Dating 1965 SG Standard

[S.Ustain]

That's one of those "they're not making any more" guitars, and with Murphy Lab fakes being priced so high, there may be a market for it even at $10K. All the repairs are for faults and damage common to SGs, with the fragile control pocket area, the face-mounted jack, and the worlds's most fragile neck joint. Leaving it as-is with only some very small repairs showing is, I think, what many buyers would prefer. It shows "relic" age, but not the factory or Murphy Lab cooked-up fakery. Looking at the front pickup cavity and the interior of the neck joint, it looks like there is a thin gap between the wood of the pocket and the sides of the neck. If that's really the case, I would do something about it, as SG necks are hanging on for dear life as it is. Personally, I would stain and finish over the very light mahogany at the jack patch, not really trying to disguise it. The one thing that this guitar really needs to look it's age is for you to jump on the headstock and crack where it joins the neck. An old Gibson without a neck crack? Fake! You've done a nice job repairing a nice old SG.

 

[dmccauley]

UPDATE!
I finished the work on the SG. Working to reset the neck revealed some further corner cutting from the previous repair work, which required me to replace to chipped/poorly filled pieces of mahogany near the neck joint. The late owner's other son plays more electric then the son that initially approached me about the guitar, so he actually took it and has been playing it. He had also not elected to have any cosmetic work done to it, and was fine with how it was. They were bother very pleased with the work, since the guitar had been mostly unplayable in their lifetime. I put some reflector knobs on it, and provided the witch-hat knobs in a baggy. I replaced the nut with a new bone one and replaced the nylon saddles with new Kluson ones.

 

[Derrick]

That's one of those "they're not making any more" guitars, and with Murphy Lab fakes being priced so high, there may be a market for it even at $10K. All the repairs are for faults and damage common to SGs, with the fragile control pocket area, the face-mounted jack, and the worlds's most fragile neck joint. Leaving it as-is with only some very small repairs showing is, I think, what many buyers would prefer. It shows "relic" age, but not the factory or Murphy Lab cooked-up fakery. Looking at the front pickup cavity and the interior of the neck joint, it looks like there is a thin gap between the wood of the pocket and the sides of the neck. If that's really the case, I would do something about it, as SG necks are hanging on for dear life as it is. Personally, I would stain and finish over the very light mahogany at the jack patch, not really trying to disguise it. The one thing that this guitar really needs to look it's age is for you to jump on the headstock and crack where it joins the neck. An old Gibson without a neck crack? Fake! You've done a nice job repairing a nice old SG.

C'mon, I own and have owned many, many vintage Gibson's including SGs and none had/have neck, body or jack breaks. It certainly happened, but is not the norm or anything. Also, I would argue that Rickenbacker may not be much stronger than an SG I wholeheartedly agree about how nice it is that this guitar wasn't re-worked to try and look better by posing with a refin or other attempts to polish it up to look less worn. Why do people think they have to try and make some old guitars look newer?

UPDATE!
I finished the work on the SG. Working to reset the neck revealed some further corner cutting from the previous repair work, which required me to replace to chipped/poorly filled pieces of mahogany near the neck joint. The late owner's other son plays more electric then the son that initially approached me about the guitar, so he actually took it and has been playing it. He had also not elected to have any cosmetic work done to it, and was fine with how it was. They were bother very pleased with the work, since the guitar had been mostly unplayable in their lifetime. I put some reflector knobs on it, and provided the witch-hat knobs in a baggy. I replaced the nut with a new bone one and replaced the nylon saddles with new Kluson ones.

Really nice... so glad this guitar has been made playable again, that it was an honest restore rather than trying to polish it up with unnatural upgrades like a refin, and that this has a happy ending.

 

[Les’s Nemisis]

Nice work.

If it was me, I’d likely take a deep red furniture pen and color the repair bits. No more than that, but I’d make it match. But that’s me.

I can see leaving it unfinished. To actually redo the finish and try to make it blend seamlessly would be a travesty.