NGD: SG Custom Birthday-Birthyear surprise!

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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Larry Mal
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Re: NGD: SG Custom Birthday-Birthyear surprise!

Post by Larry Mal » Sun Sep 25, 2022 5:01 pm

Surfysonic wrote:
Sun Sep 25, 2022 4:53 pm




Some day I'd like to get a Les Paul Junior (single cut or double cut) in Pelham Blue or Tobacco. :?
I owned one, bought it new for $650 in 2010, broke my heart when I had to sell it but now they sell for more than double that.

Sucks.
Back in those days, everyone knew that if you were talking about Destiny's Child, you were talking about Beyonce, LaTavia, LeToya, and Larry.

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Embenny
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Re: NGD: SG Custom Birthday-Birthyear surprise!

Post by Embenny » Sun Sep 25, 2022 5:23 pm

Larry Mal wrote:
Sun Sep 25, 2022 4:00 pm
I never understand people's knee jerk reactions against Gibson.
Well, I say it half-jokingly, but I arrived at my Gibson aversion quite naturally. Growing up, there were several distinct camps of people making horrible music on Gibson and other humbucker-equipped guitars.

There was the whole world of cheesy 80's and 90's hard rock - Guns n Roses and Bon Jovi etc. There were the burgeoning genres of rap-rock and Nu Metal. And there was the long shadow of the Boomers that still had people my age playing Stairway to Heaven in every fucking guitar store you walked into. Les Pauls were the Slash guitar. SGs were the Angus Young guitar. Flying Vs and Explorers were Metallica guitars. Admittedly, I had nothing against the ES series other than the fact that I was a teenager who couldn't fathom ever affording one, but also, they sounded nothing like the guitars or artists I really enjoyed.

But as for the solid bodies, the image they projected in the"guitar zeitgeist" was just plain unappealing, and it induced a two-decade-plus sense of nausea whenever I thought about them.

In fairness, Strats and Teles kinda did the same thing to a certain degree. I found Offsets very early on and that bright, snappy sound just became my thing. It didn't hurt that some of my favourite bands played them too, but they were like a corner of the guitar market that had been unmolested by blues lawyers, power-stancing men in leather pants, scooped Dual Rectifiers and the other various groups that had turned me off of Gibsons and Fender's dynamic duo.

Of course, I'm finally getting over those biases. But so many of those associations are deeply ingrained. You can't watch a YouTube review of pretty much any Gibson guitar without hearing the same boring 60's-80's rock riffs over and over, which doesn't make it any easier to separate these things on an emotional level.

I guess that's the nice thing about this weird blinged out 3-pickup banana creme SG. This is not a guitar I associate with anyone, though I'm sure there were inevitably some famous users of this model.

But you're right. It's world class, and I may never come across one again in the flesh. But it's probably the most expensive/valuable electric guitar I own that isn't actually vintage, which leaves me feeling a little hesitant. Like, of all the types of guitars I like, an SG is not the one I'd pick to have the nicest example of.

But that might be looking a gift horse in the mouth. I didn't buy it, I traded for it, it's here now, and it's really nice.

So I'm certainly not in a hurry to get rid of it. I'm still very much getting to know it, and there's plenty about it to like.

As for the frets, I don't think they're the "fretless wonder" kind. They're certainly not big, and I've never actually played those famously tiny frets, but I think they're a bit more modern than that.
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Larry Mal
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Re: NGD: SG Custom Birthday-Birthyear surprise!

Post by Larry Mal » Sun Sep 25, 2022 6:04 pm

mbene085 wrote:
Sun Sep 25, 2022 5:23 pm
Well, I say it half-jokingly, but I arrived at my Gibson aversion quite naturally. Growing up, there were several distinct camps of people making horrible music on Gibson and other humbucker-equipped guitars.

There was the whole world of cheesy 80's and 90's hard rock - Guns n Roses and Bon Jovi etc. There were the burgeoning genres of rap-rock and Nu Metal. And there was the long shadow of the Boomers that still had people my age playing Stairway to Heaven in every fucking guitar store you walked into. Les Pauls were the Slash guitar. SGs were the Angus Young guitar. Flying Vs and Explorers were Metallica guitars. Admittedly, I had nothing against the ES series other than the fact that I was a teenager who couldn't fathom ever affording one, but also, they sounded nothing like the guitars or artists I really enjoyed.

But as for the solid bodies, the image they projected in the"guitar zeitgeist" was just plain unappealing, and it induced a two-decade-plus sense of nausea whenever I thought about them.
I hear you. I went through it also. The first time I tried to buy a Les Paul Studio I was looking at the guitar I wanted on the wall, and I was prepared to negotiate the price down. That's what you did in those days.

The salesman sees me, starts to head over, but then a man and woman stepped between me and the salesman and he asks them if he can help them before me.

The guy points to a Les Paul Studio also.

"Can that guitar come without that?" he asks, pointing to the pickguard.

