a story about an SG

[stagekraft]

You know the old adage....

"It's better to remain quiet and be thought a fool, then to open your mouth and remove all doubt".....

 

[WavMixer]

I have been known to open my mouth and remove all doubt on many occasions

 

[Col Mustard]

Well guys, two steps forward, one step back.......

Plugged it in and everything worked as it should, so I went to push the knobs on, and every one I pushed on, pushed the pots apart inside.......

Now, I've been dealing with electronics for 35+ years, and I've never had pots do this from pushing on a knob.....
And they are CTS pots, I'll have to reassemble each one and solder down the little tabs.

And the pots.....
View attachment 25626

Here's what I think happened:
The knobs don't fit the posts, because the knurling is wrong, and you pushed hard enough
to break the pots inside.

I did it too, but only to one of my new CTS pots. I didn't know that there are two sizes of
knurling: "coarse" and "Fine." You have to buy knobs that will fit on the coarse knurling of the
CTS pot. Or else you have to do as my luthier did and ream out the inside of the fine knurled
knob, so it will fit on a CTS shaft.

The first (and only) time this happened to me, I took it to my luthier guy, all unhappy.
I had paid top dollar for a well made wiring harness for my favorite SG, and then personally installed
it properly, tested it successfully, re-installed the control cover, and then went to push on the knobs.
The first one I pushed on caused a dreadful noise... so I stopped right there. Oh ****...

My luthier told me that CTS pots are repairable. I didn't know that either. So he fixed it for me,
and patted my hand, "there there... don't cry... she'll be all right now..."

And everything 's been great since then. Typical me, try to fix one thing and break something else.

 

[stagekraft]

yep, looks like the old pots have a coarser knurl than the new ones.....

Just ordered a set of "official" Gibson Top Hat knobs, hope they fit better.......

 

[stagekraft]

well fellas,

a few years have passed since my last post on this SG...

I pulled her down off the wall this morning to give here a good wipe down, and noticed something I had not noticed before...

There's no dot on the Gibson "i", WTF I thought as my heart sank thinking I had been duped as to the guitars authenticity!

But a little research eased my mind when I found this was common in certain years, but 1988 didn't seem to be one of those years.
I ran the SN again and it still comes up as July 1988.

By the descriptions, I'm pretty sure this is a "62 re-issue" model, could that have anything to do with the missing dot?

Anyone else seen this year/model with the missing dot?

Here's some pics off the body/neck joint/headstock..

John

 

[Bad Penguin]

I am going to get flack here, but I wish you bad luck with it. You KNEW what it was, you KNEW they needed the money, and offered chump change. Uncool. If she had asked 50 bucks, then yeah, no biggie. But you offered 50, KNOWING what it most likely was.

 

[stagekraft]

oh, ouch, a burn...

gee dude, I cant help what I did 20 years ago, water under the bridge...

I'm just looking for answers to my "no dot situation"...

Good luck to you though, you must deserve it

 

[Col Mustard]

ETSG will give you high marks for perseverance... Don't worry about the absence of a dot
There are years when Gibson made them like that, and years when they added a dot.
You can google Gibson headstock changes and see pictures.
There's a thread on this site where someone did just that, and all the varying years of
Gibson headstocks are shown. You can find it here or online.

And most of us will forgive you buying the bare guitar for $50.00... there was no way to know
whether it had more issues or was really going to be worth anything.
We don't believe in cheating grieving widows, but if the bare guitar belonged to the
mother's boyfriend, that's something else. Maybe he was a jerk.

Rock that sucker!

So now, if it's all done, we'd like to read your review. Not everyone who's into Les Pauls
can dig the SG... but some guys say, "Man, where was this guitar all my life."

That was my experience. I bonded with my first one right away. And it's 12 years later and she's
still the Queen of my music room. Except I no longer have a music room. But I've still got the
Queen.

So tell us how you like your rescued instrument. Tone... feel of the neck... frets... balance...
weight... how if fits into your music, (or NOT!)...

 

[stagekraft]

well, long time in replying, but I retired the first of the year and it seems I have less time now than when I worked....

I've been remodeling a room in my workshop (a 20 X 40 building connected to a 30 X 50 building, this room is 20 X 20 close to the swimming pool, so its a poolroom/gameroom/partyroom/jamroom).

I've not played in a real band for years, but manage to do a few throw together gigs a year (even through this pandemic).

This SG was a surprise to me, took years to put together but the final result is favorable. The body was a bit beat up when I got it, but I did not try to make it look real pretty, just tried to put it together period correct (and kinda look like it's been played that way for years).

String height and action is really good, neck is straight, and plays well for what I do, strung up with Ernie Ball Slinky 10's (I like heavier strings as I play acoustic a lot, I've never been the whammy-jammy lead player, always the rhythm player/singer).

I've taken it out a couple times, mostly to show it off to my (lead playing) friends, and have been complimented on it's play ability.

While I'm more of an LP guy, this is a guitar that I can comfortably play...

I've had a few LP's over the years (even a LP signature, semi-hollow body, that I regret selling), but my favorite "stage guitar" is an '81 Gibson Sonex 180 Deluxe, still my go-to stage guitar.

I bought this guitar around "83 (slightly used), this is probably the cheapest guitar Gibson made at the time, the body is some kind of composite with a plastic coating (as I found out when I stripped it to repaint years ago), bolt on neck (headstock broke twice due to kids/dogs knocking it of a guitar stand in the living room), but this composite body is so solid, sustain is amazing, I've upgraded electronics a couple times over the years...

Anyway, the SG is a fine guitar, but at this point it is mostly a wall hanger (along with a half dozen others) over my bar...

 

[stagekraft]

Alright everyone, yeah I'm not here a lot, joined this forum years back just to discuss this SG.

Now I'm thinking of selling it it, need some cash to re-vamp my PA, and as I've said, I'm really not an SG guy, but it is a pretty thing hanging on my wall...

If you follow this thread you will see the history of how I came upon it, and what I have done to rebuild it a as a decent replica of what it originally was. I tried to restore it best I could, without degrading what it was. I installed a complete wiring harness from 420D, along with some Seymour Duncan Pickups, and period looking Kluson tuners. found a pick-guard and truss cover and such on ebay, fab'd my own stainless steel cavity cover...

I've been talking about this guitar here for the last ten years, took a little ribbing from other members...

But here we sit, very nice SG, hanging on the wall, and the new parts I have added are now looking aged..
As I said, I could have fixed all the nicks and scratches, and gave it a fresh shiny coat of lacquer, but I wanted it to look as it should for a 35 year old guitar.

Anybody willing to give me a realistic offer before I list it on Reverb or Ebay??

 

[PermissionToLand]

The missing dot is not uncommon for Gibsons built in ANY year. The only year in particular that was special was 1969 when most or all lacked the dot.

I'm not making an offer but I'll say that a fair price would be around what a new '61 Standard costs.

 

[Col Mustard]

Col says:
"I'll give ya fifty bucks..."

 

[Eismal]

This is not a SG story. Its a story about greed. Poor son recommend his father as expert and 10 years later father still raving on about how he ripped her of.