Finally, Another Yamaha SG-2 Build

[ludobag1]

some news?

[ThePearDream]

Nothing yet. This is my busiest time of year at my day job and I'm currently renovating my kitchen to boot. I did receive the mint pickguard sheet I had ordered, but it is too green, so am looking for another, less green sheet.

[ludobag1]

i stop the search of mint guard each one i find where t o much greeny,and i prefer parchement or off white
the best result i have was a white blank that i have buy and have aged ,i don' why how ect .. but the result is here i think it is a celluloid ,i remember that i have posted here the result after fews years (not widown help cause it live in a case)

i have find it



the back pure white




with sun

[ThePearDream]

I think you're right. I generally prefer parchment over mint as well. And I'd rather use a guard that looks too new, than too green.

Great job on that XII guard BTW!

[ludobag1]

As i want to be clear ,i do nothing on the guard ,it aged by itself ,the only thing i have done is use a cleaning window product ,the blue one with alcohol (glassex in france) to remove the double stick tape residue who stay behind the guard who attach to template (i remember have use a lot cause lot of residue )
maybe it was this?
On my sherwood green it is the rest of the guard blank and i think it age also ,will try to see if i have still the label of the blank to know what material it was

[ThePearDream]

Well, I finally had time to cut the new pickguard and get all the bits fit and soldered.




I ended up using good ol parchment material as it was the closest match to the original. Most of the original SG-2 wiring harness was intact, minus the pickups and toggle. I used two pickup coils, one pickup cover and the toggle switch from my SG-7 parts. I used the cover from my SGV pickup for the bridge coil. Also, someone (I don't remember who) posted a link to some scans of old Yamaha SG manuals recently. Contained in those was a SG-2 wiring diagram, which was super helpful.

I hope to actually put the pickguard on soon. But I do still need to go over the neck, replace a tuner, etc. first.

[SuperAxe]

Marvellous!

[ludobag1]

Looks good!

[ThePearDream]

If anyone needs an excuse to look at pictures of old guitars, I was looking at sold listings for red SG-2s and found this older listing that was also for my guitar, but with much better photos.

[ThePearDream]

Well, it's 95% complete and 80% original. It had arrived in November, wearing a set of 10s. The seller's listing had mentioned a backbow in the neck, which it did have. I was willing to gamble that the seller wasn't familiar enough with these to have adjusted the truss rod. The frets are definitely low and the poor setup didn't help. There is some wear in the first few frets, but not much beyond that. Most of my playing happens between 5 and 15, so I've decided to forgo a leveling for now and see how it reacts to heavier strings and a decent setup. I did a quick dressing to correct some square fret ends and polished the frets. I replaced the non-original high e tuner with one from my SG-7 parts. I also removed and cleaned all the tuner covers and buttons, snugged up the loose screws and lubricated the gears. I was able to fit a Squier Classic Vibe arm in the collet and tighten the dress nut easily. I think it will function well until I can manifest a proper replacement. I'll have to put a black tip on the arm though. I also replaced a non-original strap button. I'm in need of knobs though, these original pots have double flat sides on their shafts and I'm not sure if there are any suitable substitutes out there. I strung it up with a set of D'addario Half Round 11s and it is already playing much better.

[SuperAxe]

Well, it's 95% complete and 80% original. It had arrived in November, wearing a set of 10s. The seller's listing had mentioned a backbow in the neck, which it did have. I was willing to gamble that the seller wasn't familiar enough with these to have adjusted the truss rod. The frets are definitely low and the poor setup didn't help. There is some wear in the first few frets, but not much beyond that. Most of my playing happens between 5 and 15, so I've decided to forgo a leveling for now and see how it reacts to heavier strings and a decent setup. I did a quick dressing to correct some square fret ends and polished the frets. I replaced the non-original high e tuner with one from my SG-7 parts. I also removed and cleaned all the tuner covers and buttons, snugged up the loose screws and lubricated the gears. I was able to fit a Squier Classic Vibe arm in the collet and tighten the dress nut easily. I think it will function well until I can manifest a proper replacement. I'll have to put a black tip on the arm though. I also replaced a non-original strap button. I'm in need of knobs though, these original pots have double flat sides on their shafts and I'm not sure if there are any suitable substitutes out there. I strung it up with a set of D'addario Half Round 11s and it is already playing much better.

Well done. It looks good to me.

What do you think of that Squire arm? I am currently trying to make my own vibrato arms for the SG-2 and SA-50 as they are the same.

[ThePearDream]

What do you think of that Squire arm? I am currently trying to make my own vibrato arms for the SG-2 and SA-50 as they are the same.

The Squier arm works quite well, it just looks wrong. I might just try and bend it a little closer to a Yamaha arm shape when I take it out to change the tip.

[ThePearDream]

Well I've officially started on the Yamaha copy build, by diving in to the neck. There are a few other necks that I'm building for other projects. So, since I had my router table set up for routing truss rods last weekend, I went ahead and started on this one too. I've opted for a spoke wheel truss rod, instead of trying to recreate Yamaha's approach.



For pickups, I'm starting to lean towards a pair of
Hü Tone labs Square Pole Single Coils

[ThePearDream]

I've started on the body, still undecided on pickups though. I do still have a coil from an SG7 and one from an SGV, so I could use those with some of my 3D covers.


The neck is a little further along too


I've been thinking about the color scheme. I'm starting to lean towards doing a black pickguard and maybe a metallic purple finish.
I did a quick color inversion just to see a blackguard and I like it.

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

I've been thinking about the color scheme. I'm starting to lean towards doing a black pickguard and maybe a metallic purple finish.
I did a quick color inversion just to see a blackguard and I like it.

That actually already looks amazing!
Looking forward to see it!