bother looking at the 'smokey' one.

As soon as I held the '05 I couldn't let it go, the neck just fitted into my hand perfectly. It was clear to me why it bad been previously well played. I took a good look at the frets and I don't think they are as bad as the pictures suggested. I'm confident I will be able to level & crown myself if needed - and as for the nibs (oops!!), I think they will be ok lol. I just had a bad feeling about the smokey one the more I thought about it so feel like I've lucked out with the 05.

Anyway, I'll do a proper NGD soon - I'm going to try to do a whole cleanup and string change today - if my newborn son gives me a couple of free hours that is!

I'm completely buzzing to be a SG owner!

Cool, congratulations!

As for the nibs (that is a funny word), they are a nice looking finishing detail as far as I'm concerned but playability and sound trumps visual appearance every time, IMO :)

 

[Bonzo21]

As soon as I held the '05 I couldn't let it go, the neck just fitted into my hand perfectly. It was clear to me why it bad been previously well played. I took a good look at the frets and I don't think they are as bad as the pictures suggested. I'm confident I will be able to level & crown myself if needed - and as for the nibs (oops!!), I think they will be ok lol. I just had a bad feeling about the smokey one the more I thought about it so feel like I've lucked out with the 05.

I have never held a guitar that needed a fretjob that wasn't amazing. Nobody plays a shitty guitar that much, esp. not gibson frets (they are not as soft as some import frets). Happy there is still some life left in them anyways, might as well hold off as long as no issues pop up.

Anyway, I'll do a proper NGD soon - I'm going to try to do a whole cleanup and string change today - if my newborn son gives me a couple of free hours that is!

I hear ya man! Those little ones will nap forever on a regular day, but when you decide to replace a nut or you are 3 strings into a string change, they seem to just know that its the worst time to wake up and do ahahahah

 

[flatrockmobile]

BTW, love the profile pic. One baby out of the case, another in the case!

Congrats on the well loved SG. That was a great choice.
You are correct in that a light level and crown should be all it would need. I would try that first anyway.
Make sure the neck is dead straight when you start and go very slow on the leveling, checking it every few strokes not to take off too much.

 

[GrumpyOldDBA]

Congrats on your new SG. Yeah I dunno I would play it for a week or two before you decide if frets are needed immediately. It does look like a good cleanup and new strings might be a big immediate difference.

 

[Biddlin]

I would play it for a week or two before you decide if frets are needed immediately.

I have a Les Paul with frets that look much worse and it plays like a dream. When I start getting fret-out and/or buzzing I'll think about fixing 'em.

 

[Bubbalou88]

Hi guys,

First time poster here, I'm usually over on MLP but I'm hoping to pick up my first ever SG very soon and was hoping you could clear up some confusion for me.

very nice!

I'm looking at a second hand SG. The serial number dates it from 2004. It looks like a standard but it does kind of look like a satin/faded finish (pics aren't the best). What's also confusing is the trap inlays, bound neck and the almost gold/yellow headstock inlays. The fingerboard is also
nice and dark...could it be ebony?

My knowledge on SG's is limited but it would be amazing if someone here could tell me a bit more about what I'm looking at. The bridge has been put on upside down and the soldering on the pots tells me something may have been tinkered with. The tuners have been changed to klusons assuming it originally came with Gibson deluxe tuners.

Thank you!

View attachment 39593 View attachment 39594 View attachment 39595 View attachment 39596 View attachment 39597 View attachment 39598

 

[Gibbo SG]

I dont know what work it needs done, but that's just a really nice modern wide-guard SG, and a cut above others of that model. A keeper to be sure. I'd have the frets rounded off. That thin-case Tune-O-Matic bridge is first class cool.

 

[gball]

Guys, I'm so appreciative of all of your input and advice so far. I think I'm really going to enjoy my time here at ETSG :)

I went and visited the guy with the well worn '05 standard first....left with it....and didn't even bother looking at the 'smokey' one.

As soon as I held the '05 I couldn't let it go, the neck just fitted into my hand perfectly. It was clear to me why it bad been previously well played. I took a good look at the frets and I don't think they are as bad as the pictures suggested. I'm confident I will be able to level & crown myself if needed - and as for the nibs (oops!!), I think they will be ok lol. I just had a bad feeling about the smokey one the more I thought about it so feel like I've lucked out with the 05.

Anyway, I'll do a proper NGD soon - I'm going to try to do a whole cleanup and string change today - if my newborn son gives me a couple of free hours that is!

I'm completely buzzing to be a SG owner!

Yah, those frets are not at all bad. Give it a level and you've got years to go before you will need to replace them. I've had guitars with dramatically more wear than that (one of my current SG's in fact) and they play fine without any fretting-out.

 

[skydog6653]

@Dcurran87 out of curiosity, what kind of prices are they listed at?

