Making me one of them SG guitars

[Dan Smith]

Walnut top, Maple body and neck.
Ebony fret board, custom made genuine plastic markers.
Got the neck joint cut, 3-degree angle is perfect for my bridge.
The rest of the build should be a piece of chocolate cake.
Gonna have one of them import Bigsby vibrato things and P-90 pickups.
Mmm, chocolate cake...
Dan

[Paul Rhoney]

I dig SG's. I'll have to tune in on this thread again later. 8)

[Arnt Rian]

Should be lovely. I have a 64 SG special, which I got cheaply, since it had "issues" and was hard to play. The main problem was that the neck had come lose at one time, and it was glued back on wrong (not aligned correctly sideways). Whoever did the work had also tried to cover up the repair with excessive amounts of finish on most of the neck and the back of the instrument, which had subsequently cracked and generally looked pitiful. So I had lots of work with a new reset, finish repair etc, but it turned out nice. I hear the lose neck is a common problem with many of the specials from this period. It looks like you have a pretty substantial neck tenon, make sure you don cut it all away for the pickup cavity.

[Beate Ritzert]

Interesting combination of woods, and pretty uncommon for SGs. What are Your plans for the finish?

[Dan Smith]

Should be lovely. I have a 64 SG special, which I got cheaply, since it had "issues" and was hard to play. The main problem was that the neck had come lose at one time, and it was glued back on wrong (not aligned correctly sideways). Whoever did the work had also tried to cover up the repair with excessive amounts of finish on most of the neck and the back of the instrument, which had subsequently cracked and generally looked pitiful. So I had lots of work with a new reset, finish repair etc, but it turned out nice. I hear the lose neck is a common problem with many of the specials from this period. It looks like you have a pretty substantial neck tenon, make sure you don cut it all away for the pickup cavity.

Arnt, I extended the body under the neck to form the heel. This should add some extra support to th neck joint. I think most of the tenon will be cut away in the pickup cavity.
Thanks,
Dan

[Dan Smith]

Interesting combination of woods, and pretty uncommon for SGs. What are Your plans for the finish?

Hi Beate,
The Walnut will be clear, I'll apply a dye to the Maple. Not sure of the color yet.
I'll seal with shellac and cover with nitri lacquer.
Thanks,
Dan

[Freeman Keller]

Should be lovely. I have a 64 SG special, which I got cheaply, since it had "issues" and was hard to play. The main problem was that the neck had come lose at one time, and it was glued back on wrong (not aligned correctly sideways). Whoever did the work had also tried to cover up the repair with excessive amounts of finish on most of the neck and the back of the instrument, which had subsequently cracked and generally looked pitiful. So I had lots of work with a new reset, finish repair etc, but it turned out nice. I hear the lose neck is a common problem with many of the specials from this period. It looks like you have a pretty substantial neck tenon, make sure you don cut it all away for the pickup cavity.

Arnt, I extended the body under the neck to form the heel. This should add some extra support to th neck joint. I think most of the tenon will be cut away in the pickup cavity.
Thanks,
Dan

I recently built an ES-335 style guitar and in researching them found that at one period of Gibsons history they had very short tenons and in some cases had very poor gluing (there is a video somewhere of a guy sliding a piece of paper into the end of the tenon - it goes right under the whole way). I also repaired a double neck Rogue 6/12 string that had a very short tenon. Make it as long as you can - you don't have as much neck there as on a LP.

[Dan Smith]

Thanks Freeman, I appreciate the advice!
Dan

[Brian Evans]

I had a 1968 SG with a Vibrola, which had intonation issues that I could not resolve (probably could today), and I currently have an Epiphone SG with a Bigsby. Be careful which one you copy the rim chamfer from, the Gibson carving is quite different and less symmetrical than the Epiphone carve. The Gibson version is the better looking in my opinion. What you don't realize until you play an SG back to back with something like a Melody Maker is that the cut on the waist is quite far back towards the heel. That makes it sit on your knee with the neck farther away than you expect and you feel like you have a lot of room to play with, it feels like a very long guitar in the hands when in reality it's exactly the same basic size as all the other Gibsons with 24 3/4" scale.

Brian

[Dan Smith]

Working on the board. Doing the classic Gibson Custom blocks.
I got two 4x8" pieces of plastic for $8.00 on Amazon.
It was called celluloid, but I'm not sure if it's really celluloid.
It looks nice and cuts with sissors.
Spent two hours cutting and sanding the markers.
So far, 4 hours on the inlay.
This is taking forever. Hope I don't muck it up.
At least Ebony is easy to fill in gaps.
Dan

[Mark Swanson]

Four hours on an inlay? That's all? Ha ha....

[Dan Smith]

Four hours on an inlay? That's all? Ha ha....

Yeah, the bits I oredered are small.
Takes a long time to hog out the waste.

[Bob Francis]

Lookin' good Dan

[Dan Smith]

Lookin' good Dan

Thanks Bob!
I need the encouagement.
Dan

[Gordon Bellerose]

Looking good so far Dan.
Inlay. Yeah. The first time I did a simple block inlay, it took me about 12 hours. About an hour per evening is all I could do. Concentration went, and shaking hands started after about an hour.
Slow going with small bits, trying very hard to not make a mistake.

One thing I learned is that it makes it easier, in my opinion, to do the outline first with a small bit. Then hog out the center with a larger bit. You can make your lines straighter by clamping a guide to the fret board too; at least the lines perpendicular to the fret board.
I'm sure some of the other guys will have different methods, maybe better.

[David King]

I will admit to doing my block inlays on the milling machine. Nothing wrong with perfectly straight edges and right angles especially in a birdseye maple fingerboard.

[Dan Smith]

Just have to fill in the gaps.
Geez, I'm glad to be finished with it.
Dan

[Dan Smith]

Almost ready to glue the fretboard.
Went with a snazzy binding to match the fret markers.
After the board is glued, I'll level and radius the board.
Dan

[Dan Smith]

Still whittling away.
I intended to inlay something in the block at the end of the fretboard.
Guess I forgot.
Maybe I'll put a sticker on it.
Dan

[Eric Baack]

That looks like one high end SG