SG Horror Show - The Highs and the Lows

Well, apart from Sky buggering up our internet, it has been a week of highs and oh-so-lows...

First up is my old '89 Epiphone SG. It is nothing special, bolt-on neck, shonky quiet pickups, dodgy tuners, though exactly the same as my first 'proper guitar, and well, I am putting the mental in the sentimental, and I rather love it so. The neck is deevine.

Anyway, I've decided I want to keep it 'stock', although maybe have a few tweaks under the hood, so the plan is to replace the tuners with something similar looking - Grovers no doubt - and maybe put new pickups in but retain the horribly plastic covers. Wiring too will no doubt benefit from some Mojo, and a proper nut will certainly help. Maybe a bridge too.

I know, not a lot left, but it will look the same and that is the main thing.

So obviously, the first thing I have actually done is put a Bigsby on it. Or rather a cheapo ebay copy of one, and amazingly it is really good. I didn't know what to expect, but it works perfectly, is actually easier to string as the thingies hold the string on and best of all it didn't cost more than the guitar (which it would have if I'd gone for the real deal.)

So that was the cool thing.

As for the horrendously not-so-good, a friend of mine sent me his rather delightful old Burny SG Jr to try, and it arrived with 3 tonnes of bubble wrap, hardcase, packed beyond excellent, and looked gorgeous as I got it out of the case. Absolutely stunning. So imagine-my-horror when I noticed that the neck had gotten broken in that old-familiar-way. I don't know how they managed it, but they did quite a job on the guitar overall. Which is a total gutter and I feel rather horrendous about it.


The irony of course is that when the Epi arrived it was wrapped only in a black bag with nair a mark on it.

The highs and lows. Shonky innit?

La la laaaa

Progress, Regress, Family Honour

Well, I realise I am regressing in lots of ways, but after having a brainstorm and getting rid of all of my guitars, I have instead gone back to where I started and snapped up an old Epiphone SG.

Not just any Epi, oh no, this is a 1989 bolt-on jobby (what they would call a 310 these days, but back then I think it was item 2. Page 476 in Freemans Catalogue), and it is the spitting image of my first proper guitar, right down to the black plastic pickup covers and bridge that is guaranteed-to-break-your-strings.

It could in fact be my original guitar (the dinks seem familiar) but I'd probably be kidding meself if I let my imagination wander in that direction, so I know it is just of-it's-ilk-and-time, and that is close enough.

Anyway, this (being a theoretical *this*) is the guitar I learned my first chords on, wrote my first songs with and played on stage in my first ever gigs (and broke strings everytime, so I flogged it to buy a Jazzmaster, but that is beside the point.)

And playing it now, I have to say it feels great. The neck is like an old sock, and the finish is a translucent cherry which display a very nice looking piece of wood beneath. Well, 3 pieces of mahogany, but looking good and shiny even 24 years later. Acoustically it sustains beautifully as well.

As I remember it, what really let it down was that the pickups were very shush-quiet, but as I also got rid of my amp, I can't tell you that right now. Hmmm, maybe the amp wasn't so bright.

Wonder where I can get an 80s Peavey Deuce, that was what I gigged with all those years ago, never getting the volume over 2...

La la laaaa