Bennyboy-UK Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 BC Rich Mockingbirds are like an SG fancy daughter who hung out with explorers, and hamer standards... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LucSulla Posted January 19, 2017 Author Share Posted January 19, 2017 2 hours ago, Bennyboy-UK said: BC Rich Mockingbirds are like an SG fancy daughter who hung out with explorers, and hamer standards... Those girls are hot, but they always break your heart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LucSulla Posted January 20, 2017 Author Share Posted January 20, 2017 Showed up today - The bad - Three piece body. I guess that is bad, but isn't that kind of par for the course on their painted guitars? The good - All it needed was a truss rod tweak. Plays great, pups sound good. It's not a Talladega, but it's a lot of guitar for a very reasonable price. This one is in really good shape to boot. All in all, I guess I just can't hate on Gibson that much anymore. Everything I've bought that they've made in the last 10 years is pretty good, so I don't know. I know for a fact that at some point in the early-to-mid 2000s there were massive QC issues. One of my best friends worked at a very large and reputable musical instrument retailer - kind of like Musician's Friend except they all really know their stuff. Around 2005, they were getting so many customer returns of Gibson guitars due to warped necks that they threatened to quit selling them, and I think, at least at the time, they sold more than anyone else. It was apparently quite the fiasco. So I've no doubt that the "dogs" were real. But all the newer ones I've picked up lately on the used market have pretty much been solid. Is this the end of my random threads talking smack about them? Such complicated feelings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BTMN Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 Year and model? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biz Prof Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 I am definitely a fan of the batwing guard and ebony finish. Nice score! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LucSulla Posted January 20, 2017 Author Share Posted January 20, 2017 Just now, BTMN said: Year and model? 2009 Standard. Main difference between it and the 61 RI: Beefier neck joint (starts at 19th rather than 21st fret, although looking at the Sweetwater catalog, I think the new RI's have the same joint now) 490R and 498T Pups vs. the 57 Classics 50s neck profile, so bigger neck The Batwing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobB Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 Nice one, Luc! So what if it has a 3-piece body? It's black... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottcald Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 I love the 490R/498T combo. Looks nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbonesullivan Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 While I like saying a guitar I own has a "one piece body", I also remember 4 of my hamers have 3 piece necks, along with their one piece bodies. I try not to get hung up on it. It's black. It sounds good. You like it. Good. Rock on and stop worrying about how many pieces it is made of. Now if only I could purge myself of obsessing over guitar color. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LucSulla Posted January 20, 2017 Author Share Posted January 20, 2017 15 minutes ago, RobB said: Nice one, Luc! So what if it has a 3-piece body? It's black... I agree with ya! But you know, there is that crowd that's like, "Well, the neck joint wasn't glued with adhesive made from Elvis' used pomade, so it doesn't have the mojo." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crunchee Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 Funny how that goes both ways...used to be, people didn't like mid-late '80's LP Standards, because they had a three-piece maple top and not a two-piece top...then word got out that Slash's main stage guitar was (still is?) an '87 LP Standard with a three-piece maple top (and a manufacturing '2nd' to boot)...now, good luck finding one of those cheap! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cynic Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 Three-piece top lust goes back further than Slash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LucSulla Posted January 20, 2017 Author Share Posted January 20, 2017 My 78 LPC has a three piece top, but thankfully not a pancake body. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottcald Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 21 minutes ago, cynic said: Three-piece top lust goes back further than Slash. Yeah, he looks really excited about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LucSulla Posted January 20, 2017 Author Share Posted January 20, 2017 2 hours ago, scottcald said: Yeah, he looks really excited about it. He's probably sad because every night, no matter what, that neck pickup always ends up smoking and stuff. Drove the poor man to drink I hear. This guitar had the most needlessly awful setup that I've ever seen. Neck was bowed, and he had the bridge pup jacked way up. To get around these two issues, he had the bridge itself jacked way up. I really hope he was a Derek Trucks fan, because the string height was silly. More than likely, he let it go cheap because he thought it was messed up and hard to play. I adjusted the truss rod and gave it a couple of hours to make sure it was good (a half turn ), then set the bridge height and tweaked the pups when I got home tonight. Plays A-OK! Probably needs a little more refining, but definitely gig worthy. I wonder how many people move perfectly good guitars along in a state of dismay when all they really needed to do was learn a little more about setting them up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disturber Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 7 hours ago, LucSulla said: Showed up today - The bad - Three piece body. I guess that is bad, but isn't that kind of par for the course on their painted guitars? The good - All it needed was a truss rod tweak. Plays great, pups sound good. It's not a Talladega, but it's a lot of guitar for a very reasonable price. This one is in really good shape to boot. All in all, I guess I just can't hate on Gibson that much anymore. Everything I've bought that they've made in the last 10 years is pretty good, so I don't know. I know for a fact that at some point in the early-to-mid 2000s there were massive QC issues. One of my best friends worked at a very large and reputable musical instrument retailer - kind of like Musician's Friend except they all really know their stuff. Around 2005, they were getting so many customer returns of Gibson guitars due to warped necks that they threatened to quit selling them, and I think, at least at the time, they sold more than anyone else. It was apparently quite the fiasco. So I've no doubt that the "dogs" were real. But all the newer