iTS A STORY.................OF A BOY

eSGEe

eSGEe

Ferengi Ambassador of Trade
Country flag
a...mild mannered, Cabana Boy to be exact-- many moons he has searched the length and breadth of the countryside......for but one thing....................an SG, that "feels right:"

many have come and gone.................

today --- the cosmos aligned -- when I -- threw IN THE TOWEL on a SOLDERING and refused NAY ON VEHEMENTLY REFUSED TO EVER SOLDER AGAIN! ----and took the "FREE" (lol, snicker snort) SG that traveled to the SWAMPNECKISTANIAN OUTBACK to Cabana boy -- along with a bag of bribery including parts...pots...tubes...pickups and other shiny baubles....for him to "fix" -- this
SG faded T post surgery.jpg
As i had admittedly GOOCHED the last pup swap and the bridge pup I installed was D.O.A

somehow---- in Catalogs of Fernegi Lore a tale of happiness and karma shall befall the world and --- after a mere 30 seconds strumming this aforementioned brown Sg -----Cabana Boy put it on a stand and ran off into a back room................................................
only to reappear with an item I had lusted after for about a year now..............
a MINTY 2011 GIBSON melody Maker SPECIAL .......in cherry -----
aaaahhhhhh.gif

Twas all could do to contain my excitement..(best poker face employed) ...also Misses Cabana Boy was there so I curtailed my "trucker" verbiage ......(and erotic junk rubbing victory dance) ......and spent most my time teasing Cabana Boy about his soldering prowess.......
;)

But in the end --
Cabana boy received something he has been looking for for years a GOOD SOLID (actually working) WORKHORSE SG
and I came home with .................................................................................
one of these ......................................
1597627256128.png

its a wafer thin slice of mahogany heaven

1597627298276.png

so I got a FREE les paul MM 2011 SPECIAL ---in exchange for a FREE SG -- that I traded a Chibson with nice pickups ........shipping to and from Californication....and various other baubles for --

but as the worm turns and Karma spins .........................................I am a happy damn camper as is Cabana Boy (I think) -- he seemed almost "giddy" earlier today and that -- makes me very happy ---
 
I reckon it is ..................................lol HA HA HAAA you said BAKED ha ha haaa

FEATURES
Handcrafted in Nashville, TN USA
Multi-piece mahogany body
Nitrocellulose satin finish
Glued-in mahogany neck
Baked maple fingerboard
22 frets
12" radius
Les Paul headstock
Corian nut
P-90 single-coil neck pickup
P-90 single-coil bridge pickup
Master Volume, Master Tone
Black top hat knobs
3-way pickup selector
White button tuning keys
Wraparound tailpiece
 
No one was buying the MM I had, eSGEe has been eyeballing it since I got it. I've been wanting a vanilla fudge brown SG work horse and nobody seems to be falling in love with the poor brown SG eSGEe had, so... eSGEe got something he's been wanting, will fit in with his other gear, etc and I gave an old brown workhorse SG I named The Brown Bess a home.

I've watched, read, and heard about this SG back from when R.H. had it thru eSGEe... It has a tail/story behind it. I played it for a bit unplugged when eESGe brought it by and it felt comfortable, I liked the vibe I was getting, and I was enjoying playing it...

Gotta find a nice set of Gibson pickups for it though. I've got a set of Seymour Duncan '57's up for trade locally - see what happens. No biggy - worse thing that happens is I put the duncan '57's in it - no hurries no worries...
 
CabanaBoy said:
No one was buying the MM I had, eSGEe has been eyeballing it since I got it. I've been wanting a vanilla fudge brown SG work horse and nobody seems to be falling in love with the poor brown SG eSGEe had, so... eSGEe got something he's been wanting, will fit in with his other gear, etc and I gave an old brown workhorse SG I named The Brown Bess a home.

I've watched, read, and heard about this SG back from when R.H. had it thru eSGEe... It has a tail/story behind it. I played it for a bit unplugged when eESGe brought it by and it felt comfortable, I liked the vibe I was getting, and I was enjoying playing it...

Gotta find a nice set of Gibson pickups for it though. I've got a set of Seymour Duncan '57's up for trade locally - see what happens. No biggy - worse thing that happens is I put the duncan '57's in it - no hurries no worries...
Click to expand...
Those are the best trades. Both sides happy with something they wanted.
 
eSGEe said:
ALSO as a "side" I believe ROBERT is rather happy with the Chibson meaning ....its a TRIPLE PLAY OF GEAR HAPPINESS!
Click to expand...

You guys know how much i love a back story..

I bought the SG brand new in September of 2017, and did a fair amount of work on it. It has 11 feet of copper shielding tape inside of it, plus a 50's style cloth harness, replacing the original Gibson PCB with K40Y tone caps, a .033uf on the bridge and a .015uf in the neck position. It has a Faber TP-59 locking tailpiece with special shims to correct for neck angle anomalies.

Interestingly, i played this guitar when i auditioned for Soloman Grundy, in June of 2018, the band who hired me (based on that audition) in November of 2019, and the band i am still with today, that has evolved to 6members.

I like to refer to this as the "Free SG" because after paying $780.00 for it brand new with SKG poly case, i traded it to Adrian for a $167.00 Chinatown Slash 59 Les Paul knockoff.

What people don't realize is there was a considerable amount of research and thought that went into this acquisition.

Between September of 2017 and April of 2019, i bought 5 brand new Gibson's, searching for a guitar that i could use both live and in the studio.

Every one of them had neck angle issues, or scale length anomalies, fret slots sawn at angles, deep-set inlays that you hung the strings on, impossible to set intonation because of bridge post location and "humps" in the fretboard, not to mention the unshielded guitars broadcasting local radio stations over the amplifiers.

