Zoom Gear & Home Recording Forum

Ever had a guitar speak to ya? This one said "... buy me, I'm only $80."

It's and Epiphone SG Special. Bolt on. Light, like a strat.

It plays well enough, after I set it up & oiled it down. Going to put GFS P90s & a pickguard from GPO in/on it. Matty version of Pete T's SG.

I Love Cheap Guitars.

Hi Matty...looks like a bargain! An Epi for 80 bucks? Can't go wrong with that! The mods you propose will bring this axe to life....my first reasonably decent guitar was an Ibanez SG in the late sixties/early seventies, I wanted to be Tony Iommi so bad! Ha ha! Mine had what I think was a 'bigsby' tremolo on it....what a piece of sh*t that was!(the trem..)...should have got the hard-tail like yours...my brother and I constructed a cpl of 40watt kit valve amps based on the Goldentone/Fender design...for the little money we had as kids, we were in audio heaven! Good luck with the mods! Can't wait to hear it!.........sideshow bob

I still wanna be Tony Iommi.

Came with a bag too. I've had Bigsby's; good for light use vibrato only. Old school though, valued by some. My faves are the old wraparounds; no hassle intonation if the guitar is set right.

Here's the specs:
Pickups: 2 Epiphone Open-coil Humbuckers
Scale: 24.75 in.
Neck Material: Maple
Fingerboard: Rosewood
Body Material: Lamimated Alder/Maple

No idea how to tell if mine is Alder or Maple. Don't care, it's electric. The rosewood drank up some lemon oil like a desert drinks water. It's rather nice now; oiled, set-up, new jazz sized strings. Action set just fine, and the sustain is ok; like a bolt on is.

The Epi Hummers are hot like fire, and microphonic as hell. You can talk thru them. Not a prob at lower levels; don't think I'd like to fight with them on stage though. The GFS P90s will be the best improvement for the money; after I get them, the whole rig will be $140 and some TLC. Booyah!

Thanks!
Matty

Cool looking guitar Matty, but personally, I'd put beefed up/hotter humbuckers in it myself, maybe with a coil tap switch for each pickup, but that's just me......It might also be cool to have a "kill switch" for each pickup, instead of the 3-way selector, that way you could get different pickup configurations that wouldn't be possible otherwise (IE: split the bridge into single coil, & select the "front" coil (toward the neck) & have the neck pickup split & select the coil toward the bridge.....with the 3 way switch, that' not possible, with the 2 "kill" switches & coil taps it is.......it'd kinda be like having 4 pickups that you could use/switch on/off, I had a late 80's model Ibanez that had 3 pickups (humbucker in the bridge, stacked humbuckers in the middle & neck, with 3 on/off "kill" switches. I was able to use the bridge pickup while using the neck, not possible with a regular 5 way (my guitar would have had a 5-way, where your SG has a 3-way....) switch...).....just my

Speaking of SG's, this was my first electric guitar (well, one exactly like it, same color, same everything.....), my parents bought for me when I was about 13. Kept it for years, until my ex-wife decided to get rid of everything I owned (I mean everything too.... ), including a guitar like this, an old, old Fender tube amp, along with other "needless" things, like tv's, appliances, furniture, my clothes & such. Nothing I really "needed"..... Came in from work on night, & all I had left were literally the clothes on my back.....What a woman!!!! No wonder all the music I write/record sounds so angry & dark huh??? It's kinda funny now (in a way, but not really), but at the time, when I came in & saw what had happened (I knew it was coming, but never dreamed she'd take my music gear....), it was like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders.....

Sorry to go off topic there man, cool guitar, I'm sure however you decide to hot-rod it will be killer!!!! I'd like to hear some "before & after" clips myself.......

Hey man, it's all good. Relationships & heartbreak write good songs.

I'm at a point now to where the less a guitar does, the more I like it. I think that's why I dig my tele a lot; I even wish my strat had a 3-way, or just two pups & two volumes. My less paul already has GFS Fat Pats in it; hotty pups! So the SG is going to get GFS Dream 90s. They come humbucker sized, so I don't have to do any irreversible modding. Not that it matters at what I paid, but I dig my new baby. I may put a pickguard on, a half style SG one, but pups first.

I'll try and do some recording with the pre-mod SG. Been wanting to redo the guitar on 'Killing Time', make it a little more raw. I think gwood suggested that; it stuck in my brain and my ears.

Thanks, JB!
MB

Let's see the rest of the cheepos.

They may be cheapies, but at least your guitars look different from each other! (*cough* Henky *cough* )

You got any acoustics?

