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Building an Epi Angus Young SG...


Suicidehummer

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So I want an Angus Young SG, but I don't have $2800 under the bed, so I gotta build one! Before I can do that though, I have a lot of questions for the more experienced guys on here.

 

So here's what I need:

 

1 Large PG Epi SG (Check)

1 Gibson-Style Vibrola

1 set of Witch Hat knobs

1 Angus Young Signature Pickup

1 set of Gibson Historic Spec Green key tuners (Check)

2 chrome pickup covers removed (maybe)

1 white neck binding (if possible)

1 white nut (maybe if the binding works out)

 

Also, I was wondering also if it's possible to put a binding on the neck, because I had thought it impossible until I saw that Allparts sold bindings.

 

I noticed my pickup covers are soldered onto the pickups, so am I not supposed to take them off? And if I can, how can I?

 

He has tons of SGs, so I chose his first SG, used almost every show during the Bon Scott era. He claims to still use it, although I haven't seen it since 1980.

 

I'm going for the look of this guitar:

'67 SG with Vibrola

'67 SG w/o Vibrola

 

As you can see, he alternated between the Vibrola being off and on. I like the look of it on, so that's what I will do.

 

Here's the biggest picture I could find of my SG:

My SG

 

Anything I missed?

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its possible to put binding.

but first you would have to remove the frets...then after the binding is done...have it all re-fretted again.

its just not worth doing...it could come up to somewhere around $200-300.

 

be better of using the money for that and sourcing for a used epiphone SG faded, the older ones that had neck binding.

afterall, the color on those are a closer match to the angus...ie. vintage cherry / brownish.

then just stick on a large pickguard and so on.

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Really? So, I guess the binding is out of the question.

 

I already have an SG, so I'm not going to buy another! Besides, this is still closer because it's not faded. His wasn't, it's just old and not a poly finish. And I don't think it's just that easy to put a large PG on a '61.

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Vibrola:

http://www.allparts.com/store/tailpieces-tremolo-tailpieces-tp-3680-001,Product.asp

Roller bridge(recommended):

http://store.guitarfetish.com/robrchplfile.html

Nut:

Get a grapite nut, unless ya have to have white, if ya do, bone.

Knobs:

http://store.guitarfetish.com/vigstchtoblb.html

About the angus young signature pickup...

I'm almost certain he never used it, as far as I know he was all 490R/498T.

But before you go gibby, two things.

A. Wiring upgrade(new pots, caps, switch, etc.) (Guitarfetish sells a good one for $22)

B.New cheaper pups. I personally suggest the vintage '59s, for gibson PAF-style sound. Or the Crunchy pat for older gain heavy stuff, preforms like a dimarzio super distortion.

 

See what kinda sound ya can get out of GFS before going gibby, also what kinda amp ya using?

I know it's not two marshall stacks daisy chained running at half volume. ;)

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or:

 

buy elitist 61 reissue, put in RiffRaff custom pickup

 

done.

 

much closer to what angus plays, sounds a million times better than a g400 with an angus sig pickup (I had one of those...its muddy as hell and doesn't even sound like ac/dc)

 

bone stock my elite sg sounds more like that classic ac/dc tone than my heavily modded g400 did, and after the price I paid for the pickup, pots, switch, bone nut, case, ect it costs more than what you can get an elite/elitist for

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Vibrola:

http://www.allparts.com/store/tailpieces-tremolo-tailpieces-tp-3680-001' date='Product.asp

Roller bridge(recommended):

http://store.guitarfetish.com/robrchplfile.html

Nut:

Get a grapite nut, unless ya have to have white, if ya do, bone.

Knobs:

http://store.guitarfetish.com/vigstchtoblb.html

About the angus young signature pickup...

I'm almost certain he never used it, as far as I know he was all 490R/498T.

But before you go gibby, two things.

A. Wiring upgrade(new pots, caps, switch, etc.) (Guitarfetish sells a good one for $22)

B.New cheaper pups. I personally suggest the vintage '59s, for gibson PAF-style sound. Or the Crunchy pat for older gain heavy stuff, preforms like a dimarzio super distortion.

