NGD! 2025 Epiphone SG Standard!

[Wound_Up]

Picked this body up from Stratosphere a couple of weeks ago, IIRC. It was a hell of a deal, imo. Only $299, which is quite a discount from the standard price of $699. Even without electronics & hardware. I had the major stuff so I figured I'd save myself $400+

I had to buy a pickguard, a switch, tuner bushings, knobs and CTS pots so like another $65-70. I had a Gotoh ABR1 and Faber aluminum tailpiece for it from another guitar. I also already had a Pure tone jack, pickups, and Hosco VTR tuners by Gotoh(basically upgraded SD90's). Finally got it all installed and wired up a couple of days ago.

Overall, it's an awesome guitar. It weighs a light 6.8 lbs and has absolutely ZERO neck dive. It's also EXTREMELY loud when played unplugged. It really needs better pickups, though. The current ones are alnico 5 takeouts from my Indio Goldtop LP from Monoprice.

I always thought they sounded great but apparently they aren't as great as I thought lol. So I'll probably end up taking a set of Seymour Duncan Seth Lovers out of another Indio LP that I haven't been playing all that much lately.

Overall, it's a great guitar. No high frets that I found. Fret ends are great. Finish is flawless. The body even has a splash of flame in one area. The only real "issue" is the ABR1 bridge. It's SKY HIGH but it seems that's common on both Gibson and Epiphone SG's. So I won't worry about it until the posts start to lean or bend lol

Going to take a bit to get used to it. The neck sticking out so far is pretty different than every other guitar I own. Even my 335-style, which has a neck that sticks out more than most, doesn't stick out that far. I thought I'd be somewhat used to it because of the 335 but it's too different so playing a 335 didn't help lol. I'm sure it won't take long to vet used to.

 

[3bolt79]

Love it. If I am able to get back to guitar playing I am going to buy an SG or a Les Paul….or maybe one of each. I can never quite figure which one is better for me, and I go back and forth. What pups did you put in it?

 

[Wound_Up]

Love it. If I am able to get back to guitar playing I am going to buy an SG or a Les Paul….or maybe one of each. I can never quite figure which one is better for me, and I go back and forth. What pups did you put in it?

They're the ones that came in the first guitar I bought from Monoprice. They're alnico 5 while every other since that once has had ceramics in it. Oddly enough, these are in phase with Seymour Duncan's while all of the ceramics are wound opposite so they're all out of phase.

I mention that because I always used these because I'd buy 1 Duncan at a time. So I needed a pickup in phase with the Duncan and this set is the only set that works. So any time I'd buy a pickup for the guitars with ceramics, I'd swap 1 ceramic for the SD neck pickup and 1 for the alnico 5 bridge so they'd be in phase.

Then a few weeks later I'd buy the matching SD bridge pickup and install it in place of the alnico 5 Monoprice pickup. I've done that 3 or 4 times now lol

 

[Wound_Up]

Well this sucks. For the first time in 6+ years, I "dropped" a guitar and it actually caused damage.

And it had to be the new SG!

I had it on my lap and I was removing the pickguard film when it slid off and hit the edge of the guitar on the edge of a guitar pedal. It left an indention in the clearcoat about 1-1.5 inches long and cracked it.

Boy I was SICK!

Well it's pretty much fixed. I drop filled it with super glue, flattened it, sanded and polished It all back to a gloss shine. There's a small line left that needs to be filled again and re-leveled, etc...But it's good enough for now so I'll leave it alone for now.

 

[3bolt79]

Wow, I have had that kind of luck before. I am sorry to hear about this accident.

 

[GrooVey]

Nice job on the SG!

Yep. Enough to make one sick.
I’m still patching 3 dings on the bottom of my 50s figured standard. It fell off the upper rack wall hook. Good thing the guitar below cushioned its fall.

 

[Wound_Up]

It wasn't too bad. I have a Pic after the repair. It's basically invisible. Thanks to Glu Boost Fill n Finish CA glue. Made specifically for repairing finishes. Dries crystal clear.

