CTN
The Drama Dude
New SG and Fixer-upper Day!
Well it didn't take long, I went down to my local music store. They had a few Epi SGs there, one was a used Korean G400 faded model. They also had two new production Chinese G400s (plain old regular G400), a cherry and a black one. I played all of them for about an hour or so, through a Mesa Stiletto combo, at a decent enough volume to be able to hear the nuances. I was also fortunate that there was like nobody in the store apart from me and the two sales guys, so I was actually able to hear the guitars.
The Korean one, unplugged, sounded dull and lifeless, plugged in, it sounded pretty decent, but the feel and "give back" responsiveness in my hands felt like a total disconnect. Didn't much care for that.
The two chinese ones sounded light years better. Both were a lot more responsive, and had better unplugged tone as well. The cherry one was a bit too harsh/bright sounding when plugged in, and seemed to have some sort of muffling/compression to the unplugged tone.
The black one on the other hand, rings out beautifully unplugged, and plugged in, it sounds rich. Not too bright, not too warm, just nice. I was quite surprised by the pickups on all 3, but the black one is quintessential SG - brash sounding bridge pickup, great AC/DC tones and lots of articulation, with just the right amount of treble roll off to make it sound musical and pleasing to the ear. The neck pickup is super easy to get a woman tone out of, but it can be clear and articulate as well. No spikes or flubbing anywhere along the fretboard for either of the pickups.
Speaking of which, the fret work on all 3 were great, no real complaints. No dead frets, no burrs or unfiled edges. Fretboard edges are nicely rolled.
Time will tell if the electronics need replacement, but for now they're good - no scratchiness or intermittent signal.
To cap it all off, as I was wrapping up my testing and thinking that the black one was the best of the bunch, I was given a sign by the metal gods themselves. The guys in the store were listening to the radio, and what should come on but Black Sab - War Pigs.
It was as if Tony Iommi himself came into the store and said, "Yeah, that black one...that's the one." So I nabbed it.
Also, when I was in Montreal, my sister's bf/fiance, who once was a touring bassist for Neuraxis gave me a couple of his old basses. One which needs a setup and an electronics overhaul, and this other one, which he said I could do whatever I want with to it...fix it up, sell it, whatever. Pretty gnarly lookin thing lol. Definitely needs a whole lot of TLC.
Needs a new nut and some work to make sure the nut doesn't go anywhere.
Plywood body
Big mf'n brass saddles!
So I'm gonna take my own sweet time fixing this one. Obviously it needs a pickup, a new nut, and a setup, and probably a new electronics harness. I might even reshape the headstock so it doesn't look so completely mismatched with that P-bass headstock on an explorer body :lol:
Well it didn't take long, I went down to my local music store. They had a few Epi SGs there, one was a used Korean G400 faded model. They also had two new production Chinese G400s (plain old regular G400), a cherry and a black one. I played all of them for about an hour or so, through a Mesa Stiletto combo, at a decent enough volume to be able to hear the nuances. I was also fortunate that there was like nobody in the store apart from me and the two sales guys, so I was actually able to hear the guitars.
The Korean one, unplugged, sounded dull and lifeless, plugged in, it sounded pretty decent, but the feel and "give back" responsiveness in my hands felt like a total disconnect. Didn't much care for that.
The two chinese ones sounded light years better. Both were a lot more responsive, and had better unplugged tone as well. The cherry one was a bit too harsh/bright sounding when plugged in, and seemed to have some sort of muffling/compression to the unplugged tone.
The black one on the other hand, rings out beautifully unplugged, and plugged in, it sounds rich. Not too bright, not too warm, just nice. I was quite surprised by the pickups on all 3, but the black one is quintessential SG - brash sounding bridge pickup, great AC/DC tones and lots of articulation, with just the right amount of treble roll off to make it sound musical and pleasing to the ear. The neck pickup is super easy to get a woman tone out of, but it can be clear and articulate as well. No spikes or flubbing anywhere along the fretboard for either of the pickups.
Speaking of which, the fret work on all 3 were great, no real complaints. No dead frets, no burrs or unfiled edges. Fretboard edges are nicely rolled.
Time will tell if the electronics need replacement, but for now they're good - no scratchiness or intermittent signal.
To cap it all off, as I was wrapping up my testing and thinking that the black one was the best of the bunch, I was given a sign by the metal gods themselves. The guys in the store were listening to the radio, and what should come on but Black Sab - War Pigs.
It was as if Tony Iommi himself came into the store and said, "Yeah, that black one...that's the one." So I nabbed it.
Also, when I was in Montreal, my sister's bf/fiance, who once was a touring bassist for Neuraxis gave me a couple of his old basses. One which needs a setup and an electronics overhaul, and this other one, which he said I could do whatever I want with to it...fix it up, sell it, whatever. Pretty gnarly lookin thing lol. Definitely needs a whole lot of TLC.
Needs a new nut and some work to make sure the nut doesn't go anywhere.
Plywood body
Big mf'n brass saddles!
So I'm gonna take my own sweet time fixing this one. Obviously it needs a pickup, a new nut, and a setup, and probably a new electronics harness. I might even reshape the headstock so it doesn't look so completely mismatched with that P-bass headstock on an explorer body :lol:
Last edited:
