4wight
Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2018
- Messages
- 34
- Reaction score
- 41
My latest Gibson SG project, a 1971 SG Professional. The prior owner had refinished it in black, but it had become almost unplayable. SGs of this period had a fretboard parallel to the body, which means that it's hard to get a playable string action if the neck angle shifts slightly upwards, as this one has. (This was a known issue with this model, perhaps because of the size of the pickup route so close to the neck). Consequently when I got it, it had been stripped of everything, including the truss rod cover. The lower string height at the bridge required modifying a roller bridge (i.e. filing the lugs thinner so it sat closer to the body), but it made it a natural for a Bigsby - the reduced break angle due to the lower bridge height is better for tuning stability. The original routes for the pickups were huge, literally the same size as a dog-ear pickup cover, on top of which they had a thick pickup mounting ring, making the pickups look oversized on the SG body. I had a pair of Sandford Magnetic P90s which sounded great so used them mounted with dog-ear covers, using a custom bracket inside the pickup route. A single volume and tone knob left room for a killswitch and the output jack was relocated to the side. The guitar has a very skinny neck 40 mm at the nut, and the addition of a brass nut gives it a nice chimey sound on the open strings. Here's a before and after.
It is very much it's own animal, and now 30 years later it is one of my favorites and is totally different than anything else I own. I still don't have anything with P-90s in it yet, so who knows, if the right one comes along there may still be another in my future.
