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Picked this up for £5, the cheapest guitar I’ve ever bought, but for a reason. It had been painted, without masking, in a silver paint that had clearly never dried, and a tree had been carved into the front, a tuner was broken, it had a badly cut nut and was missing the backplate.

The intention was to do it on as small a budget as I could, so after a false start with some clear that I’d been storing for too long and wouldn’t dry, this is what I ended up with:

Sanded, (it turned out the body is mahogany, the neck maple) the contours defined more clearly (they weren’t quite right on the original). Tree filled, body sealed then painted satin black. Deliberately thin finish, I want to see how it wears over time. £5 for the guitar, £5 for 5 tins of satin black, a couple of quid in sealer and a set of Grover minis, pots, switch and strap buttons I had in my parts box.

It had been painted with the electrics etc still on so I had to clean up the hardware with acetone and a green washing up sponge. It turned out that as stock the pickups aren’t terrible (same as a PRS SE) so I reused those and a couple of pots, replaced the other two, the wiring, switch and jack. It didn’t need a massive amount of setting up, new secondhand nut, relief and action set - the fretwork is great so nothing needed there. I made the backplate from a black plastic storage box, it’s a bit rough and ready but will do in lieu of some proper material down the line.

I’m pretty pleased with it TBH, from a pretty cheap, trashed SG copy to a nice playing and sounding guitar.

Looks ace, Nick! Lovely paint job.

Freddy V-C wrote: ↑Mon Jun 27, 2022 9:19 am Looks ace, Nick! Lovely paint job.

Thanks Freddy, the finish isn’t perfect but pleased with it nonetheless.

Yeah, looks cool.

Did the wall of vinyls come for free?

Just kidding, great job, NickD! Love the black SG

Aye, absolutely insane vinyl collection. Mine just about barely fills two of those Kallax compartments.

It’s a fair few decades of record buying though, to be fair - I started buying them around ‘86/87.

Looks good Nick!

Looks good Nick!

That looks great, well done!

The black on black looks fantastic. Nice Job.

NickD wrote: ↑Mon Jun 27, 2022 11:51 am It’s a fair few decades of record buying though, to be fair - I started buying them around ‘86/87.

That's probably the biggest collection I've seen anywhere.

Looks great. Something about a really matte finish with super shiny clean hardware and strings looks great.

how's the action on that babby? looks high.

sunshiner wrote: ↑Mon Jun 27, 2022 5:54 pm

NickD wrote: ↑Mon Jun 27, 2022 11:51 am It’s a fair few decades of record buying though, to be fair - I started buying them around ‘86/87.

That's probably the biggest collection I've seen anywhere.

I know someone with over 40,000 records so with a couple of thousand I’ve just about got my training wheels. The records have got to stay in that room so it’s one in one out at this point, the shelves are pretty much full. I have music on for 6-8 hours a day though so they see plenty of use.

Gavin wrote: ↑Mon Jun 27, 2022 7:00 pm how's the action on that babby? looks high.

Probably around medium. I set all my guitars with around 1.5mm on the treble side, and 1.7 or so on the bass at the 12th fret.

That's pretty low by my standards. One of the reasons I'm wary of set neck guitars is the inability to shim the neck.

Gavin wrote: ↑Mon Jun 27, 2022 8:41 pm That's pretty low by my standards. One of the reasons I'm wary of set neck guitars is the inability to shim the neck.

Most I’ve had have been fine, but I did have a 70 SG special that had a neck angle that was a little too shallow and I never really got it set up as I wanted as a result.

kinda dig the matte finish, gives it a goth vibe. nicely done!

Everyone knows the shim is really in your fingers.

Very tidy!!! I live that finish, very swish!!

(I love the record collection too!)