ones I've picked up lately on the used market have pretty much been solid. Is this the end of my random threads talking smack about them? Such complicated feelings. Its black. How can you tell it has a three piece body? Has the finish sunken in where it's been joined together? Looks cool btw. Black is evil. Very Toni Iomi. I like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LucSulla Posted January 20, 2017 Author Share Posted January 20, 2017 Just now, Disturber said: Its black. How can you tell it has a three piece body? Has the finish sunken in where it's been joined together? Looks cool btw. Black is evil. Very Toni Iomi. I like. Thanks! I quite like the evil myself! It's easiest to see on the back. If you hold it at an angle to a light source, you can see the different grain patterns. I guess after the grain sealer, the paint is there to get a uniform coat, but the smoothness comes from buffing out the nitro. You can see the seems and the hog grain in the biggest peace, but it's subtle. You'd never notice it unless you were working at it. I really, honestly don't care about the three piece thing. I only mentioned it because a couple of people here did, and listed it as a con as it was undesirable to some. I can pretty much guarantee that I couldn't tell you the difference between the tone of two SGs that were exactly alike aside from being a one or multi-piece body. I feel like it's a pretty sharp, well built guitar that I got with an OHSC for a good bit under $1,000. No complaints here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disturber Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 I just did a set up, including refitting the bolt on neck as tightly as humanly possible, on my old 1980 Yamaha BB400S bass. Three piece mahogany body on that one. And it's one hell of a bass. Three piece, two piece or one piece. Don't know if it matters. In some cases maybe, if the wood is inferior in the first place etc. But in most cases it might probably only be cosmetic, and in your mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polara Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 Happy new SG day, sir! I have to agree on the issues of Gibson quality and multi-piece bodies. I remember going to a Gibson event at the Rock and Roll HOF in 2005 and every guitar they had had out for display was somewhere between "meh" and "ugh." Now I have a 2016 Les Paul Studio and it's ALMOST a two-piece body bt a few inches are a third chunk. Two-piece maple top. Anyway, the neck is great, it's very well made, it sounds really good, and I love playing it. I wonder what changed at Gibson? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSII x 2 Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 Great score! Eric Bloom is jealous... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crunchee Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 7 hours ago, Disturber said: Its black. How can you tell it has a three piece body? Has the finish sunken in where it's been joined together? Looks cool btw. Black is evil. Very Toni Iomi. I like. 7 hours ago, LucSulla said: Thanks! I quite like the evil myself! It's easiest to see on the back. If you hold it at an angle to a light source, you can see the different grain patterns. I guess after the grain sealer, the paint is there to get a uniform coat, but the smoothness comes from buffing out the nitro. You can see the seems and the hog grain in the biggest peace, but it's subtle. You'd never notice it unless you were working at it. I'm kinda spitballing here based on my own experiences, but this is what I've encountered: On glossy finishes, Gibson uses a 'pore filler' on mahogany to fill the grain, which then gets sanded smooth before finish is applied. The pore filler does seem to shrink a little and 'settle in' with time (I'm talking months if not years), long after the guitar's been finished and sold. Join lines, where pieces of wood meet, are virtually always ruler-straight for the entire length of the join. and often can be seen by looking at the reflection on a glossy finish. You might not be able to FEEL the join at all (it should be sanded smooth at least), but It's a LOT easier to see the join line in the reflection in the painted finish, IMO...and it won't look like wood grain, it'll look like a straight line. I don't necessarily look FOR or AT wood grain, so much as I'm looking for a 'pattern' in the reflection of light on a glossy finish, and I find that it's actually easier to find the 'pattern' of any join lines on a 'opaque' (solid nontransparent color) finish, than it is on a transparent finish. Growth rings in wood can create a 'pattern' under/in the finish, too, but they're rarely ruler-straight OR consistent, and definitely NOT ruler-straight down the length of the ENTIRE body...which is a pretty sure sign of a join seam. The same thing applies to maple tops under a glossy opaque finish (I have three early '90's LP Studios, one white and two black, and all three have three-piece maple tops and what looks to me to be one-piece mahogany bodies) as far as looking at the reflections in the painted finish goes, though I don't know if Gibson uses 'pore filler' on the seams with the maple, since it usually doesn't need it on the maple wood itself. This seems to work well for me, when it comes to opaque finishes over solid wood(s). Flame maple veneers applied to guitar tops (like on some PRS SE guitars) are a different ball of wax; though with age and time, body join lines under the veneer MIGHT be found in the finish reflection, depending on how thin the veneer is. Of course, if the back of the body is glossy painted, then the info that I mentioned above applies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hfan Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 Congrats I like it. Sounds like you got a good deal. Black SGs look great. How do the pickups work for you? I like that bridge pickup in my 93 LP Studio. I did install a 57Classic in the neck position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LucSulla Posted January 20, 2017 Author Share Posted January 20, 2017 @crunchee It does have two ruler-straight lines where the seems are. You just happen to be able to see the grain impressions on one piece on the back as well if you look just so. @Hfan So far, I like them. It's nice having two guitars with a little hotter pups as generally I go for more medium output stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
it's me HHB Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 Congrats looks awesome I like the batwing and I like those pickups. I think you should get a bigsby cuz I know that will piss you off lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl.B Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 Congrats on the new SG, I have it's twin residing at my house currently. It's my son's and he likes the big ass neck, me not so much I prefer the 60's neck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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