NGD & NAD!! Epiphone 1966 SG and Kustom Defender v15

luciguci · Post by **luciguci** » Fri Aug 24, 2012 5:34 am

Remember that OLP that I got for 70 bucks? (if you don't, oh well. pretend you remember) I sold it for 220 earlier this week, and my Fat Sandwich for 80.

I got this SG for 140 off of Craigslist and I love it. All I did was adjust pick up heights, fix the intonation on the G string, and tighten one of the pots and the switch because they fell loose in their place. After all that, this plays pretty awesome. But the stock Grover tuners are kinda meh. They contribute to making this so neck heavy, might replace them with GFS vintage style tuners to reduce some of the neck weight.

I love that pickups are not as hot as the ones on the OLP, I can turn up my Kustom Contender louder than 9:00 and barely hit break up. They're awesome clean and with the amp cranked and with my Behringer Big Muff copy.

The only flaw is that it's neck broke right at the heel, but it was repaired, and repaired well enough for me. So I don't plan on beating this guitar. I would buy an Epiphone SG Special if I wanted to smash something.

Pics to come later because I'm lazy and my phone is fucked so I'll have to borrow my dad's camera.

Also, I bought a Kustom Defender v15 combo on fleabay for 250, I'm waiting for that to ship from Texas.

luciguci · Post by **luciguci** » Fri Aug 24, 2012 6:02 am

here's the pictures
by the way, I will get nice and proper sunshine pics tomorrow

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Edit: Shit, those should've gone in spoiler tags from the start.

luciguci · Post by **luciguci** » Fri Aug 24, 2012 8:51 pm

And I got my amp today, a Kustom Defender v15 and it looks damn spiffy and amazing.

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HNB · Post by **HNB** » Fri Aug 24, 2012 8:53 pm

Nice!

Zeezee · Post by **Zeezee** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 10:07 am

So what's the Kustom Defender like? Any good?

MrJamesBrown · Post by **MrJamesBrown** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 7:37 pm

Batwing scratchplates on SG's are win!

luciguci · Post by **luciguci** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 9:30 am

Zeezee wrote:So what's the Kustom Defender like? Any good?

In my opinion, hell yes it's good. I like to keep it all the way on British for clean and all the way American with the volume cranked.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 10:01 am

I have a Kustom Contender, the 18-watter with an 8 inch speaker, and it's pretty nice. I like it. Great practice amp.

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 10:20 am

Your Grovers aren't responsible for your SG's neck dive, the fact that it's an SG probably is though. I've had the same G400 with both modern and vintage tuners and it makes no difference dude... reposition your strap button to the upper horn if it's a real problem, recent issue DC LPs and the Iommi SG have done this for a better balance.

Zeezee · Post by **Zeezee** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 11:01 am

daftsupernova wrote:
Zeezee wrote:So what's the Kustom Defender like? Any good?
In my opinion, hell yes it's good. I like to keep it all the way on British for clean and all the way American with the volume cranked.

What's the amp gain like? Is it thin, fizzy and cheap sounding like a Crate V5 or something? Particularly interested in the British side, for a lower gain, Marshall vibe. Is this a viable alternative to a Fender Pro Jr (which i'd stick a Celestion greenback 10 in anyway)?

SGJarrod · Post by **SGJarrod** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 4:13 pm

paul_ wrote:Your Grovers aren't responsible for your SG's neck dive, the fact that it's an SG probably is though. I've had the same G400 with both modern and vintage tuners and it makes no difference dude....

I find vintage tuners do help but it is not a complete solution.... all the SG's I have owned neck dive 2x as bad with grovers..imo

also epiphone = more neck dive than a Gibson in my experience

George · Post by **George** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 5:57 pm

Buy a suede strap.

luciguci · Post by **luciguci** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 6:30 pm

I've learnede to deal with the neck dive, my elbow just holds it up. Wasn't hard to figure out after a while.

Zeezee wrote:
daftsupernova wrote:
Zeezee wrote:So what's the Kustom Defender like? Any good?
In my opinion, hell yes it's good. I like to keep it all the way on British for clean and all the way American with the volume cranked.
What's the amp gain like? Is it thin, fizzy and cheap sounding like a Crate V5 or something? Particularly interested in the British side, for a lower gain, Marshall vibe. Is this a viable alternative to a Fender Pro Jr (which i'd stick a Celestion greenback 10 in anyway)?

I haven't played the British side cranked in a while, but I'll play it later today and let you know.

luciguci · Post by **luciguci** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 10:15 pm

I'm back, and after playing at 4 watts and comparing it to the Crate, yes, it sounds way better than the Crate, from British to American. Too loud for bedroom playing cranked at 15 watts, but that doesn't stop me from doing it when I'm home alone.

Zeezee · Post by **Zeezee** » Thu Sep 13, 2012 1:21 pm

Thanks daftsupernova. Funnily enough i just read an online review, from a UK Guitar mag, that was published only yesterday. They mention it has big transformers (which surprised me). Anyway, i bit the bullet and ordered one. It's pretty cheap and if i keep my expectations low. Maybe, it could make an unfashionable gigging amp, that nobody would want to borrow