Turning a 2019 Gibson SG Special into a "1963" Gibson SG Special

bad_alice · September 2022

#SGSpecial63project

This is going to be a LONG post.
Best settle back in your chair and get comfy.

Got a drink to hand? Check.

Snack/s? Check.

Well alright then. Let's begin...

First, let me start with a fact.
I am NEVER going to own either an actual 60s Gibson SG Special or a Custom Shop version. God no. And for two reasons; the first being that my GAS budget simply does not extend that far, but the other, even more pertinent reason, is that the idea of owning such a guitar and the associated anxieties around loss, damage – I hate to brag but my inherent clumsiness is often compared to a newly born Bambi but with way less "awwww, how cute" from those within the blast radius – and necessary insurance mean that I really don’t WANT to either. Yes, USA Gibsons are still fucking expensive. But my brain can just about cope with jumping on a Scotrail train to head to rehearsal with one of them in a gigbag and feeling able to fully let loose and PLAY the thing without 5% of my brain constantly on a scoping mission for hazards or possible thieves. Obviously, carrying any kind of guitar in a gigbag has the identical effect as a lightbulb to a moth for any falling down drunk bloke to sit beside me and kindly offer a can in exchange for "geez a tune doll" but hey, enough of the giddy perks of Glasgow area evening travel and onwards with the SG plan...

Bearing the above in mind and that, as I mentioned in my previous post, 2019 saw Gibson, at long last, release a properly specced reissue of their 60s Gibson SG Special in the USA range, meant that if I was willing to spend around £450-£500 on top of what I paid for a second hand one of these guitars? Then the possibility of creating something that would deliver the looks, vibe and sound of one of those waaaaay too expensive/precious/anxiety inducing guitars was now an avenue open to me.

BOOM. Let’s do it!

Link to specs of 2019 Gibson SG Special specs: https://www.gibson.com/en-US/Electric-Guitar/USAFN1750/Vintage-Sparkling-Burgundy ;

The first part of this projct was sending the guitar off to @Iamf68 in mid January. As many of you know, Ceri is a bloody legend and approaching sorcerer status where all things finish and relic are concerned. He's been kind enough to accept a few refinish projects from me and scored a blinder on every single one. That made him the obvious choice for this one then. As it turned out this job took longer than usual but honestly, that was fine with me. Life can get in the way of all of us and, guess what, that can happen to stellar guitar refinishers too. I was happy to let this job take as long as it needed to anyway, as an on-going guitar project is always an excellent “oasis of escape” for me when real life feels like its closing in a bit too much to be manageable. And there’s been a few of those occasions over the last 6 months. All fine now though. Oh, one more thing. When Ceri popped the SG on his bench under its spotlights he messaged me exclaiming “How the fuck did this pass Gibson QC??!” It appears that it had quite a large paint run under the clear coat layers on the back of the guitar. Had muggins here noticed? NOPE. Lol. An EXTRA reason to get it refinished though! Also worth mentioning is that Ceri estimated the nitro on the front and back of the guitar as approx. 3mm thick. This didn’t come as a huge surprise, my LP was similar, but it does speak to the type of nitro finish assigned to USA models as opposed to the Custom Shop which get a thinner, harder and more authentically 50s/60s nitro finish. Does the guitar feel thinner itself? Not so that I’d notice. I will, however, say that it definitely feels lighter in weight. No I haven’t weighed it but it IS lighter and, hot diggity, its resonance is now off the scale! Playing it acoustically the notes sound markedly louder than any of my other electrics and that pleases me. A lot. So, it’ll not be a surprise to learn that it’s immediately been elevated to “noodling on the sofa” guitar status.
Soooo much awesome.

