Gibson SG

 (Chinese) Gibson SG Clone

The owner brought this to me new from the factory.  It had a maroon-ish paint finish, and he had a replica 1960's pick-guard that he wanted fitted.  To fit the guard I needed to move the neck pickup, bridge and pickup selector switch all backwards a few mm.  And replace the paint with a traditional red mahogany finish.

First mission was to remove the paint.  Sand, sand, scrape, sand again.  Removing the colour was not enough, as the factory had used a clear poly base coat to soak into the timber and provide an even surface for the colour layers.  The palm sander was good for the flat surfaces, but the details were manual.  Twelve hours and much toxic dust - if COVID was good for nothing else, it left me with a good supply of breathing masks!

The construction of the guitar was revealed once the paint was gone.  Five wooden blocks were glued together length-wise, with a flat sheet on both front and back.  The joins were quite distinct around the beveled edges.

Next was the repositioning of the hardware.  In this image, just behind the bridge foot is visible the wooden plug of the original mount hole. Also visible is my mark-up line for the pickup.

The finishing was progressive - a red wood dye (two coats), followed by walnut oil - two dilute coats, two solid coats. Wet sand (600 grit), two more coats, wet sand again.  Then Rustoleum clear lacquer - three coats, wet sand 400 grit, one coat, wet sand 600 grit, two coats.  Polish, and then wax.

Check the electrics (resolder a loose earth!), install pickups into the pickup guard, position and tighten everything in place. Mount the strap studs, machine heads, string and set up.

This was done by first setting the bridge saddles to a zero position. Each string: tune open, and check 5th fret note. Adjust saddle and bridge height (action) to bring the intonation into true, so that both open and 5th fret notes are accurate. Confirm using a pinch harmonic on the 12th fret.

With the intonation set, set the pickup heights to give even sound across all strings.

And, done.