 

[nasticanasta]

Hi guys,

First time poster here, I'm usually over on MLP but I'm hoping to pick up my first ever SG very soon and was hoping you could clear up some confusion for me.

I'm looking at a second hand SG. The serial number dates it from 2004. It looks like a standard but it does kind of look like a satin/faded finish (pics aren't the best). What's also confusing is the trap inlays, bound neck and the almost gold/yellow headstock inlays. The fingerboard is also
nice and dark...could it be ebony?

My knowledge on SG's is limited but it would be amazing if someone here could tell me a bit more about what I'm looking at. The bridge has been put on upside down and the soldering on the pots tells me something may have been tinkered with. The tuners have been changed to klusons assuming it originally came with Gibson deluxe tuners.

Thank you

I was going to say someone put relic’d hardware on it, as for ebony fretboard, no, I have a 94 that has ebony, I think that’s the last for that or damned close

 

[SGMarshall]

I think the guitar was made to look old. It has what looks like a replacement abr-1 bridge because it doesn’t screw into the body like the original abr1s did. Also, the tuners could be relicd’ WD Gibson tuners. The pickups were probably swapped from the 498/490 set to something more vintage sounding. That’s my 2¢. Cool guitar no matter what.

 

[Nortally]

Did anyone mention a price? Except for the PU's, it looks just like a used 2016 Standard Cherry w/P90s I picked up from GC last year for about $1K. Not exactly a deal, but an OK price for the features I wanted, and the ability to return it if it wasn't right. I figure I paid about $300-400 extra because it's a Standard and not a Special (inlaid headstock logo, trapezoidal neck inlay, edge binding), but I wanted a premium axe that was also a player and I wanted P90s. It's everything I'd hoped for.

 

[panacea]

You're going to love the SG, it's a completely different animal than a LP. I traded a LP Studio faded cherry plus 2 bills for my 2012 Standard, I think it's a work of art....

 

[Greg Coats]

My gut reaction when I saw the tuners is that they were aftermarket or self-relic'd... If I'm right it might explain the abr-1 and the non-factory solder (does gibson even use clothwire?). They may have put in some other pickups (or removed them to age the covers). The finish may have been sanded to a satin and polished to a semi-gloss to age the guitar... I say this because on the headstock at that lighting angle you can see what appears to be sanding marks all going in the same direction. the yellowing of all the plastics and the fretboard could be leather dye/shoe-polish...

Disclaimer: I might be WAY off. It could be natural aging...

No I totally agree that's a relic job or someone who hung out playing at a beach every day. I don't know what the guy wants but a quick check on the Verb showed a price range of $945 to $1199 for 2005 standards as of this minute. If it needs a refret you prolly wouldn't want to pay over $750 imho.

 

[Westernrider]

Fret Ware?
This, as already noted is not a death sentence for a Gibson. I've got a Epiphone Casino that I bought used around 1973 for $250.00 or so. The owner needed a Strat to do country with his band. Since this guitar was mine, it has been dressed and redressed and redressed ....... finally in about 2005, came the bad news, the frets are too low. And this was the best she ever played ...... So, she got a refret, with nibs over new binding. So, here is one well used Epiphone that went over 32 years before it needed a refret.
Yes, there is hope.

 

[bgh]

My SG is from '76. No fret work at all done on it yet. It gets a lot of playing. You can see a lot of wear on the fretboard.

Frets don't wear down and age overnight. It takes time. Each time we play, we wear them down oh so little at a time - tiny, tiny incremental changes.
Because we are "there" for each of those incremental changes, we don't notice them. I think we are daily making extremely minute allowances for how our guitars change. Over a number of years our playing of that guitar has often been subconsciously modified to match those changes in the guitar.

If on week 2 after I bought my SG back in the '70s you had swapped it for how it is in 2019, I probably would say something about how they play differently. Kind of like aging. We don't really notice how different we look because we see ourselves each day. But someone who hasn't seen us in 10 years notices the differences right away.

I know it's kind of weird way to look it. But the line of thinking came to me as I was comparing my SG to those in some of the pictures you guys have posted in this thread.

 

[jtees4]

I finally figured out what kind of SG you have....a cool one. Play it and good luck.

 

[Gibbo SG]

I'll solve the mystery for you: if this guitar had an ebony fretboard, you'd have paid double for that beauty. Very fine Madagascar rosewood. Secondly, the pickups are aftermarket, I'd leave them if they sound good. The traditional klusons and nickelplate hardware are clues to me that someone really liked this SG a lot. They tried to make it very oldschool, traditional if you will.
Looks like a guitar I'd own, as it's been all modded up the way I would've done.

 

[Col Mustard]

pretty cool array of opinions...
the OP gets to read all and make up his own mind.