What else? Oh, something you might not know is that I really wasn’t enjoying the stock P90s that came in these guitars. No, I know Specials have always tended to lean to the hotter side of things where P90s are concerned, so this is defo where I wanted to veer from a true Reissue and add a set of P90s much more to my own tastes. Enter Oil City Pickups and the ever accommodating and lovely Ash. We had a good gab over the phone and ended up agreeing the specs of a set of a personally-handwound-to-my-specs P90s. Here’s the deets of those:

Neck: 7.5K, AlNiCo II

Bridge: 7.9K, AlNiCo V

(Both lightly wax potted)

Happily, some 60s wiring was already in situ so no need for any changes there. This has, much to my delight, meant that the guitar has completely lost its mid focused, rather nasally voice and now has two pickups that deliver bite and attack in the bridge and a softer bell like bloom in the neck while both sounding a little bit scooped and airy. In the way a good P90 should IMO. I guess for reference a BKP Nantucket or Lollar vintage set would cover similar sonic territory.

Next, the chrome wraparound bridge was swapped out for a nickel version and, maybe you already spotted this, but for all the correct specs of the 2020 SG Specials, the tuners were…wrong. And that bugged me. Properly a lot more than it should tbh but when I realise something is wrong on a guitar…I can’t unsee it. Anyway, a set of Kluson 3 on-a-plate nickel button tuners was purchased and that particular issue remedied.

Ah. Hold up a sec.
Gotcha.
It seems I'm near the character limit for a post so...
/contd below

bad_alice · September 2022

/contd

Right then. If a ’63 Special is what you’ve based your Reissue SG Special project on then…a short Vibrola kinda HAS to happen. Plus, and maybe it’s just me, but my brain feels like a wrapround SG has an awful lot of unused “landscape” behind that wraparound bridge. To the extent that there’s almost a “party at the front” – pickups, pickguard, bridge – “wasteland at the back” vibe going on. Which is where a short Vibrola taps you on the shoulder and won’t stop until you accept its place in the order of things. Also, 2 factors were screaming at me in the dead of night:
1. “1963 SG Special FFS!” and
2. The prospect of having a tremolo system on a 2xP90 Gibson? Cooler-than-the-Fonz-French-kissing-a-Cornetto-on-an-iceberg.

So, does it stay in tune? Ish. It’s not perfect but then it’s currently strung with 9s (and brand new 9s at that), so while it’s perfectly usable and, incidentally, offers a heck of a lot more “wobble” than a Bigsby. In fact, dive bombs and semi tone pull ups are all impressively achievable too. Using it regularly for five minutes does tend to leave the bottom three strings a smidge (less than a semi tone) sharp but that’s all. My hope is some mucking about with string gauges and, as ever, ensuring those strings are properly stretched should resolve these quibbles. If not, I have some other ideas but let’s park those until I decide they become necessary.

Once the guitar came home and before it headed off to get the vibrola added, I aged the pickguard so that it better fits the overall vibe and I’m rather pleased with how that’s turned out too. Happy to share how I did that if any of you want to hear more? Let me know...

As you might have noticed @Iamf68 also did a stellar job of aging the hardware, so those tuners and the replaced nickel wraparound bridge now look aged as would be fitting of a 60 year old guitar.

One last point of note, the truss rod cover and the control cavity covered have also been changed but for reasons that have nothing whatsoever to do with my original goal. The truss rod cover now on board was made for me as a gift by the excellent and truly lovely Graham Muir at the now defunct “Raygun Relics” at the time he was refinishing what would be our final guitar project for me. Stupidly, I sold the guitar that thiswas on and so off it went as part of the sale to its new owner. I've kept track of that guitar - it's a Gibson DC Special that has done the rounds on here a couple of times - and politely asked each respective owner if they would consider selling me back the cover. Well, third time lucky does indeed appear to be a thing and I'm hugely grateful to the lovely @Dan_Halen ; who immdiately replied that, as it had been a gift in the first place, it would be gifted to me again. Dan, you're an absolute legend. And I will be sure to make certain this remains safely in my possession from now on. Thank you.

And speaking of Graham, the control cover is one he made when he was playing around with plastics, as one does, and as it fits an SG perfectly its now installed too. It’s made of black plastic but has my name in white embossed in the plastic too. Which is fantastic and a huge help when I forget my name. Playing the guitar AND singing at the same time is sometimes too much for me, so all cognitive crutches are welcome.

