Gibson SG 3 and SG custom

[Rewddawg]

Nice tracks dawg, great searing lead tone! Very pro sounding mix!

 

Here is a bigger pic of my 2008 SG Special 3PU at the store:

 

 

That's a cool guitar Ampman! If I remember right those are some pretty hot pickups in that axe.

 

BTW that's a pro sounding mix because that is Troy Stetina playing guitar. I wish I could play as good as he does.

[tom brown]

Nice tracks dawg, is that a orange amp i hear there??

 

hey i notice in another thread you said you dropped the stopbar in your sg 3..I did see a ad with spacers that make it more solid going down to the body for guitar for more substain but i didn't know that you could just drop the stopbar...On my sg 3 it looks like that would be a real sharp angle from tailpiece to bridge and maybe the strings would take a beating.let me know how that works for you..

 

This guitar was set up real nice, and although i usually tweak everything i have not touched anything because it sounds sweet...

 

have a good day dawg

[Rewddawg]

Nice tracks dawg, is that a orange amp i hear there??

 

hey i notice in another thread you said you dropped the stopbar in your sg 3..I did see a ad with spacers that make it more solid going down to the body for guitar for more substain but i didn't know that you could just drop the stopbar...On my sg 3 it looks like that would be a real sharp angle from tailpiece to bridge and maybe the strings would take a beating.let me know how that works for you..

 

This guitar was set up real nice, and although i usually tweak everything i have not touched anything because it sounds sweet...

 

have a good day dawg

 

Hey Tom,

It's probably a little sharper than you are used to looking at but I have 4 guitars set up that way and have had no problems with strings. the only draw back I can see is if you wrap your strings over the top of the stop tail. Some people do this and in that case it might put added stress on the stop tail bar piece.

 

That's Troy Stetina, I believe he is using either a B-52 or an Engl amp head. Depends on the song.

 

BTW as you know if you drop the tail piece you have to readjust the intonation.

Later

Rewd.

[ampman72]

Update: today I brought the sg special 3PU home and found the 6 way switch to have the following selections: neck/neck+middle/middle/bridge+middle/bridge/bridge+neck.

This did not work for me at all, as the bridge pickup by itself needs to be at one extreme side, and the neck should be on the extreme other side. Basically, I wanted to flip flop the last two positions. So, I took her apart (I know, a brand new guitar, I'm nuts) and moved one of the neck pickup extension wires out of the position 6 tab over to the position 5 tab. Basically, I changed which position to bring in the neck which ended up giving me exactly what I wanted which is: neck/neck+middle/middle/middle+bridge/neck+bridge/bridge.

 

It was very easy, I just moved one wire. If anyone else is interested in this mod, I can provide more detailed instructions.

[tom brown]

Ampman thats very interesting because i always wondered why Gibson didn't make the bridge the last pickup..Yes please give me the details of that switch...

 

Do you like the variety of sounds you get with that 6 position? those 490 's got some real bite to them....I also think these guitars(3 pickup) are a bit under rated and valued....but i think they are great....

[ampman72]

Tom, when you open up the back of the guitar and you are looking at the back of the rotary, you will notice three groups of terminals that share a common bus wire. These groups have thier own pickup lead wire, one for the neck, bridge and middle. Each tab on the switch is assigned to a position on the switch, so each pickup is "assigned" the positions on which they will operate. The group located at the left side of my 6 way switch is for the neck pickup. In order to assign the neck pickup to the fifth position instead of the sixth, I removed the jumper from the lowest tab or terminal of the group, taking the neck pickup out of postion 6. At this point, another short piece of wire with insulation is attached another wire the next terminal up in the group and effectively jumped over the recently disconnected terminal (for position 6) to the next one (for 5) in line after it going counter clockwise, which is unused by the factory and empty of wires or solder.

It helped me to remove the switch from the guitar body to see the terminals that were engaged for the switch positions. I also used an ohm meter in order to verify that the unused terminal put the pickup in at the spot I wanted it to be in, which is the #5 position.

The bridge pickup group and the middle pickup group require no modification.

 

So far so good on the 490's. They have a very clear sound. I will have to have more time to tell if they stay. The bridge pickup is a little weak at 7.7K, but I like 8.25K, so it's not too far off. I like the combinations they give you, except for the where the bridge by itself was. A 7 way switch would be cool to have all three pickups on at once in addition to the six choices we have now.

[ampman72]

 

With chrome rotomatics and knobs without inserts installed.

[tom brown]

hey dawg

 

found this on ebay and it says a couple interesting things about our sg 3's..

 

first off, it says that it was a guitar of the week and only 500 ( we were able to find out)were made ...i didn't know it was a guitar of the week..

 

then it says "rumor" has it based on the custom historic version....I had suspected that it was based on a more expensive model but had not seen it in print..

 

heres the ebay listing.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/USA-GIBSON-SG3-TRIPLE-PICKUP-HERITAGE-CHERRY-RARE-/180580000633?pt=Guitar&hash=item2a0b682379

 

now heres the historic version i think he refers to...

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/GIBSON-SG-LES-PAUL-HISTORIC-CUSTOM-SHOP-3-PICKUP-/180578171196?pt=Guitar&hash=item2a0b4c393c

 

looks pretty close to me...

 

Gibson says "this is the ultimate FAT humbucker electric"...............i agree....lol

 

later all

[Rewddawg]

Hey Tom,

Here's a link to the listing of all the guitars of the week. The seller is mistaken in his description. It is not Gibson's offical list but appears accurate to me. The SG-3 GOTW all had single coil pups and there were 400 made each week. My flying V is a GOTW #31.

 

http://www.electric-guitar-review.com/2007/05/22/egrs-gibson-guitar-of-the-week-index/

[tom brown]

dawg i thought you had said they were all single coil once thats why i was surprised that a humbucker was done in the gotw series..