You want cheap and tawdry? Try the low budget offerings of the 60's and 70's. Nowhere near the stuff coming out of the Pacific rim nowadays. C&C machines have really upped the quality of things.
Man miner, I woulda taken the woman to court...or at least the wood shed.
Anyway, guitar looks nice. Is it used?

I did Steve, she ran off to another state, & I basically couldn't do anything about it. Her & her whole family are the good 'ol Americans that are on welfare & food stamps (nothing wrong with that if you need it....), & there's nothing wrong with 'em except they're lazy, & have learned how to manipulate the system......Great bunch man.....

OK, OK, rant over.......

Clips Matty!!!!!!!!

What do you mean when you say oiled it down? The fretboard?

And out of interest (I have a few electric guitars) how do you deal with any crackling from the electrics (knobs, jack sticks, and so on - do you oil or spray them with any magic stuff?).

Pete

PS Fun buy

Thanks surf!

They are:
Squier P Bass, used - Mod: New Pearly pickgaurd, Total cost $100
Squier VM Jag Special - Bought new! $200
SX 'Smellicaster' Fat Furrian, used - No mods, $100
Epoch(Gibson/Baldwin Team Up) 'Less Paul', used - Mod: GFS Fat Pat HBs, Total cost $120
Squier Stratocaster HSS, used - No mods, $100
and now...
Epiphone SG Special, used - No mods yet! $80



Got my eyes on a SX Jazzugar Bass(Jag body, Jazz pups/config, mint/tortoise, maple neck). If its still at my fav music dump in two weeks, I'm going to snatch it. Price yet unhaggled.

Clips coming; I gotta play on the SG til it feels real Matty-ish.

No acoustics, but my housemate has a cheap Yamaha that I muck about on.
The 60s/70s cheapies(Hags, Tedesco's, Silvertone's ,etc.) tend to play very poorly. Or I play very poorly on them. And they rarely enjoy my distortion. But if I ever find an old Univox, or Aria Pro, I would give them a test drive. Ibanez too, back in the day. Those peeps made some sweet knock-offs.

Thanks, all!

Lemon Oil applied to a rag, then I wipe down the fretboard. I repeat until the surface gets the low gloss that 'new' rosewood has, then I get a clean rag and rub it in really good. I usually wipe down the body with what oil is left on the dirty rag, then wipe it off too. Lemon Oil is good stuff.

Knobs/pots that crackle can sometimes be 'cleaned' by rolling them back and forth a few gazillion times. I know that pots can be cleaned for real, but I don't know how. If real bad, I usually won't buy the ax, unless I really want it. Switches & jacks I replace, if needed. Fender style 5/3-way switches can be cleaned with alcohol, but eh... again, I won't buy it, or I'll switch it out.

Thanks!

Had a couple of SX bass gtrs. All had deadspots (don't ask, just Google it-you'll find my answer (what a real dead s is) in the top one or two hits). I'll put up with deadspots on a gtr, but not a bass.
It's why Stienberger is my main axe...and has been since 1985.
That said, all my basses are ds free. I don't keep them unless they are (Squier Bronco and Rogue Violin bass). Or something like my '76 BC Rich Mockingbird bass bought new.

Cue gwood on lemon oil....

Contact cleaner on noisy pots.

Yes! The bass I really want is a violin bass. Have yet to find one in a store, and I verily hesitate to buy used online. Rogue, Epiphone, SX, Douglas all make/made them. I think Univox too. Plus many no names. My hope is to use it as a pick bass(pre-Ric Paul type sound). I wouldn't turn my nose up at an older BCRich either. Fine machines, with badass bods.

I've come close on a few BCR Bronze Warlock & Mockingbird guitars. They have the wraparound tail I like, and are simple configs, but they just don't feel right in my hands...

The Bronco is fun. One day I'm going to find one for $50, I can feel it calling me.

Here's to deadspot free one(s). I may have lucked into these two, however. YMMV.
My Rogue (Korean made) is before Hofner started selling their Chinese cheap-o's, something like 98 or 99. The body is similar to the Epi violins. Close, but not exactly a Hofner body.
The newer Chinese Rogues are built just like the Hofner cheapies are now...just a lighter colored body and with better tuners.
I'll never buy another bass sight unseen again...though I am constantly tempted (I learned my lesson with those two SX's from Kurt at Rondo). Not to say you can't buy a Rick or a Fender bass that doesn't have deadspots. I kind of wish I could go back to the time before I realized what deadspots were.
Anyway, manufacturers have tried all kinda things to eliminate the dreaded DS...

Fat Fingers don't work either. They just trade one deadspot for another.
Why Fender bought that piece of crap is beyond me...I sold my Groove Tube FF the next week!

Mine speak to me every time I pick one of them up. They say "put me down!"