Which may well be the rational I lean into whenever it is I’m back working in the office and I’m trying to convince my boss that having a guitar at my desk is part and parcel of a “productive work environment”.

A shit load of pics are below and I’ve tried to include as many as I could find that help demonstrate the journey that this amazing guitar has been on. It’s now exactly as I envisioned all those months back and it now looks/plays/sounds and feels…dare I say?...even better than I’d hoped.

In short, I’m enormously pleased with how this one has turned out.

All the pics you could wish for are here: https://imgur.com/gallery/VhJw1ew

But it feels rude not to post some on this thread so I'll do that below in a sec... Sx

bad_alice · September 2022

lovestrat74 · September 2022

There's the money shot right there! But... surely all this would have cost just as much as a preloved CS SG no?

bad_alice · September 2022

Thanks @lovestrat74 but the total cost ended up being approx £1450 so, if you take into account the current RRP for a USA range Gibson SG Special then it came in at roughly only £50 Edit: £100 more.
Which feels awesome to me.
(I should add that the short vibrola and Kluson 3 on-a-plate tuners were Xmas gifts from my immensely understanding husband)

lovestrat74 · September 2022

bad_alice said:

Thanks @lovestrat74 but the total cost ended up being approx £1450 so, if you take into account the current RRP for a USA range Gibson SG Special then it came in at roughly only £50 more.
Which feels awesome to me.

Nice one! Let's have the secret ingredient to ageing the pickguard then ...

bad_alice · September 2022

lovestrat74 said:

bad_alice said:

Thanks @lovestrat74 but the total cost ended up being approx £1450 so, if you take into account the current RRP for a USA range Gibson SG Special then it came in at roughly only £50 more.
Which feels awesome to me.

Nice one! Let's have the secret ingredient to ageing the pickguard then ...

Happy to reveal all! Let's go:
1. Remove pickguard
2. Scrape the ply edges of the pickguard with a fresh razor then lightly sand/scrub with either 400 grit sandpaper or a nylon kitchen scrubber. Be sure to do this in a variety of direction to avoid circular or single direction swirling.
3. Use stain - I used a slightly watered down blend of Crimson Guitars yellow and amber stains - applied with a cotton bud to the scraped/scrubbed ply edges to a level that looks right to you. Thinking about what edges would be more prone to sweat stain etc is really helpful for a realistic result. And checking out pickguards to use as a visual guide out on Google Images is a solid plan too.
4. (Optional) For a more permanent result spray lightly with a few layers of satin nitro. I used an aerosol for this and have been happy with the results.

Hope that helps!

lovestrat74 · September 2022

bad_alice said:

lovestrat74 said:

bad_alice said:

Thanks @lovestrat74 but the total cost ended up being approx £1450 so, if you take into account the current RRP for a USA range Gibson SG Special then it came in at roughly only £50 more.
Which feels awesome to me.

Nice one! Let's have the secret ingredient to ageing the pickguard then ...

Happy to reveal all! Let's go:
1. Remove pickguard
2. Scrape the ply edges of the pickguard with a fresh razor then lightly sand/scrub with either 400 grit sandpaper or a nylon kitchen scrubber. Be sure to do this in a variety of direction to avoid circular or single direction swirling.
3. Use stain - I used a slightly watered down blend of Crimson Guitars yellow and amber stains - applied with a cotton bud to the scraped/scrubbed ply edges to a level that looks right to you. Thinking about what edges would be more prone to sweat stain etc is really helpful for a realistic result. And checking out pickguards to use as a visual guide out on Google Images is a solid plan too.
4. (Optional) For a more permanent result spray lightly with a few layers of satin nitro. I used an aerosol for this and have been happy with the results.

Hope that helps!

