Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: PhilKing on July 13, 2008, 11:25:06 PM
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I've had this about a month now and I've been meaning to do a write up on it. It started as a discussion a while back on making a John Birch SG. I've been looking for one for years but with no success (though I know there are quite a lot out there - I sold at least 30 or so John Birch's in the mid seventies - but not all were SG's). Anyway, Tim made me a set of P-90's in nickel dog ear covers as I was going to get a new JB SG made, but that fell through. About that time I started emailing Wez and he was up for having a go at one, so I went to see him with some parts and we had a discussion, and he got on with it.
The guitar is a neck through with a mahogny neck with wenge centre stripe and korina wings and a ziracote fingerboard with acrylised sycamore binding and a ziracote head overlay. The neck shape is based loosely on my 60 Les Paul Special, but is 1 3/4 inch at the nut and a 25 1/2 inch scale. The back heel is copied from my John Birch JB1, and the tailpiece is a Schaller with Tone Pro's locking studs. The machine heads are Grover, and in the controls are a pair of original old russian paper in oil capacitors.
It feels great to play, Wez fitted Dunlop straplocks (my request), with the top horn one contersunk to give more strength. Once you get used to how it hangs, the neck feels great and you don't notice the lack of fingerboad dots (there are side dots though). Acoustically it rings nicely and has some good attack on the notes, it also sustains really well. When you plug it in though it really shines. It's natural tones are great for all styles of blues, you can play it lightly on the neck pickup and have almost an acoustic sound, then hit it hard and the notes start to snarl at you. To get more of that P-90 bite, switching to the bridge pickup will do the trick. When you put an overdrive on with it, you can get the original Black Sabbath sounds and some great driving solo sounds that will cut through in a band.
I am really happy with the neck shape and the feel of it, I can dig in and let the notes ring. There are 24 frets and it is fretted with 6100 wire to the 12th fret and 6105 after that. The narrower wire helps a bit when you get up near the end of the neck. The neck heel shape means that there is no resistance or changing hand position when in the high frets. Now I am thinking about an SG Standard with neck through, though Wez is starting something else to take a break from SG's!
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Fantastic!!
A serious lack of quilted maple imo, and will never get used to those dog ears, but the build looks great and I love those ziracote fretboards.
Love the red amp by the way! :D
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mmm like the slightly dif sg shape on that
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Hm, strange. I posted in this thread and it dissapeared.
Looks great. Somehow, p90s just seem right for SGs, as do the 24 frets. You've improved on a classic design without changing the body shape too much. Props to Wez once again!
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Wow!!!!. You excel in knowledge and taste!
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very cool 70s john birch look and feel! congratulations phil and wez
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TOTAL SICKNESS!!! :o
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looks brilliant
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Love it! I bet that plays like a dream, too!
Roo
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Yep, that's definitely a cool looking guitar.
Can't wait for the soundclips!!!
Mark.
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Love the red amp by the way! :D
It's my Ceriatone JTM45/18 TMB EF! JTM45 power section (GZ34, 2xKT66) with the preamp from an 18w TMB/EF (so it includes an EF86 channel). It is great sounding, 2 completely different tones, the TMB is very Marshall and the EF86 is Vox.
mmm like the slightly dif sg shape on that
The body shape is just like an SG, if it looks different it must be my pictures. The headstock is smaller (just like a John Birch), and with the 25˝" scale, the neck looks longer.
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A serious lack of quilted maple imo
Quilt on an SG? I thought they were meant to be stripped down rock n roll machines not a prs! :P
Looks great Phil, I really want one of wez' neck through SGs, a nicely stained dark brownish one like gibsons natural burst without a PG and some p90s would look so good :)
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A serious lack of quilted maple imo
Quilt on an SG? I thought they were meant to be stripped down rock n roll machines not a prs! :P
Looks great Phil, I really want one of wez' neck through SGs, a nicely stained dark brownish one like gibsons natural burst without a PG and some p90s would look so good :)
They are - Its just my taste for really fancy guitars :P
Yes I know fancy tops are gay - But I love em :D
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That guitar is an AWESOME looker, especially in front of that amp/cab; I'd love to have a play!
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Another great one from Wez!
As I said on "in the progress" topic: wish it was mine! :D
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excellent! :D
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whats the other amp and cab?
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whats the other amp and cab?
Do you mean the one in pickups? This cab is a Matamp 1x12 with a Scumback M1275-16-LHDC 65W in itand the amp is a Ceriatone JTM45/18 (see below). The other amp is a Ceriatone Overtone Special sat on top of an Ear Candy Sweet Tooth which has an Eminence Ramrod and Lil' Buddy. Tim at Ear Candy is making a head cab for the Overtone and also a matching 2x12 Buzz Bomb.
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sweet..whats the overtone like?
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I don't know if it's just the camera angle, but in the first pic the amp looks like it's toppling forward and about to crush the SG to (toneful) matchwood....
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It really does everything that you would expect, almost liquid sustain when you kick in the overdrive and boost, with some very nice clean tones and a bit more kick with the clean boost. The controls all make a difference and it seems to work really well with the TAD 6L6W-GC STR's (rather than the regular 6L6's), though I would like to try the new Groove Tube 6L6 GE's, which look very similar. I think it will sound really great when I have the 2x12, as it has a ton of power.
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been dying to post in this all day but the filter at work wont let me onto the reply screen
anyway, thanks phil!
the guitar is a standard SG shape but the bevels are a bit different and i think the dogears and lack of a scratchplate make it look quite a bit different
i had to do it because i have spent so long moaning about the flaws in the gibson design and i am happy that i solved most of them and i am very happy with the look of the guitar and the new headstock shape to match it
i will do more of this design at some point, maybe 1 more this year... but i like to build a variety of different things and challenge myself a bit so i dont want to get overwhelmed with SG's just yet
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Wow, that looks really nice and looks like it plays really nice too.
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Looks great! Iommi would be proud :D
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Me want!! PDT_003
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looks badass, I'd have gone with soapbars rather than dogears, but thats personal preference. Wez's work looks great as usual - I'd love something similar except a single Pig90, cherry finish, small headstock and thin neck width like the 60s SG jrs had and a scratchplate too.