The sales guy blinks.

"Sure," he says. "I mean, we can have them unscrew it for you."

"Cool. Because I was watching an Aerosmith video, and that's how the guy had his guitar."

"Let's get you rung up."

I just went home.

Later on, I found the Jazzmaster, and then a lot of other guitars just seemed super boring. I finally got a Les Paul Studio, and it bored the shit out of me (a different one from the one I have now). Sold it. I later got yet another Les Paul Studio because I thought that every guitar player should have a Les Paul, some kind of humbucker guitar. They don't cost a lot.

I remember thinking that everything I played sounded like fucking Bad Company.

So I gave up on the Gibson thing finally, but one day I got some money I hadn't worked for, and bought a Firebird.

And all of the sudden I finally got the Gibson thing. I still keep the Studio around, though.

Gibsons are great, but when you come to them from Fenders they take a while to get used to. When you come from Martins or Taylors, they take a little getting used to.
Back in those days, everyone knew that if you were talking about Destiny's Child, you were talking about Beyonce, LaTavia, LeToya, and Larry.

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Re: NGD: SG Custom Birthday-Birthyear surprise!

Post by Embenny » Sun Sep 25, 2022 7:39 pm

Larry Mal wrote:
Sun Sep 25, 2022 6:04 pm
I hear you. I went through it also. The first time I tried to buy a Les Paul Studio I was looking at the guitar I wanted on the wall, and I was prepared to negotiate the price down. That's what you did in those days.

The salesman sees me, starts to head over, but then a man and woman stepped between me and the salesman and he asks them if he can help them before me.

The guy points to a Les Paul Studio also.

"Can that guitar come without that?" he asks, pointing to the pickguard.

The sales guy blinks.

"Sure," he says. "I mean, we can have them unscrew it for you."

"Cool. Because I was watching an Aerosmith video, and that's how the guy had his guitar."

"Let's get you rung up."

I just went home.

Later on, I found the Jazzmaster, and then a lot of other guitars just seemed super boring. I finally got a Les Paul Studio, and it bored the shit out of me (a different one from the one I have now). Sold it. I later got yet another Les Paul Studio because I thought that every guitar player should have a Les Paul, some kind of humbucker guitar. They don't cost a lot.

I remember thinking that everything I played sounded like fucking Bad Company.

So I gave up on the Gibson thing finally, but one day I got some money I hadn't worked for, and bought a Firebird.

And all of the sudden I finally got the Gibson thing. I still keep the Studio around, though.

Gibsons are great, but when you come to them from Fenders they take a while to get used to. When you come from Martins or Taylors, they take a little getting used to.
Ugh. I can relate to that guitar store experience.

But yeah, I'm much less into the look or sound of Gibsons than the feel. I love the scale length. I love the necks. I love the feel of the binding and the nitro finishes.

But I'm currently planning on swapping my Flying V's pickups for a pair of Fralin Twangmasters to get it back into tonal territory I'm more comfortable with. This SG has lower output PAFs and is just way too much of a "whole package" type deal to start modding like that, so I'm learning how to best use that type of pickup without spontaneously breaking into Hell's Bells or Sweet Child O' Mine like every YouTuber or GC patron.

The Flying V is definitely going in a less PAF-y direction, though, and my SG Classic with the P90s sounds too good to mess with, at least until I come to terms with the price tag of another set of Kinmans.
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jakeisjake
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Re: NGD: SG Custom Birthday-Birthyear surprise!

Post by jakeisjake » Mon Sep 26, 2022 9:26 am

jakeisjake wrote:
Sun Sep 25, 2022 3:37 pm
Big Mama!
lol...I meant Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SoZG4yDaJA
If I was a byrd, I'd be mighty sore every time they shut the door and I don't think I'd sing...

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Re: NGD: SG Custom Birthday-Birthyear surprise!

Post by Embenny » Mon Sep 26, 2022 10:13 am

jakeisjake wrote:
Mon Sep 26, 2022 9:26 am
jakeisjake wrote:
Sun Sep 25, 2022 3:37 pm
Big Mama!
lol...I meant Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SoZG4yDaJA
Oh yeah, she's one of the only names I've seen pop up regarding this model, and it's certainly cool with me.

Makes sense. This guitar does kinda look like it's wearing its "Sunday best."

Mine didn't come with the sideways vibrola or the crazy set of pipes, sadly.
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raphaël
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Re: NGD: SG Custom Birthday-Birthyear surprise!

Post by raphaël » Mon Sep 26, 2022 11:40 am

I associate this guitar to Erkin Koray and his ''Cemalim'' song. Which is a very good thing 8)

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jakeisjake
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Re: NGD: SG Custom Birthday-Birthyear surprise!

Post by jakeisjake » Sat Feb 11, 2023 6:58 pm

If I was a byrd, I'd be mighty sore every time they shut the door and I don't think I'd sing...

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