I filled it, shaved it down with a razor blade until it was level with the surrounding finish, then sanded it with a 500 grit micro mesh pad and polished it with Meguiars Ultra Finishing Polish #M205. It doesn't dry white and has no silicone in it.

 

[3bolt79]

It wasn't too bad. I have a Pic after the repair. It's basically invisible. Thanks to Glu Boost Fill n Finish CA glue. Made specifically for repairing finishes. Dries crystal clear.

I filled it, shaved it down with a razor blade until it was level with the surrounding finish, then sanded it with a 500 grit micro mesh pad and polished it with Meguiars Ultra Finishing Polish #M205. It doesn't dry white and has no silicone in it.

View attachment 3270

That actually looks pretty good.

 

[Wound_Up]

That actually looks pretty good.

Thank you! I'm quite pleased with it, tbh. I wish I had gotten a before Pic but I went straight to work filling it with super glue after it happened. I may do 1 more round of filling, leveling, and polishing now that I found my box of brand new foam sanding sponges. I bought these like 6 months ago and they got put away and I forgot about them lol.

 

[Wound_Up]

Well I ordered a 'Pedal Mystery Box' from Warm Audio on Reverb last week and I ended up getting an Octave Fuzz pedal. It's a Foxy Tone Box, a very close clone of the Foxx Tone Machine. It supposedly has the same vintage transistors and other components in it. I'm ok with Fuzz but this thing is wild! It's orange and covered in velvet like the original, also.

I also ordered a new JHS Notadumble V2 that came in. Its got a Dumble on one side and a FET boost on the other with an active fx loop in it also. The boost is based on a pedal Dumble built called the Box Later which was tube driven and allowed them to insert an active fx loop Into their amps or something.

Dumble then turned it into the Dumbleator, which is the same pedal but FET-based instead of tubes. Apparently Josh built one for John Mayer a few years back and that's what's in this pedal. The Notadumble V1 was supposed to use this boost but Josh used the wrong circuit that time. I have both.

Surprisingly, this Notadumble sounds FANTASTIC with a Super Reverb or Twin Reverb capture on my Tonex pedal. Blew me away, tbh.




Notadumble V2

https://jhspedals.info/products/notadumble-v2?srsltid=AfmBOopOfg6mAc-1qgMxfqKuawXyD9vNtFQX4f1EvTukRmWZGFe5Kq0O

 

[Wound_Up]

I'm really really loving this SG, as well. I never expected that. It currently still has some alnico 5 pickups in it that I took out of my Goldtop LP-style from Monoprice and they sound great. But more and more, I'm thinking I want to put these Seth Lovers in it. They're in another LP-style guitar from Monoprice, with Iced Tea Burst finish, that I don't play that often. So I figure I'll put them into something I'm actually playing.

I really want to put the pickups in the Monoprice Goldtop in it but I can't do that. Those pickups are staying with The Banshee. It sounds wayyyy too good. And it absolutely SCREAMS. So they'll stay. That's why I'm considering the Seth Lovers in the Iced Tea Burst LP-style. The Goldtop has a Seth Lover neck and 59 Bridge. All my pickups are covered.

The way this SG has this snarl and bite that my LP's don't have makes me want to try out every set of pickups I own in it lol. I may do 1 Seth Lover at a time and see how that goes. Start with the neck pickup.

I'd much rather be playing them than letting them sit. It'll give me a chance to check bobbin colors again, also. I think they're both Zebra, IIRC. I've been talking about doing this since I got this guitar together a few weeks ago lol. I think it's time to finally do something about it.

I've got a set of D'addario 11-56's to put on it so I'll probably just do it when I change strings. It currently has 9.5 10 to 44's on it and I overbend every time because most eveything else has 10-52s on it except my Goldtop, which has 11-52s. I thought there were 56s on the Goldtop so that's why I ordered 56s for the SG. Oh well.