A sneaky Christmas SG-3 recovery job

[HorseyBoy]

Man, you've become a Yammy SG magnet, Ben. It's like your workshop is a shelter. Seems like every broken down, mistreated SG-2 or 3 ends up at your door.
I love these guitars but I do wonder sometimes why so many of them have been mangled over the years. They're such nice guitars, so what compelled all the horrible refinishes/mutilations that seem to pop up? Even Link Wray's Screaming Red, the most famous Yammy SG of them all, had Firebird tuners and a built-in distortion circuit routed into the body…

[frelonvert]

Man, you've become a Yammy SG magnet, Ben. It's like your workshop is a shelter. Seems like every broken down, mistreated SG-2 or 3 ends up at your door.
I love these guitars but I do wonder sometimes why so many of them have been mangled over the years. They're such nice guitars, so what compelled all the horrible refinishes/mutilations that seem to pop up? Even Link Wray's Screaming Red, the most famous Yammy SG of them all, had Firebird tuners and a built-in distortion circuit routed into the body…

Well, I think that the retro design of the SG's was not very popular in the 80's^^

For Link Wray, I believe he wasn't very tender with his guitars. The built-in distortion circuit was put because he didn't wanted to manage pedals.
From a comment on one of his last bass player: Link Wray only played with a boss overdrive pedal (or some kind of generic tubescreammer), and the bassist said also that the screaming red was a big mess, with a saddle missing and the string sitting directly on the bridge.

[speakerjones]

Wow, great job with this. I don't know much about these guitars. Off to do some research....

[Glimmer]

Very nice job! Looks great.

[Steadyriot.]

I want a black sg3 now!

[biro]

impressive job, really.
it makes me GAS so bad for one of those (impossible to find) yamahas...

[chase]

Wow. This is amazing work as usual - can't believe you managed to rescue (most of) the original red finish.

The frets on these are really low, I would re-fret away. I think HorseyBoy and I ended up going with the same approx fret size, .045"-.047" tall and .092-.095" wide. More playable without completely changing the feel of the neck.

As for all the mangling, my guess is that these were regarded as cheap, disposable guitars simply because they were made in Japan. Sadly, they've been criminally under-appreciated.

[frelonvert]

Sadly, they've been criminally under-appreciated.

That is good for us, we can still find them for cheap on the net^^.

[chase]

Indeed! Not many hidden gems left, at least on the Made in the USA side.

[BlixaFan]

wow! i did not expect that excellent of a result when i saw the first pic! awesome job!

[itstooloudMike]

Very nicely done!

[frelonvert]

Man, you've become a Yammy SG magnet, Ben. It's like your workshop is a shelter. Seems like every broken down, mistreated SG-2 or 3 ends up at your door.
I love these guitars but I do wonder sometimes why so many of them have been mangled over the years. They're such nice guitars, so what compelled all the horrible refinishes/mutilations that seem to pop up? Even Link Wray's Screaming Red, the most famous Yammy SG of them all, had Firebird tuners and a built-in distortion circuit routed into the body…

Well, I think that the retro design of the SG's was not very popular in the 80's^^

For Link Wray, I believe he wasn't very tender with his guitars. The built-in distortion circuit was put because he didn't wanted to manage pedals.
From a comment on one of his last bass player: Link Wray only played with a boss overdrive pedal (or some kind of generic tubescreammer), and the bassist said also that the screaming red was a big mess, with a saddle missing and the string sitting directly on the bridge.

It was on "the gear page" forum, refound it by chance:

"Hi, this is Eric, bass player with Link on Shadowman, Barbed Wire and some more!

First of all, Tiki here knows his guitars. Something he probably knows but just hasn't shared with us yet: Links Screaming Red had some remareable features. Firstly, an onboard distortion/booster, just in case a JCM800 or Twin wouldn't distort when turned all the way up and his Boss Compression Sustainer would give up. (He never used the built-in distortion, mind you, but he had that Boss pedal switched on permanently during a song, with all three knobs turned firmly at 'max'.)
And did you know that 2 of the strings didn't even go over the bridge saddles? They were strung inbetween - and Link didn't mind, since it was miraculously tuneable and playable that way... "naah, just leave it, it's fine...

Hey these guys 'looking like teenagers', that could've been me"and Rob. Remember what kind of bass was used...? I played a Höfner 500/1 at all shows, and I was wearing Dead Moon shirts all the time...

I'm still trying to find a red Yamaha SG-2. Links Screaming Red was sold at some by his wife Olive, as was his old SG (the wood around the jack output had suffered so much that Link didn't want to take that one on stage, afraid "half of its guts would fall out")."

[Great Yawn]

Woah the headstock decal, and the overall red paint, are still great looking!