 

wonder why gibson does not have a offical list....

 

 

keep rockin dawg

[Rewddawg]

dawg i thought you had said they were all single coil once thats why i was surprised that a humbucker was done in the gotw series..

 

wonder why gibson does not have a offical list....

 

 

keep rockin dawg

Gibson has one but the site is down today. I'll post when I can.

Rewd.

[tom brown]

hey dawg

 

you gonna post that link to the GOTW gibsons?

 

tom

[Rewddawg]

hey dawg

 

you gonna post that link to the GOTW gibsons?

 

tom

 

I finally found it. Here it is:

http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Divisions/Gibson%20USA/Guitar%20of%20the%20Week/

[tom brown]

hey dawg

 

thought this was a interesting serial number on this sg 3......

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Gibson-SG-3-EC-w-OHSC-EC-Les-Paul-SG-3-SG-III-SG-I-/280584176996?pt=Guitar&hash=item41541ec564

[Rewddawg]

hey dawg

 

thought this was a interesting serial number on this sg 3......

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Gibson-SG-3-EC-w-OHSC-EC-Les-Paul-SG-3-SG-III-SG-I-/280584176996?pt=Guitar&hash=item41541ec564

 

I think there was a different numbering system going on with th first 200-300 guitars made of the SG-3 in 2007.

[Rewddawg]

Hey Tom what's up?

 

I've been wanting to ask you about the neck on your SG-3. The neck on mine is fatter than the 60's slim tapered profile neck that is on my Flying V. It is not as thick as say a 50's profile neck found on alot of Les Pauls. Is yours the same way. I'm thinking they have the 50's/60's hybrid necks.

[tom brown]

hey dawg whats happening

 

My neck is FAT, like as fat as a a reissue les paul standard....my friend says its as fat as the 1959 reissue, but i have not played one.

 

Actually thats why i was looking at the sg custom reissues because they DO have the 60's slim taper you speak of...But, i don't believe they get the tones that the sg 3 get, the neck is a very big part of that tone i thinks..

 

The reason i sent the last post is it confirmed my my thinking on the blurry line between the sg3 and the custom i posted in one of my last posts..that last ebay i posted was a example of it ...These are very well made guitars...

 

have a nice day

 

tom

[Rewddawg]

hey dawg whats happening

 

My neck is FAT, like as fat as a a reissue les paul standard....my friend says its as fat as the 1959 reissue, but i have not played one.

 

Actually thats why i was looking at the sg custom reissues because they DO have the 60's slim taper you speak of...But, i don't believe they get the tones that the sg 3 get, the neck is a very big part of that tone i thinks..

 

The reason i sent the last post is it confirmed my my thinking on the blurry line between the sg3 and the custom i posted in one of my last posts..that last ebay i posted was a example of it ...These are very well made guitars...

 

have a nice day

 

tom

 

That's odd. The neck on mine is not as fat as the strat I used to own. Kelly Industries in their review which is a reliable source called it a 60's profile neck but mine don't fit that bill.

 

As far as tone I'm pretty sure that the shaving of the neck does not have as much to do with tone as much as how tight the neck tenon fits.

[Rewddawg]

Oh BTW Tom,

 

Those custom reissues look nice but not 3 times the money we paid for our guitars and I still prefer the chicken head over the 3 way switch.

[Dub-T-123]

Eh not that it's important but I don't see how it's "based on a Historic". It's not really a reissue at all and if you look at the body it's pretty much based off a regular SG Standard.

 

The body is the same as a regular Standard except for the controls and pickup routes obviously. The neck joint is the same as a Standard and it seems to have about the same neck profile as a Standard (not a 60's). Also it doesn't have a big headstock like a '61. The Historics use different pickups and electronics as well.

 

It seems to be an SG Standard with 3 57 classics and a chicken head and single volume and tone pots. It's more similar to a Standard than a '61 even though the half pickguard might throw you off.

 

Also the difference in the amount of wood between a fat felling neck and a slim feeling neck is much less than you would expect. I could definately not notice a difference and I would say you couldn't either but I don't want to insult your ears. The Historics are very different beasts..

[Rewddawg]

Eh not that it's important but I don't see how it's "based on a Historic". It's not really a reissue at all and if you look at the body it's pretty much based off a regular SG Standard.

 

The body is the same as a regular Standard except for the controls and pickup routes obviously. The neck joint is the same as a Standard and it seems to have about the same neck profile as a Standard (not a 60's). Also it doesn't have a big headstock like a '61. The Historics use different pickups and electronics as well.

 

It seems to be an SG Standard with 3 57 classics and a chicken head and single volume and tone pots. It's more similar to a Standard than a '61 even though the half pickguard might throw you off.

 

Also the difference in the amount of wood between a fat felling neck and a slim feeling neck is much less than you would expect. I could definately not notice a difference and I would say you couldn't either but I don't want to insult your ears. The Historics are very different beasts..

As always you make some valid points Dub-T

[tom brown]

ok heres the historic link for the ebay guitar...click on the picture it will open up..

 

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&hash=item2a0b4c393c&item=180578171196&nma=true&pt=Guitar&rt=nc&si=xkoLmQZ2Bo89tGdldVTnVHWGr2s%253D

 

 

heres the sg 3 with the historic serial number.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Gibson-SG-3-EC-w-OHSC-EC-Les-Paul-SG-3-SG-III-SG-I-/280584176996?pt=Guitar&hash=item41541ec564

 

let me post one of mine...

[tom brown]

test

[tom brown]

hope its here lol

[tom brown]

hey dawg

 

stop by with some pics of that sg 3 for us...

 

 

tom