Riffster Posted December 21, 2016 Share Posted December 21, 2016 I sold a couple of guitars recently and felt good since I really didn't play them but with that I got the itch of buying another. Since I am a sucker for mods I decided to get one of those body blanks that sell on eBay. I have a bunch of parts leftover from other projects, I will only have to buy a few things. This one will be a rocker, I traded a Seyoumr Duncan Distortion I had for a DiMarzio Super Distortion for the bridge. The neck will be a mini humbucker that I pulled from my Firebird tribute I already had a set of reflector knobs. I will be trading a set of Klusons that I got for cheap for a set of the same that has metal knobs. Anyway, this SG Futura will be more contemporary, ha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rct Posted December 21, 2016 Share Posted December 21, 2016 Nice! Looks like a fun project to me! rct Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted December 21, 2016 Author Share Posted December 21, 2016 Yea, simply adding parts to it. My Flying V refinish with mods was much more involved (and I am super happy with it, probably my favorite guitar) The neck on this SG is slim all the way. This is what I wanted. The neck is maple on these and feels quite smooth, since it does not need filler the finish looks great on the back of the neck. The body does show a lot of the mahogany grain, well, the pores since these guitars have a thin finish. I was not sure if i'd like the color but it is a keeper, I was ready to overspray this thing with an Inca Silver can of nitro I have but I will not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rct Posted December 21, 2016 Share Posted December 21, 2016 I'ma try that when I retire, crap up the garage for a while, make something out of one of those ebay bodies. I prolly have enough junk to make a couple. rct Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted December 21, 2016 Share Posted December 21, 2016 Cool.. Interesting thing to do... I look forward to seeing you build it :) Id really like a 2014 model if I ever have any spare money again.... I really like the anniversary banner... The one thing that did strike me from your shot.. That odd bit of routing under the pickups... Not sure ive ever seen that before... Whats that there for, is it just a wiring channel? Odd shape.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted December 21, 2016 Author Share Posted December 21, 2016 The SG Futura has a 15db boost switch there, under the pickguard. Hence the additional room for a 9v battery in the back plate. The pickguard is something I will have to order custom but should not bee to hard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie brown Posted December 22, 2016 Share Posted December 22, 2016 I've wondered about getting one (or more) of those Gibson bodies, sold by "The Stratosphere," on E-bay. Glad to see someone else has used them. How was everything? As advertised? CB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Revolution Six Posted December 22, 2016 Share Posted December 22, 2016 How much did you pay for ? Body + Shipping ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted December 22, 2016 Share Posted December 22, 2016 Dude!! I almost bought this two weeks ago! This is going to be a killer project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted December 22, 2016 Author Share Posted December 22, 2016 I've wondered about getting one (or more) of those Gibson bodies, sold by "The Stratosphere," on E-bay. Glad to see someone else has used them. How was everything? As advertised? CB As a tinkerer I always wanted to do it and finally pulled the trigger. How much did you pay for ? Body + Shipping ? This one was $369 USD including shipping, they have posted another one but at $450. Dude!! I almost bought this two weeks ago! This is going to be a killer project. There were two for a while, they had about 50 watchers between the two combined and I think everybody was waiting for a price drop but I figured that if that happened I was not going to be the first to notice so I bought it, as soon as I did the other one sold too, now they posted another one but at a higher price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted January 8, 2017 Author Share Posted January 8, 2017 Here is a mock up. I am not moving as fast as I'd like on this project since life has been busy but this is the idea I am going for on this guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted January 8, 2017 Author Share Posted January 8, 2017 Something interesting is that the pickguard template was done using the guard on my 50th Anniversary SG which has the deeper bevels but, the guard follows the shallower bevel on this SG Futura better, looks pretty good to me. The weird thing is that I had printed the PDF template for a '61 reissue from Terrapin Guitars and scaled it at 100% cut it out and it does not fit very well, it is narrower. I think the shape of the guard for this guitar does not get better than this mock up I have on there. I also noticed that some of this SG Futuras have the deeper bevel on the lower horn, same year, model even color yet different bevels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 Sweet.... Love the look of the screwless pup covers.. Makes it look really clean And its funny when you get to this sort of detail on guitars and you realise that pretty much every detail has actually been thought about with regards to the way the hardware fits.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiamondJig Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 I would think the PG would be a tricky one with HB in bridge nd P90 in neck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted January 9, 2017 Author Share Posted January 9, 2017 If by tricky you mean pricey then probably yes. hahaha Yea, it will have to be custom, but it is not all that custom since the bottom part of the guard seems to be standard and while the pickguard placement is different on this guitar the route for the pickups is open, it will require to cut the bottom of the guard then move the jig a bit to accommodate the slightly different humbucker placement and then use a P90 jig to cut the rest. Looking at prices at Terrapin Guitars for reference it is a bit pricey but nothing too crazy. The pickguard will be the last piece to go on this guitar, I want to get it assembled and playing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Revolution Six Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 Cantact Creamtone pour le pickguard, via Facebook the guy replies. And a white Graphtec nut should be better, I hate black nuts ...sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted January 9, 2017 Author Share Posted January 9, 2017 Yea, I was planning on contacting them, I'll do that once everything is in place. For instance I had a Historic spec humbucker ring in there at first and that is a bit narrower than Gibson USA rings I was going to have to sand that ring for lower height but I found a USA ring on sale for extremely cheap so I will be using that. I am not a fan of those black plastic nuts either but I will leave it for now. I just finished changing a bone nut on my acoustic for wider string spacing and had to sand, radius, widen slots and was a lot of work, right now I do not want to start all over. I would like a bleach white bone nut but...most nuts available on eBay, AllParts, etc that are pre-slotted actually use the Epiphone narrower string spacing probably because they make them all in China. TusqXL does make a fine nut properly spaced with Gibson USA specs but the nut is off white, like a light cream, still I am leaning towards that, I have installed like 4 of those with excellent results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted January 17, 2017 Author Share Posted January 17, 2017 Not moving very fast on this project, I still have a pickup on the way and turns out I needed a long shaft input jack, I did not want to take off any wood to fit a normal jack. I did file the fret ends with my trusty Stew-Mac file. Since I already had copper tape I shielded the control cavity. Since the lack of markers at the 24th bothered me I decided to add them since 1/4" dots are probably the easiest inlay. Got some pearloids to march and set them 31mm at the widest measure to match the width of the120th anniversary banner inlay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 I'm digging it so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pesh Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Nice work so far! Look forward to seeing the future end result! I wish I could do one of these, but since the seller is in the states it probably isn't worth it so much getting it to Europe, with shipping and then import Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted February 25, 2017 Author Share Posted February 25, 2017 Well, I still have not ordered the pickguard on this guitar. Also, the nut slots are high and I have not notched the bridge saddles. I am not warming up to a Super Distortion on this guitar but that's OK I actually bought it white an F-spaced just in case this happened and that means I can put it on a Strat. With perfect timing the opportunity came knocking and I got this Gibson pickup for $20 locally, the guy that sold it to me does not know what it is but I suspect it is an older 57 classic, it reads 8.35kohms and the short-ish wire lead means it was on the bridge position, I will be replacing the gold cover with the no-holes cover and installing it on the bridge position of my SG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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