57 Classics good enough for Tracii Guns in his SG

Both E.SG, Wav Mixer and I have purchased problematical Gibson's. Two of my colleagues here in SoCal sent back $3,000 Gibson Les Paul's with construction problems that Gibson warranty could not address.

Our very own Owegi has also experienced this SG problem-- how many did you send back because they wouldnt intonate or had other issues Owegi????

Say Owegi, Hows the intonation on the Epi SG "Epic Ugly"???? any worse???? any Better????
 
I had Gibson pickups in my guitars when I bought them. I didn't find them noisy, but they just didn't give me the tone I needed. So I swapped them out for Bare Knuckle pickups, all of them higher output than what had been in there. I also swapped out the stock harnesses (and in one case a PCB) in two of them for harnesses made by a guy who has over the last couple of years ceased trading due to chronic illness. I plan to import a Tone Man harness for the third one eventually.
 
I had Gibson pickups in my guitars when I bought them. I didn't find them noisy, but they just didn't give me the tone I needed. So I swapped them out for Bare Knuckle pickups, all of them higher output than what had been in there. I also swapped out the stock harnesses (and in one case a PCB) in two of them for harnesses made by a guy who has over the last couple of years ceased trading due to chronic illness. I plan to import a Tone Man harness for the third one eventually.

Dave,

I'm a low-output PAF guy, I guess...but I can understand what you say when you report that the Gibson's lacked "something" you wanted. For me, their tone wasn't there. The noise was just the straw that broke the camels back.

I found the Tone Man PIO K40Y .033uf/.015uf harness to be a huge part of the tonal equation...
 
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How does the 0.033uf cap improve things? I had one fitted to my P-90 harness and I like it, but I might have liked a 0.022uf one too
 
I sent my Schechter to my friend and guitar tech Korey Brown Friday. I recently changed from EB .010's and EB Hybrid .009's. A
How does the 0.033uf cap improve things? I had one fitted to my P-90 harness and I like it, but I might have liked a 0.022uf one too

Keep in mind, I tested these caps on a "dyno" a colleague made before selecting the cap values. The .033uf is a little warmer and slightly darker in the bridge to my ear. I always felt like the bridge pickup on a SG was too bright....
 
Our very own Owegi has also experienced this SG problem-- how many did you send back because they wouldnt intonate or had other issues Owegi????

Say Owegi, Hows the intonation on the Epi SG "Epic Ugly"???? any worse???? any Better????

The Epic Ugly has left the building as someone I know just had to have it.

I've sent more than one Gibson SG back. I've sent a few epiphones back also. A Gibson is one of the best, if not the best in my opinion, instruments in the world if it's made correctly, but it still has to be made correctly (quality control). A guitar that's made correctly is made correctly and a guitar that isn't, isn't ; doesn't much matter the price, brand, or country of manufacturing. New strings, setup, maybe some minor fret work, clean the pots, maybe re-solder a loose solder joint, can be expected at times (welcome to the human race) for a new guitar and is fine with me. But if you have to do much more than that something isn't right with the guitar straight out of the box and it didn't get caught by quality control or the people in the factory just don't care. Don't ask for specifics about the issues on the guitars I sent back as I'd rather not kiss and tell, etc. Gibsons are still one of my favorite guitars, if not my favorite guitar. Just me, my thoughts, and my preferences here I guess ;)
 
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