Banked

barnstorm · September 2022

What a result! I'm not hot on Gibson colours – is it an aged Pelham Blue or something else? Reminds me (the colour) of Mike O'Neill's super-cool Rock N Roll Relics Sixty-One.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJvxayaNzY8

4string · September 2022

Stunning. And an extra 10 marks for the pickup selector plate :-)

bad_alice · September 2022

barnstorm said:

What a result! I'm not hot on Gibson colours – is it an aged Pelham Blue or something else? Reminds me (the colour) of Mike O'Neill's super-cool Rock N Roll Relics Sixty-One.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJvxayaNzY8

Thanks for sharing that Mike and yup, it is indeed a similar green, isn't it? My instructions to Ceri were a Pelham Blue that has sat in a shop window for way too long, so the PB would have faded as the nitro clear coat on top would've turned amber as a result. And huge credit to Ceri as, if you look closely at the first two pics, the top bout - where your elbow/forearm would rest - is still blue. I like to think this was due to a virtual shop owner taking this guitar out down from dispaly to rock his socks off with it as it plays so damn well and, in doing so, that part of the guitar hasn't "ambered up" nearly as much. (The questions around where my imagination teeters worryingly into delusion is a convo for another time...)

Btw when it came to deciding on the PB, that's quite a wormhole to fall down! The variety of shades is much like the whole Fender Fiesta Red debate aka akin to sending your mate to B&Q with the instructions "just ask them for a tin of Dulux blue paint". We decided to go for nearer the lighter end of the mighty PB spectrum and, on seeing the results, I'm rather pleased we did!

bad_alice · September 2022

4string said:

Stunning. And an extra 10 marks for the pickup selector plate :-)

Cheers and lol, nicely spotted!

Winny_Pooh · September 2022

Fab looking guitar! Reading this thread and how satified you must feel made me smile alot

Funkfingers · September 2022

4string said:

the pickup selector plate :-)

You are Susan Calman and I claim my five Guineas.

My favourite selector switch surround bore the legend,"STFU / GTFO". A character from Northern Ireland used it as his avatar thumbnail on the Seymour Duncan forum.

bad_alice · September 2022

Winny_Pooh said:

Fab looking guitar! Reading this thread and how satified you must feel made me smile alot

Thanks so much for that and what a lovely comment to leave! I'm head over heels with everything about this guitar and aside from how it looks, it sounds so much better than it did when I bought it too. I am indeed a VERY happy lady, albeit with a slightly achy jaw from all the damn grinning...:)

bad_alice · September 2022

Funkfingers said:

4string said:

the pickup selector plate :-)

You are Susan Calman and I claim my five Guineas.

My favourite selector switch surround bore the legend,"STFU / GTFO". A character from Northern Ireland used it as his avatar thumbnail on the Seymour Duncan forum.

Haha! I'm afraid I need to let you down gently there, although those of us with a derivative of the name Susan are unavoidably hilarious. This is often a result of a coping strategy developed from surviving the visceral horror of realising that at any moment in your life you're at risk of falling victim to "Wake up little Susie" being sung at you by some unhinged lunatic/family member.

As you'll have gathered I do enjoy a individual poker chip. My LP might possibly* bear one with Madness/Mayhem #FightClub inscribed.

*oh hell yes

roberty · September 2022

Superb. The tuners look great

JCA2550 · September 2022

Gorgeous

stickyfiddle · September 2022

That is really something…!

Jonathangus · September 2022

That's awesome. Great work!

bad_alice · September 2022

roberty said:

Superb. The tuners look great

JCA2550 said:

Gorgeous

stickyfiddle said:

That is really something…!

Jonathangus said:

That's awesome. Great work!

Thanks guys, that's all such lovely feedback to hear and very much appreciated, I assure you. Again, I can't take any credit for the execution - that was all @Iamf68 - and I have to agree with all of you, he did an incredible job!

ElectricXII · September 2022

What a fantastic result! Your original budget wouldn't get you anywhere close at today's prices, so great timing too.

I can thoroughly recommend Mono gig bags if you want to protect your guitar from drunks on buses. My Gibson hard cases normally stay at home these days, as the Mono cases are more convenient, and I suspect more protective in most situations.

stickyfiddle · September 2022

bad_alice said:

roberty said:

Superb. The tuners look great

JCA2550 said:

Gorgeous

stickyfiddle said:

That is really something…!

Jonathangus said:

That's awesome. Great work!