 

See what kinda sound ya can get out of GFS before going gibby, also what kinda amp ya using?

I know it's not two marshall stacks daisy chained running at half volume. [-o<[/quote']

 

Thanks, that's the exact same vibrato I was looking at in fact!

 

I'll have to keep the bridge I have because I want to keep this relatively cheap (I'm also saving for a car, so this is a side project).

 

I was only going to do the nut if I did the binding, which I won't. And yeah, I can't stand a black nut, the white is just so much better visually, so I'd go for the bone if I was going to.

 

The knobs you linked are the standard SG knobs, but I'm getting the Witch Hat knobs like the '67 SGs had (or at least Angus's).

 

He used the standard pickups in all his guitars, so whatever they were equipped with at the time is what he has. I know he never used the Angus Signatuire pickup, but he designed it, so I figured it should be pretty close.

 

Again, I really don't want to rebuild the guitar, which is why I chose to leave the binding alone, so I think new electricals is going a little overboard. As for the pickups, I want to stick to Gibson because I'm kind of a purist/sucker for anything that says 'Gibson".

 

I've got a Marshall MG50DFX (i.e. 50 Watts).

 

Forget the Vibrola. He never uses it. And IIRC he prefers T-tops in his SG over the AY signature pickups.

 

I know he never uses it' date=' but his '67 had it, and I like the look.

 

Mind explaining what IIRC means? I'm not good with that modern "lingo".

 

What are T-Tops? Is that a company or a specific model of pickup?

 

or:

 

buy elitist 61 reissue, put in RiffRaff custom pickup

 

done.

 

much closer to what angus plays, sounds a million times better than a g400 with an angus sig pickup (I had one of those...its muddy as hell and doesn't even sound like ac/dc)

 

bone stock my elite sg sounds more like that classic ac/dc tone than my heavily modded g400 did, and after the price I paid for the pickup, pots, switch, bone nut, case, ect it costs more than what you can get an elite/elitist for

 

I'm on a tight budget here, so I think buying a whole new guitar is out of the question!

 

Never heard of the "Riff Raff" pickup. Who makes it?

 

 

 

Sorry if it sounds like I'm cutting down all your advice, but I'm very picky as you can tell, LOL.

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Here's my Gibson SG Special with the Mods I made Wasn't going for the Angus look but Weller plays a 68 SG same specs as Angus

 

guitars126.jpg

 

Wow' date=' that looks great! That's what I'm going for; not perfect, but something to hold me over until I win the lottery...

 

Here' date=' take your pick: http://www.acronymfinder.com/IIRC.html[/quote']

 

Hmm, I choose "If I Remember Correctly". Heh, thanks!

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I'm on a tight budget here' date=' so I think buying a whole new guitar is out of the question!

 

Never heard of the "Riff Raff" pickup. Who makes it?

 

 

 

Sorry if it sounds like I'm cutting down all your advice, but I'm very picky as you can tell, LOL.

[/quote']

 

Well, strings will cost you in a month what that roller bridge did if you use the vibrato at all, or switch tunings often.

The wiring upgrade guitarfetish.com sells is only 22 bucks and you'll notice a bigger difference with quality pots, caps, and a new switch than a new bridge or nut will ever get ya.

 

A set of GFS vintage '59s or Fat Pafs will cost you about as much as one Seymour duncan or a 3rd of what a gibson set would be. And the tone, you can most certainly get Angus Young's AC/DC tone out of a mixed set of these.

 

Try these BEFORE gibson pups, if you don't like 'em, I'll take them off your hands for more then you'll get from ebay.

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4 small screws to fit it to the body . If you see the pic of mine one of the holes is still visible were the stop bar used to be the other is covered by the Trapieze tailpiece Not the best I know but it will do

 

Stupid question' date=' but do I have to drill holes in the body for the screws? I'd be afraid to drill on my guitar. I also heard something about it connecting to the strap button. What's that about?

 

Well, strings will cost you in a month what that roller bridge did if you use the vibrato at all, or switch tunings often.

