NGD - 1969 Gibson SG Custom

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Larry Mal
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Re: NGD - 1969 Gibson SG Custom

Post by Larry Mal » Sat Dec 09, 2017 6:26 pm

Did I ever tell you how much I... hate it when you get a new guitar?

Not only is it always some world class, one of a kind, best in class instrument, but it's always right after I get some bullshit Fender Bullet or Gibson Challenger and I'm happy about it for like a couple of days and the forum talks about it for a couple of days and then you show up.

Jesus. What did me and my Gibson Challenger ever do to you?
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Re: NGD - 1969 Gibson SG Custom

Post by Ursa Minor » Sat Dec 09, 2017 8:50 pm

^ Haha! No kidding. :D

Did this replace a 355? Did I read that right? Do you still have the Jr.?

I LOVE this style of SG by the way. So classy and so not your typical rawk SG, at all. I remember falling in love with one I saw in a shop in Germany in the 90s. Couldn't get it out of my head for years and never saw another until the internet started to happen. Lovely find! I half wondered if this was one you saw when you got the SG Jr recently.
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Re: NGD - 1969 Gibson SG Custom

Post by zhivago » Sun Dec 10, 2017 12:55 am

Awesome, just awesome!!

SG customs rule! :-* 8)
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Re: NGD - 1969 Gibson SG Custom

Post by MrFingers » Sun Dec 10, 2017 3:55 am

That asks for a new family pick. Not too fond of the big-guard customs (especially not the poo-brown/white version), but they do sound truly amazing!

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Re: NGD - 1969 Gibson SG Custom

Post by Despot » Sun Dec 10, 2017 1:39 pm

Larry Mal wrote:
Sat Dec 09, 2017 6:26 pm
Did I ever tell you how much I... hate it when you get a new guitar?

Not only is it always some world class, one of a kind, best in class instrument, but it's always right after I get some bullshit Fender Bullet or Gibson Challenger and I'm happy about it for like a couple of days and the forum talks about it for a couple of days and then you show up.

Jesus. What did me and my Gibson Challenger ever do to you?
Sorry Larry. Bad timing on my part as usual ;)

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Re: NGD - 1969 Gibson SG Custom

Post by Despot » Sun Dec 10, 2017 1:45 pm

kosmonautmayhem wrote:
Sat Dec 09, 2017 8:50 pm
^ Haha! No kidding. :D

Did this replace a 355? Did I read that right? Do you still have the Jr.?

I LOVE this style of SG by the way. So classy and so not your typical rawk SG, at all. I remember falling in love with one I saw in a shop in Germany in the 90s. Couldn't get it out of my head for years and never saw another until the internet started to happen. Lovely find! I half wondered if this was one you saw when you got the SG Jr recently.
Thanks Nick. Yeah ... the 355 is gone. I'll miss it - but it's got to the point now where if I trade anything it's going to hurt.
And yep ... it's the one I originally went into the store to check out when I got the Junior a few weeks back. At that time it was on the point of being sold to another guy - he was taking it away to try it out for a few days. Last weekend when I dropped in to pick up my Strat (I'd left it in for a set up - it's an '80s Strat I had as a kid that my other half is using to learn to play) I saw the SG back on the wall. At that stage I made the mistake of playing it ... and that's led to this.

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Re: NGD - 1969 Gibson SG Custom

Post by Despot » Sun Dec 10, 2017 1:46 pm

zhivago wrote:
Sun Dec 10, 2017 12:55 am
Awesome, just awesome!!

SG customs rule! :-* 8)
Thanks Yannis. It's not a '50s LP Custom though... ;)

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Re: NGD - 1969 Gibson SG Custom

Post by Despot » Sun Dec 10, 2017 1:51 pm

MrFingers wrote:
Sun Dec 10, 2017 3:55 am
That asks for a new family pick. Not too fond of the big-guard customs (especially not the poo-brown/white version), but they do sound truly amazing!
You see that's actually what I love about this - I think if it had been a white on white big guard custom I would have actually been less likely to fall for it. There's something about the gold hardware on the dark brown with the cream guard that looks good to me. As much as I love my white Junior there's something about the contours on an SG where you can see the wood grain that I love - it's more clear on a cherry red SG for sure - but you can still see the grain on the walnut too.

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Re: NGD - 1969 Gibson SG Custom

Post by Despot » Sun Dec 10, 2017 2:11 pm

A few observations from playing this over the weekend - as well as some comparisons to the '65 Junior.

The first is that these later '60s SGs have a much different balance than the earlier '60s or even the modern ones. The heel on this is about two inches from the body and there's a lot of wood there. From a stability stand point this is good - I've always found the 'flexibility' of earlier '60s Specials (in particular - as they seem to have slimmer necks) to be worrying when I play them. From a weight point of view it does change the balance point slightly and seems to make the guitar less prone to neck dive than the Junior.

Playability wise it doesn't make it harder to play. You're more aware of the heel ...and the tendency is to anchor at the heel with your thumb a bit maybe, but it's a SG so the access up and down the neck is superb. With the Junior the lack of a bulky heel join before the body does maybe make it feel faster to play. The Junior feels just as sturdy - there's a long tenon under the pickguard so there's a lot of wood in the neck to body join.

