For the most part I am happy to put 2020 in the rear view mirror. One bright spot for me was completing a series of repairs to restore my SG. It is a 1964 Standard that had been modified by its previous owner. I bought the guitar in 1974. I had limited knowledge about guitars and a limited budget. I didn't realize at the time that the previous owner's modifications had dulled the sound and caused problems. Here is a photo of the guitar before I began the restoration. The batwing guard was added to cover a rout for a third pickup. Note that the bridge is not angled as it should be. The previous owner installed an aftermarket base with posts for the bridge which he claimed improved sustain. The low strings would not intonate properly as a result. He also installed the Bigsby, which was not the right model for a flat top solid body. To compensate, he countersunk the Bigsby in the top, which limited arm travel and was ugly. The tone of the guitar was dull, especially the low strings. It sat in a closet for a long time due to these problems. Several years ago I decided to fix it up, which led me to this forum. The first thing I did was remove the bridge post base plate, which had been routed into the top. The rout was filled with mahogany. Holes were drilled for factory style posts set at the proper angle. This fixed the intonation problem. I never liked the hacked up Bigsby, so I decided to install a Gibson style vibrola. Filling the rout under the Bigsby was beyond my capability. I had that work performed by a very fine repair shop in my area. The vibrola covers much of the patch but not all of it. The shop owner did an excellent job blending the finish of the patch to match the original finish. I also had him reinstall the original Klusons and touch up the holes from the Grovers. Here is the result. Not only was I was very happy with the look of the vibrola, to my surprise, the tone and sustain are improved. The guitar is now close at hand and I play it almost everyday. I thank all the knowledgeable people here who helped me along the way!
Nice! 1964 with batwing. I like that a lot. Vintage SG with batwing and 1-11/16 nut width. My favorite combo. That’s awesome!
Here are a few more photos. The color of the back has hardly faded. The headstock has been touched up to fill in screw holes for the Grovers that were on the guitar before the latest work.
