gun metal green SG

[plopswagon]

Definitely a time machine.

[Fakir Mustache]

That kind of reminds me of that SG90 model they made in the late 80s.

They had 24 frets and diamond markers, and also had a one pickup version and various tailpieces and finishes. I vaguely remember an olive drab one, but search engines screw it up by showing P90 models.

[Freddy V-C]

God damn, this looks cool as hell.

[Fakir Mustache]

There was a Flying V as well.

[NickS]

But this one looks like it has the holes for stop tailpiece? Wonder if someone has converted it to "standard" SG spec, then back again?

And the holes for a tunomatic bridge, I think, without the inserts.

[dots]

i've gone back and forth as to whether i'll return it to spec or not. it definitely looks to have been modded at some point, but i don't know by whom. good call on check the case for old parts, fingers crossed there's something there!

thinking i'll spend a few hours cleaning it up (new strings, intonate, treating the neck, wiping everything down, control cavity inspection, etc.) this weekend before making that decision. tried just tuning it yesterday and had trouble, so i'll bet the electronics need some love to start with.

EDIT: and the extra switches are for coil splitting, one for each pickup. i think if i do make any hardware adjustments, i'll leave the pickup selection/switching alone. might change the pickups themselves unless i get them plugged in and fall in love.

[Thomas]

I posted a bit on the previous page. It’s current state is stock (apart from the coil splits) the evidence of the stop bar etc seems to be a remainder of someone attempting to make it into a “normal” SG at some point.

Obviously a beast such as this cannot be tamed.

[dots]

ah got it... the tuners have also been replaced, so i put 2 and 2 together and thought it was all modded. i'm leaning toward at least replacing those with more standard tuners.

[Thomas]

I think these shipped with black Grovers originally so you can put them back to stock and benefit.

[dots]

excellent!

[Thomas]

The colour is Pewter apparently. Even tho the later pewter colour was essentially the same silver as the platinum ones (confusing). I’ve seen enough of these with the Dimarzio style pickups to believe that you could buy them that way.

Here’s a stock one:

[dezb1]

Nice reminds me of a Yamaha SG 1300t that I STUPIDLY sold when I knew no better

[dots]

did some cleanup on saturday with some sprays of dunlop 65. the neck took to that like a thirsty workhorse. very clean now, and a beautiful, dark tone has emerged from the grime. frets will probably need to be redressed, but they're in mostly good shape near as i can tell. neck itself seems maybe a little straight, but not bowed terribly in one direction or the other.

tried to change strings with my beloved bullets, but the receivers in the bridge are specifically manufactured to take the standard ball end. so i restrung with a set of dean markley 9s that were still in the case before i realized they were probably purchased in the early/mid 90s. the package was like a time capsule, including a form to request dean markley's swag catalog, circa clinton era, complete with logo'd, acid washed, denim jacket! not a fan of 9s, so i will likely swap out for some 10s or 11s in a few weeks, but this at least let me plug it in.

other than a little bit of difficulty getting a reliable connection from the guitar cable at first (explained later), the electronics at least play very well. odd thing, though: the positions of the controls have all be reversed -- volume knobs, 3-way pickup selector, and coil splitting toggles are all positioned and operated the opposite where they'd be standard. since that is consistent for all of the controls, it's not difficult to adjust to while playing. beyond that, i have to say this is a very versatile performer's axe. metal tones sing throatily, and dropping back to a single coil on the neck pickup cleaned up with amazing brightness and clarity.

opened the electronics cavity on the back (forgot to take photos) saw it had been completely shielded with copper tape. the wiring itself is a little meh, using very thin wires which were soldered adequately though not pristinely to the pots and switches. i bent the input jack inward a little bit which resolved the connection issue. if i end up doing anything with this aspect of the guitar, it would probably be simply de/re-solder the pickup wires to put them back to how one would normally expect to operate the guitar.

i'll put up some more photos this week. i'm leaning more toward doing very little to it beyond heavier strings and addressing the controls.

[plopswagon]

Did they shield the trem cavity?

[dots]

did not remove.

[Thomas]

Sounds like a great guitar! Easy enough to wire it back the right way if you want to.