The body of the junior is a little slimmer than the Custom - enough to be something you notice side by side. The contours are slightly different in how they're carved, and as I mentioned on another thread the upper horn shape is a little different - the Junior is more pointed, whereas the Custom is a little wider/more chisel-like. Both are narrower than the shape of the horns on modern SGs (including the custom shop vintage reissues). I've seen this on every old SG that I've had my hands on - there also seems to be a lot of variance on the exact shape, which I'm putting down to the way they made those carves back in the day - I imagine a lot of it was manual and that accounts for the variance.

As for how this Custom sounds ... it's perfect. I've long known that these t-top/patent number pickups are my favourite iteration of the Gibson hum bucker. They're also pretty consistent - they can vary slightly, but much less than PAFs seem to. The ones that sound good to me are open, bright and transparent sounding - no mud or darkness to them at all. That's the case with these - the middle position is a bit useless thanks to the combination of the middle and bridge being out of phase ... but the neck and bridge are perfect.

The final point is about ebony fret boards. I don't know what it is ... but there's something different about ebony boards. The 'feel' different - I doubt it's the actual feel of the wood (give that your fingers shouldn't be touching the board as you play all that much - even on slightly lower vintage style frets), so I'm guess that the neck vibrates differently in your hand when it's ebony instead of rosewood. I can't think of anything else that would explain it - but it just feels different.

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Re: NGD - 1969 Gibson SG Custom

Post by zhivago » Sun Dec 10, 2017 2:13 pm

Despot wrote:
Sun Dec 10, 2017 1:46 pm
zhivago wrote:
Sun Dec 10, 2017 12:55 am
Awesome, just awesome!!

SG customs rule! :-* 8)
Thanks Yannis. It's not a '50s LP Custom though... ;)
heheh...you never know...one day one might come your way :)
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Re: NGD - 1969 Gibson SG Custom

Post by Larry Mal » Sun Dec 10, 2017 4:16 pm

Right after I get a Gibson Invader or something.
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Re: NGD - 1969 Gibson SG Custom

Post by Despot » Wed Dec 13, 2017 2:53 am

Larry Mal wrote:
Sun Dec 10, 2017 4:16 pm
Right after I get a Gibson Invader or something.
Nothing wrong with an Invader ... or even bolt-on neck Gibson. I've never understood the logic that said that you can't have a really great cheap guitar, or that Gibson couldn't make a really good guitar that wasn't 100% like their back catalogue of set neck guitars. I still miss my first real vintage guitar - a '76 ES355 ... I loved that thing.

Anyway ... don't worry Larry - after SG-geddon 2017 I'm pretty sure my guitar buying brownie points are now all fully used up!

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Re: NGD - 1969 Gibson SG Custom

Post by shadowplay » Wed Dec 13, 2017 3:31 am

Congrats on your fancy SG, I really don't like how they look (especially compared to your gorgeous semi's) but I've played some from around that time and they often sound really good and I absolutely agree about T-tops being better pickups than PAF's or at least better for me.

I hope you get many years of play out of it.

Are you considering a matching brown flared suit with lapels wide enough to land a helicopter on? ;)

D
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Re: NGD - 1969 Gibson SG Custom

Post by Despot » Wed Dec 13, 2017 4:29 am

If ever the 1970s could be distilled into a guitar form, it's in a walnut SG custom! The suit would be a step too far...

You're right in terms of ES guitars being far better looking instruments - they are. In fact I'll make this admission now ... if a mid/late '60s ES355 with a vibrola comes along I will absolutely trade this guitar to get it. The top of the ladder for me has always been a '64 or '65 ES355 with a vibrola and varitone. I'd even settle for a narrower nut '66 or '69 ('67/'68 is a crap shoot in terms of whether the nut will be too narrow for me to get along with - even though I believe there's only 1/16th of an inch in the difference).

But I do like this, a lot more than I should really. Very little of the music that I like was recorded on SGs as far as I know - a lot of what I love was recorded on offsets, telecasters and ES guitars. And SGs do have their own sound - for whatever reason, a SG fitted with t-tops has a lot more bite to it than an ES335 from the same year with the same pickups.

I even like the walnut colour if I'm honest ... it looks much better in person than in the photos. But what I like most about it is how it plays and sounds - from a player's point of view the design of the SG is probably the best there ever was in terms of access to the fret board - originally that came with the neck break issue (due to there being so little wood contact), but by the time they'd got to these ones they'd ironed that out - there's a huge block of wood extending out from the body into which the neck tenon is secured - lots of wood on wood contact and very strong neck join areas as a result. Far more so than the more expensive earlier models where I've never been entirely comfortable with how the neck seems to flex as you play.

I'm not even a player who plays a lot of stuff that requires easy access to the higher frets - but even below the 12th the feeling of playing this guitar is that your left hand and arm are well away from your body, which creates a feeling of freedom to move up and down the neck. SGs certainly 'feel' different whether I'm sitting or on a strap compared to an ES - and both are much more 'free' guitars to play than a Les Paul or even a Telecaster.

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Re: NGD - 1969 Gibson SG Custom

Post by leokula » Wed Dec 13, 2017 4:31 am

MrFingers wrote:
Sun Dec 10, 2017 3:55 am
That asks for a new family pick.
Seconded!

I can't stand white big pickguard SG's, but this being very unique is what's so cool about it. Congrats!!
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