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Guitar Repair: refurbishing a 1969 Gibson SG
Sometimes it’s hard to believe what is on my desk. Gibson only made SGs with front accessible controls in 1969. It should have a bigsby trem, and a scratchplate.
It should also have a fingerboard. What a mess. This customer bought the guitar as is, as he knew that this could be a very valuable guitar with a lot of work.
The neck has been cracked a number of times, and I’m pretty sure that Gibson didn’t offer this model in cheap, badly applied black finish.
So, lots of work to do. I started with a new fingerboard, and made a surface to glue the new fingerboard. After this, a full refinish, sorting out the horror around the tailpiece posts (these had been replaced with cut off screws) and filling and tidying up the previous repairs on the neck.
This is the result. New hardware. I made new scratchplates. Note the Les Paul shaped scratchplate specific to this model.
The customer wanted a particular tone, and I was able to suggest my favourite combination of pickups: Seymour Duncan 59 in the neck position, and a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge position. Great tones. Bassy and rich for rhythm, and hot and powerful in the lead position.
I’m confident that this will be one seriously happy customer.
9 Responses to “Guitar Repair: refurbishing a 1969 Gibson SG”
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Great job Jimbo. I think he indeed will be a happy customer.
THAT IS A REPAIR JOB FELLA!!!!
I am that happy customer. I can confirm that the look is great, it plays superbly and feels perfect.
Very nice indeed. Blogged at my place.
That is not a 1969 Sg. Looks more like 71-72
The model is an SG De Luxe, it came in walnut or cherry finish, with two hb PUps. SG models of this period (referred to as type 3 SGs) were produced in the years 1970-1973 (as suggested by jones) and were in addition the Custom (walnut only) with three hb PUps, and the Professional (cherry or walnut) with two sc P90 PUps. All had Bigsby-style tailpiece. (Source: Ian C. Bishop: The Gibson Guitar From 1950).
Very nice work!
Looks like I got the date wrong on this one. The serial number had been sanded off by whoever had painted it black. I consulted a collector who is normally right about this sort of thing. I have suitably rebuked him, and thank you all for your comments.
very impressive. i am a gibson fanatic…..this website helped out a lot!!! thanx!!!
What a great job!!! Very impressive indeed!!! Great site too by the way! Best wishes from Edinburgh.
Http://www.polarflamemusic.com/guitar
Http://www.edinburghguitarrepair.co.uk