NGD 1970's Yamaha SG 500

[HNB]

I got this in trade and am really pumped about it. It came with the stock pickups in the case, but Gibson humbuckers are currently in it. I love it. One of the volume pots has been replaced but it seems to be otherwise stock as far as I can tell. It sounds beautiful! The neck has that flatter Japanese style neck I really like. I also appreciate that it has a tummy cut and volute. The Yamaha tuners are also really solid too. I am going to put on some fresh strings. (Probably 11's.) I am clearing out the smoke smell currently. The guitar doesn't have much of a smell, but the beautiful hard case it came with reminds me of the bowling alley I went to with my dad when he still smoked. I put some carpet cleaner into it that is basically baking soda and I am letting it sit and hopefully absorb the odor so I can vacuum it out later. Pron pictures. Makes sense to call it "Lucy" since it has a similar coloring as George's Les Paul with the interesting upper piece of the carve top.

20190920_170042 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20190920_170051 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20190920_170104 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20190920_170100 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20190920_170126 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20190920_170120 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20190920_170114 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

[Larry Mal]

Great guitar. I've been kind of intrigued by these lately. That's not the one that was up for sale here, was it?

[HNB]

Yup! Got it here.

[Larry Mal]

Good show. Then I have to say again:

Get your Skids on.

[mackerelmint]

OHHHHHHHHH.

I've wanted one of those for 25 years. Mostly it's Andy Taylor's fault. Happy NGD, that's a peach.

[VPO]

These are great, sturdy instruments.

[stevejamsecono]

Yep. Given my signature had to make a scheduled appearance here. Lovely guitar. Still miss my SG1000 from time to time. It was a lovely thing.

[HNB]

Not everybody's cup of tea, but I immediately did some distorted Nirvana stuff and some Radiohead stuff and this guitar nailed it and is nice to play. The neck shape is awesome and it is a comfortable guitar to play.

[HNB]

Oh and the skids are awesome.

[HNB]

New strings and a temporary new bridge. The stock one is missing the nut to hold the adjustment screw in place and I couldn't find a replacement. I ordered a Gotoh ABR1. Hopefully it fits.

20190921_180338 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

[HNB]

I fixed the stock bridge. I found a donor bridge to use the bolts from. Unfortunately the stock saddle screws were too short to use with the donor bolts. FORTUNATELY the donor bridge screws were longer and worked. They had extra length I didn't need, so I used my dremel metal cutting tool to cut the excess off. Looks great and hard to tell it is different then stock.

20190922_103451 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20190922_103509 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20190922_103457 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20190922_104027 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20190922_105541 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20190922_105553 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20190922_105559 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

[HNB]

Got the straplocks installed. I know people worry about these sticking out, but the strap lock isn't really close to my body when the guitar is hanging. Here are pictures.

20190925_183549 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20190925_183553 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20190925_183649 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20190925_183739 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

20190925_183744 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20190925_184237 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

[somanytoys]

Very nice. And your upgrades are great, as always.

I have a question about the pickups, though: most guitars I see with open humbuckers (no cover), dirty fingers or whatever, have the pickups installed with the screws to the outside, and the magnets facing each other on the inside.

That’s how the original ones were on the guitar that I replaced the pickups on, so I installed them oriented the same way. I figured that magnetic setup/interaction was part of the function of humbuckers.

I see that these are installed the opposite way - screws in, magnets out - does that make any difference?

[HNB]

The screws are in the outer coil on this one as humbuckers usually are. Flipping them upside down doesn't normally make a big sound difference though in my experience. I even have a neck pickup in the bridge of one of my strats and it sounds good.

[HNB]

On this guitar the cream coil has the screws and the black coils have the slugs.