Gahr
Ambassador of Blues & Brews
Yes, finally, New Vintage SG Junior Day!
It arrived this evening, and I have not played it through an amp yet. The kids are about to go to bed, so that will have to wait until tomorrow. But here are my thoughts so far:
It is a very, VERY cool guitar. It is definitely worn, with tons of mojo. Cool checking of the lacquer and the usual battle scars, except there's no buckle rash whatsoever. The damage around the jack has not been particularly nicely repaired, but it doesn't bother me at all; it is kind of in keeping with the rest of the guitar, and it doesn't affect the playability. It seems like whoever has owned the guitar in the past has loved it enough to play it a lot.
The fretboard is really dark, probably Braz rosewood. Very nice and smooth. Frets are worn in some places, but there is no buzz. The neck is a bit narrower and thicker than on my Derek Trucks (which I guess is as expected on a 1965 SG), but nowhere near as fat as on my 1975 SG-II. The nut is quite worn, but there's no fret buzz on the open strings, so it's all good.
I have only adjusted the bridge height a little bit (for the sake of looks I put on a replacement as soon as I got it), haven't touched the truss rod, but the action is nice and low. And to my amazement, the intonation seems to be spot on, without me as much as touching the intonation screws on the new (aged) CrazyParts compensated wraparound bridge. I found a used short Gibson Vibrola for sale a few days ago. The guitar was missing the arm, and came with an "armless" Vibrola comb, so I put the new comb and arm on it. I was really lucky there; it is the first time ever I have seen a short Vibrola for sale in Norway at all.
I put on some reflector knobs (it came with unoriginal black bell knobs) for authenticity.
The only thing that disappointed me slightly was that I couldn't swap out the Schaller tuners for the Three-a-side Kluson repos I had bought. The tuner holes have been reamed out slightly to fit the Schallers, and this has made the holes a tiny bit too wide for the Kluson bushings to fit. Again, it doesn't affect the playability at all. Maybe I'll do something about it in the future, we'll see. I'll leave them for now.
Considering I got it for about half of what a pristine example could be sold for, I think it was a good deal.
All in all, so far, certainly very good. I can't wait for tomorrow when I can fire it up through the 1959 GA-20T Ranger! And since the guitar is a '65 model, naturally it needs to be test driven through the 1965 Skylark as well.
Here are a couple of quick photos. I'll snap a few more tomorrow when the light is better.
It arrived this evening, and I have not played it through an amp yet. The kids are about to go to bed, so that will have to wait until tomorrow. But here are my thoughts so far:
It is a very, VERY cool guitar. It is definitely worn, with tons of mojo. Cool checking of the lacquer and the usual battle scars, except there's no buckle rash whatsoever. The damage around the jack has not been particularly nicely repaired, but it doesn't bother me at all; it is kind of in keeping with the rest of the guitar, and it doesn't affect the playability. It seems like whoever has owned the guitar in the past has loved it enough to play it a lot.
The fretboard is really dark, probably Braz rosewood. Very nice and smooth. Frets are worn in some places, but there is no buzz. The neck is a bit narrower and thicker than on my Derek Trucks (which I guess is as expected on a 1965 SG), but nowhere near as fat as on my 1975 SG-II. The nut is quite worn, but there's no fret buzz on the open strings, so it's all good.
I have only adjusted the bridge height a little bit (for the sake of looks I put on a replacement as soon as I got it), haven't touched the truss rod, but the action is nice and low. And to my amazement, the intonation seems to be spot on, without me as much as touching the intonation screws on the new (aged) CrazyParts compensated wraparound bridge. I found a used short Gibson Vibrola for sale a few days ago. The guitar was missing the arm, and came with an "armless" Vibrola comb, so I put the new comb and arm on it. I was really lucky there; it is the first time ever I have seen a short Vibrola for sale in Norway at all.
I put on some reflector knobs (it came with unoriginal black bell knobs) for authenticity.
The only thing that disappointed me slightly was that I couldn't swap out the Schaller tuners for the Three-a-side Kluson repos I had bought. The tuner holes have been reamed out slightly to fit the Schallers, and this has made the holes a tiny bit too wide for the Kluson bushings to fit. Again, it doesn't affect the playability at all. Maybe I'll do something about it in the future, we'll see. I'll leave them for now.
Considering I got it for about half of what a pristine example could be sold for, I think it was a good deal.
All in all, so far, certainly very good. I can't wait for tomorrow when I can fire it up through the 1959 GA-20T Ranger! And since the guitar is a '65 model, naturally it needs to be test driven through the 1965 Skylark as well.
Here are a couple of quick photos. I'll snap a few more tomorrow when the light is better.
--- BUWAHAHAHAHAH--- oh that was wrong--- but OH SO right 
J..B -- is a special Critter--- I would love to tag along on one of his GUITAR SAFARIs......
