78 gibson sg standard

[eruannu]

i just got a 78 sg i under stand it is not a big instument from a collectors stand point i was just wondering is it kosher to replace pups with say lace paf wannabes and put original harness and pups in box for safe keeping

[Earl Norton]

You never know what a particular guitar might do on the collector's market. I have a mid '60's Gretsch tennesean that one could not give away for firewood in the '70's. I really wanted something more gibson like so I put humbuckers in it and wired it like a les paul...a non-reversable mod. Did a really good job on it and it looks good but it still sounded like a Gretsch that no one wanted. Now it is devalued because of it and everyone dies to have an old and original Gretsch. You could do the mod if it's reversable and then reverse it if the market improves for that model.

On the other hand, I picked up an SG in really bad shape without any hardware or electronics for next to nothing and basically rebuilt it with heavy mods...new pickups, new finish and tuning machines and a whammy bar...with the idea of making a players instrument just to my specs. I love playing that guitar but it had no chance as a collector's item in the first place so nothing was wasted.

I guess that with so many project guitars available at giveaway prices (look at ebay) why hack into any original instrument for whatever reason.

[eruannu]

i may add that it it Is a factory second and it does have that notorius hotel room neck reset
the gluing of the neck back on was not by me and though it is at correct angle it kinda bugs me cause the job was done with yellow auto epoxy

[Earl Norton]

Do what you will with it...it is your guitar. (Really? Auto expoxy? awful.)

[Steve Conner]

Are you a guitar player, or a guitar dealer? The pickup replacement should be easy to undo anyway.

[eruannu]

player and tech i'm just worried about the awful short leads that were used on these pups you cant even lift them out of their routed holes to look at them i had to use a mirror

[Steve Conner]

Surely you can just unsolder the pickup leads from the rest of the electronics? If you do that, you won't need to cut any wires and you can put the old pickups back just as they were.

The guitar player/guitar dealer thing was a rhetorical question. What I meant was that I think life's too short to worry about things becoming collectable, and if it was me, I'd go ahead and mod it :-)

[Spence]

Your SG isn't terribly collectable but it's yours so you should make it as user friendly as you can. You should get any issues like the neck reset sorted. But please, for the love of God, don't waste your money on stupid pickups. Get the very best you can, keep the old ones for when your guitar is worth something, and never look back.

[eruannu]

if it comforts any body i have kept pups stock and got new tubes and a new cable much better now i would not think of changing anything

[Mouthurst]

...till next time...