Thanks guys, that's all such lovely feedback to hear and very much appreciated, I assure you. Again, I can't take any credit for the execution - that was all @Iamf68 - and I have to agree with all of you, he did an incredible job!

Oh of course! I have a Jag that Rich did and it's a fantastic bit of work.

andyp · September 2022

This is awesome!

I have a 2016 Studio Faded that I bought new and still absolutely love. When the 2019 Specials came out, I was desperate for one in the Pelham Blue but I couldn’t really justify it as I’m a very basic player at home. I ended up buying some Alegree HB sized P90s and had a guy in Lennoxtown fit them for me.

Your SG looks amazing and must sound awesome. Nice work!!

Also, totally recommend the Mono gig bags. I’ve carted my SG around in one of those a lot and it’s perfect. Built like a tank and fits the guitar well with the neck support.

Andy

bad_alice · September 2022

ElectricXII said:

What a fantastic result! Your original budget wouldn't get you anywhere close at today's prices, so great timing too.

I can thoroughly recommend Mono gig bags if you want to protect your guitar from drunks on buses. My Gibson hard cases normally stay at home these days, as the Mono cases are more convenient, and I suspect more protective in most situations.

andyp said:

This is awesome!

I have a 2016 Studio Faded that I bought new and still absolutely love. When the 2019 Specials came out, I was desperate for one in the Pelham Blue but I couldn’t really justify it as I’m a very basic player at home. I ended up buying some Alegree HB sized P90s and had a guy in Lennoxtown fit them for me.

Your SG looks amazing and must sound awesome. Nice work!!

Also, totally recommend the Mono gig bags. I’ve carted my SG around in one of those a lot and it’s perfect. Built like a tank and fits the guitar well with the neck support.

Andy

Thanks so much @ElectricXII and @andyp for the comments and I couldn't agree more where Mono gig bags are concerned. I bought a Mono M80 about a year ago and it's been a game changer for me where feeling relaxed about taking guitars with angled headstocks with me to rehearsal etc. My situation is thus:
1. I don't drive so Public transport is how I roll.
2. I'm female and really not very strong so the additional weight a hard case brings is something I'd really prefer to avoid.
3. Currently 3 of my 4 electric guitars - this SG, a Gibson LP Standard and a Gretsch Players Edition Sparkle Jet - have angled headstocks.
The Mono gigbag has been such a enabling factor where these three guitars are concerned. Rather than knacker myself by hauling hardcases and the rest of gear out with me, the Mono offers an option that's much lighter in weight, easier to carry and, honestly, that it doesn't yell "HEY FOLKS, LADY CARRYING AN EXPENSIVE GUITAR HERE!!!" is a massive plus too. #personalsafety
That said, and as great as they are, I'm still waiting on the Mono gigbag with the inbuilt cafetiere option 'cause Mono? That's a open goal of such a magnitude that there are rumours that it may well have stolen "planet" status from Pluto...

bad_alice · October 2022

Bump - just in case there's any info here that's of helpful to you guys?

JMS96 · October 2022

That looks absolutely awesome. I’ve just bought myself a 2019 SG special from here and I’m really loving it - brilliant guitar. But you’ve gone and totally ruined it for me.

Sarge · October 2022

That is gorgeous!

bad_alice · October 2022

JMS96 said:

That looks absolutely awesome. I’ve just bought myself a 2019 SG special from here and I’m really loving it - brilliant guitar. But you’ve gone and totally ruined it for me.

Cheers mate and lol, sorry about that!
This model is a terrific guitar regardless though. I was just lucky enough to have some spare cash to enable this project - so I'm certain you and your SG Special will be glorious together. <fist bump>

Sarge said:

That is gorgeous!

Thanks @Sarge ; that's lovely of you to say. A much appreciated post too.

PeteC · October 2022

Yep - love it. Thats a very nice SG

bad_alice · December 2022

PeteC said:

Yep - love it. Thats a very nice SG

Sorry @PeteC - I somehow missed this!
Thanks so much for such a lovely comment - much appreciated too.

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Turning a 2019 Gibson SG Special into a "1963" Gibson SG Special

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