Three were returned to Gibson, the SG was traded/given away and the last 2016 Les Paul 50's Tribute was traded to @Sp8ctre who later sold it.

First and foremost, this particular Les Paul knockoff had absolutely perfect fret slot, nut shelf and bridge post placement and the neck angle was within Gibson's specification range.

This was my dealbreaker. I had to have a guitar that was as close to mathematically correct as possible. The accuracy of bridge placement, fret location and bridge post position on the "Chinese Junk" was the most accurate of all of my genuine Gibson's.

It even intonated correctly with a Gotoh ABR-1 bridge, without running the saddles to the limits of their travel...something none of my Gibson's could yield even with the added adjustment range of a Nashville bridge.

These measurements were the deciding factor in building this guitar up.

The "Chibson" was outfitted with my preferred Epiphone H8BN/H6BN pickups, .018uf box capacitors, high quality pots and switch, a simple, modern poly wire harness, pulled from an Epiphone Les Paul and a Pure Tone HD jack and metal jack plate. A Faber TP-59 locking aluminum tailpiece was used along with genuine Grover gold keystone tuners.

I also leveled and crowned the Chibster until i got the fret heights down to .036" off the fretboard with a perfect 12" radius.

The setup is as close to pefect as humanly possible.

The 59 Chibster was a great stage guitar and drew many compliments from our audience, especially from other musicians during the tear-down phase.

I did experience a lot of tuning trouble with my Les Paul's during a direct sunlight, outdoor performance in September of 2019. The guitars were hot to the touch during this performance and all three Les Paul's (one genuine Gibson, the Chibster and my garage-built replica) behaved in identical fashion.

Because of this experience, i got rid of the 2016 Les Paul 50's Tribute and the Chibster, keeping only my garage-built Les Paul Tuxedo Custom.

I must admit that the 59 Chibster is the only guitar i have regretted getting rid of. I recently arranged to get it back and i am excited to put it back into rotation.

I use a Schecter C1 Hellraiser FR and a oyd Rose equipped Jackson San Dimas for all outdoor events, because they do not change tuning, even when exposed to direct sunlight.

Good to know the SG found a good home...

Here's a pic of the 59 Chibster, shortly after completion, on July 10, 2019.

1597426143646_Completed Project July 10, 2019.jpg
 
Robert Herndon said:
I like to refer to this as the "Free SG" because after paying $780.00 for it brand new with SKG poly case, i traded it to Adrian for a $167.00 Chinatown Slash 59 Les Paul knockoff.
Click to expand...
True-- however--just for clarity and my own sanity- the Chibson had "extras" including a case-- and a load of extra pickups and parts and goodies stuffed in the case compartment-- AND I covered freight to -- and from Calif. on both guitars- (that was around almost 300.00 right there)--so the $$$ amount was very similar to what one can purchase the same guitar --used-- on reverb or ebay for now.

But perhaps Karma -- meant for this lovely to get to the swamp to be in the hands of the one who has allready Christened it with a name and who loved it from the first strum????
 
eSGEe said:
True-- however--just for clarity and my own sanity- the Chibson had "extras" including a case-- and a load of extra pickups and parts and goodies stuffed in the case compartment-- AND I covered freight to -- and from Calif. on both guitars- (that was around almost 300.00 right there)--so the $$$ amount was very similar to what one can purchase the same guitar --used-- on reverb or ebay for now.

But perhaps Karma -- meant for this lovely to get to the swamp to be in the hands of the one who has allready Christened it with a name and who loved it from the first strum????
Click to expand...

True facts indeed, Adriano. No intent to downplay these things at all. Its always been more of an inside joke (to me anyways) that we traded a real Gibson for a fake one.

I don't want to mislead anybody or minimize Adrian's investment, but i think it was a good trade.

I honestly don't know what a 2016 Gibson SG goes for used, but I paid $780.00 for the SG from Zzounds (found my receipt in my email) and another $149.95 for the SKG rigid poly case. The Faber TP-59 locking aluminum tailpiece with steel bolts and spacers (in kit form its part #4000) was $88.35 and the wire harness from Gary "Tone Man" Standefer - with Bourn pots and all the upgraded K40Y's and switch/jack - was $90.00 plus shipping.

There was also over 10 feet of copper tape in that guitar, but i buy that on 50 foot rolls from Art Of Tone in Ventura, California, so i didn't count that into the mix. I also didn't figure in the GFS Classic II's that i had put in it, replacing the noisy, original Gibson 490's.

I was happy to be able to swing the deal and i felt like Adrian was getting a decent Gibson that had most of the bugs worked out by the time he received it.

I certainly don't feel like i "ripped anyone off" with the trade and i have always put maintaining friendships very high on my list.

I think it was a win-win all the way around!!!
 
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eSGEe said:
I am Ferengi after all but I don't want people to think I would take advantage of someone and actually trade them a chibson for a Gibson even Steven
Especially one of our esteemed members :)
Click to expand...

From the get-go, Adrian represented the Chibson faithfully and honestly. I couldn't wait to get rid of the SG as it had become a very negative experience for me.

Here's an interesting statistic. I started pulling out receipts this morning and added up some numbers.

Between July and September 2019, the Chibster earned me 3 times the total purchase price of all (5) brand new Gibson's with cases, and that's not counting what it earned in the studio.... :-)
 
Robert Herndon said:
There was also over 10 feet of copper tape in that guitar,
Click to expand...
It is the most EXCELLENTLY DONE copper job Ive ever seen -- he got copper in places I woulda either SKIPPED all together -- or never THOUGHT copper tape could be applied there
how many man hours went into the tape job????

WOW that Chibsons a GOLDEN GOOSE !!!!!!
 
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