The wiring upgrade guitarfetish.com sells is only 22 bucks and you'll notice a bigger difference with quality pots, caps, and a new switch than a new bridge or nut will ever get ya.

 

A set of GFS vintage '59s or Fat Pafs will cost you about as much as one Seymour duncan or a 3rd of what a gibson set would be. And the tone, you can most certainly get Angus Young's AC/DC tone out of a mixed set of these.

 

Try these BEFORE gibson pups, if you don't like 'em, I'll take them off your hands for more then you'll get from ebay.

 

Well that's perfect, because almost all I play is AC/DC, which is all standard tuning with no whammy bar! And when I say almost all I play is AC/DC, I mean you'd be hard pressed to catch me playing anything else!

 

The reason I'm leaning away from the wiring is because I don't want this to become a project, just some upgrades. I am a little afraid to go inside and replace wiring and stuff like that, and the wiring I have now is fine anyway.

 

What about those T-Tops? And could I get GFS pickups at Guitar Center?

The pickups will be a ways off anyway, as I'm still saving for the vibrato!

 

And I noticed he takes off the chrome covers from his pickups, so how hard would It be for me to do that to my soldered-on covers?

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I didn't see where you had the guitar already, so my bad on that

 

http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/products.html

 

theres a link to the Riff Raff, but to be honest I'm not 100% on the sound, but I don't see how it could be worse than the Gibson, that thing sounded terrible in my G400, lifeless and lacked volume...too creamy sounding for that rough AC/DC punch

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Each pickup could be different though' date=' as I believe they're hand made, right?

[/quote']

 

Not quite, anymore. The old Gibson PAFs were unique because they didn't use counters, just wound them until "full".

These days they are all wound by a machine with an exact number of turns, and only the assembly is done by hand.

 

Just like the T-tops (Gibson's default PAF pickups from the '70s IIRC), regular Gibson Burstbuckers sound huge with a Marshall tube amp and work really well for the AC/DC sound, or at least for me they do.

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GFS doesn't sell at guitar center. They only sell direct from store.guitarfetish.com and their ebay site.

The wiring upgrade isn't just about "working", it's about something guitarists will give a 4 hour speech on, TONE, and one unspoken gesture, feel, playability. Also, it's less than 10 soldering points, hardly a 'project', IMO. If you're really scared, try soldering some L.E.Ds to a wire going to a stapler and a battery, if you can push the stapler down and make the LED light, you can wire up a guitar. It's not rocket science, this ain't a sheri.

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Not quite' date=' anymore. The old Gibson PAFs were unique because they didn't use counters, just wound them until "full".

These days they are all wound by a machine with an exact number of turns, and only the assembly is done by hand.

 

Just like the T-tops (Gibson's default PAF pickups from the '70s IIRC), regular Gibson Burstbuckers sound huge with a Marshall tube amp and work really well for the AC/DC sound, or at least for me they do.

[/quote']

 

So Gibson makes T-Tops, or did they outsource the pickups to another company? And Burstbuckers are pretty expensive, aren't they?

 

GFS doesn't sell at guitar center. They only sell direct from store.guitarfetish.com and their ebay site.

The wiring upgrade isn't just about "working"' date=' it's about something guitarists will give a 4 hour speech on, TONE, and one unspoken gesture, feel, playability. Also, it's less than 10 soldering points, hardly a 'project', IMO. If you're really scared, try soldering some L.E.Ds to a wire going to a stapler and a battery, if you can push the stapler down and make the LED light, you can wire up a guitar. It's not rocket science, this ain't a sheri.[/quote']

 

I doubt it'll improve playability, but my tone is fine. I'm 15, so I don't have a soldering gun or any skill with one. The pickups are really secondary to me, because I'm more interested in the Vibrola and knobs. The stock pickups have sufficient bite for AC/DC, so an upgrade is not 100% necesary.

 

Besides, my mom is freaking out because I'm doing the knobs, so if I told her I wanted to replace the circuitry, imagine what she'd say. She thinks my guitars are fine how they are. Ugh.

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