Epiphone SG Neck Dive Fix?

[threewordname]

I have a late 90s Epiphone G400. It was a high school graduation present to myself, and my first "nice" guitar. It was my number one for about 10 years, but eventually the constant neck dive and weak sounding bridge pickup pushed me back into Fender land.

This guitar is still plays great, has beautiful grain, solid construction, and tons of sentimental value. If at all possible I'd like to fix the neck dive with a new strap button location. Once that's sorted, I can worry about that bridge pickup.

I feel pretty comfortable drilling holes into guitars, but, for obvious reasons, I want to get this right the first time. Is there a tried and true spot for SG balancing, or a method for checking the location before drilling?

[HNB]

Some people use an acoustic guitar strap that ties on the headstock for an SG. No holes required and seems to work for them.

[marqueemoon]

I’ve found a grippier strap can also help a lot with neck dive.

Cotton weave or canvas is much better than the nylon seatbelt stuff.

[Zork]

Lighter tuners? Bigsby?

[GreenKnee]

Mr SG himself has it stuck on the top horn

[PixMix]

Grippier strap, as marqueemoon wrote should be the first thing to try. Suede typically works well in this situation.

[smjenkins]

Grippier strap, as marqueemoon wrote should be the first thing to try. Suede typically works well in this situation.

Agree with marqueemoon and PixMix. When I played an SG in the past I had a 3" suede strap and it cured neck dive.

[MechaBulletBill]

my greco came to me with small weights in the control cavity. i wear it high with a seatbelt strap, plus the weights, and have no neck dive, despite it being an undoubtedly neck-heavy guitar

[i love sharin foo]

Like someone said above, a Bigsby would do the trick! I have two SGs, both with Bigsbys. Neither have any neck dive.

[threewordname]

Unfortunately I'm not willing to add a bigsby, change the tuners, or something weird like weights bin the control cavity.

I'd like to avoid using a huge orthopedic looking strap for the lightest guitar I own. If at all possible, I'd just like to put the strap button in a place where it balances.

I love Tony Iommi as much as as anyone, but the thought of drilling into the point of the horn is a bit too much.

How far up the back should I venture?

[HNB]

Try an acoustic strap tied at the nut like the picture I shared. If you don't like it, you didn't add any holes to the guitar.

[TTHX]

As others have said sometimes a leather strap with the rough surface underneath helps but annoying cause it catches on your shirt.
You can also put weights in the control cavity. Tire weights are super affordable and you can add one at a time until it's no longer neck heavy.