'Restoring' a Yamaha SG-2 (FINISHED)

[SuperAxe]

This is my first offset guitar ever and it needs some work done to it. Below my list of 'defects' so far. If you see any more, yell out.

The good: doesn't look to bad for its age. Beautiful fret-board but very thin. The neck and headstock are in good condition. The pots and switches all work well. Sounds good on the neck pickup.

The bad:
1) Needs new tuner for the high E string as the peg end will probably break off if I try to open up the gap. Hopefully an SA-30 or SA-50 tuner will be a match. [u](Edit - fixed, opened up the gap gently with a screwdriver)[/u]
2) Missing whammy bar, so either buy one from the dude in Japan or make one myself.
3) Bridge has non original parts. Both the low and the high E string saddles are not original and cannot be adjusted for height. Anyone out there with spares?
4) The bridge G and D saddles have non original grub screws. I understand they are 2.5mm by 8mm grub screws which can be sourced from Alibaba?
5) The bridge pickup is not original, has a significant volume drop compared to neck. I am going to check its DC resistance and then perhaps I'll rewind it or even use coil parts from another Yamaha pickup. Thinking about half an SA-30 coil... Keen on receiving bridge DC resistance from other SG-2 owners.
6) The frets are super low, I am going to refret this with medium fretwire. The zero fret will be a S/S one. (Edit - done, zero fret not S/S)

I hope to update this thread as things happen...


Some photos:







Tuner issue:



Whammy bar connection point:



Non original saddles and grub screws:



Non original bridge pickup:



Serial Number:



Very low frets:



Thin fretboard:

[ludobag1]

can't help but i lurk
nice one not beaten to death ,fews missing parts but i think it is a thing that happen often on this old yamaha du to specific parts

[surfin_bird]

Nice!
Regarding to the bridge, I think there is one of those Kahler saddles that fit, or is it just the rollers?
Those aliexpress crews will fit. I could only get them in black at the time, but they do the trick

If you are making trem arms.... I happily buy a few I have way too many of these, without a trem arm

I'll definitely follow this post and hopefully be inspired to finish the almost restored SG-3 I have.

[MattK]

Looking good! I think the tuner might be recoverable if you slip a smooth thin metal wedge in the gap and ease it in by using e.g. a small vise - something to apply slow steady pressure. Even a flat blade tip from a small exchangeable screwdriver might work if you came in from the side. Just go slow.

[antisymmetric]

Anzor are local have all kinds of machine screws (304 and 316 stainless). I see some pan head ones listed as small as M2 thread. Phillips though, so not quite a match for your others.
I simply can not imagine what possessed you to get one of these terrible guitars btw.

[SuperAxe]

Nice!
Regarding to the bridge, I think there is one of those Kahler saddles that fit, or is it just the rollers?
Those aliexpress crews will fit. I could only get them in black at the time, but they do the trick

If you are making trem arms.... I happily buy a few I have way too many of these, without a trem arm

I'll definitely follow this post and hopefully be inspired to finish the almost restored SG-3 I have.

Could you please check who the seller was and the actual item description would help too.

The two E saddles are different, they don't have an adjustable height facility. The rollers are smaller too.

[SuperAxe]

Looking good! I think the tuner might be recoverable if you slip a smooth thin metal wedge in the gap and ease it in by using e.g. a small vise - something to apply slow steady pressure. Even a flat blade tip from a small exchangeable screwdriver might work if you came in from the side. Just go slow.

Yes, was going to try that first...

[SuperAxe]

Anzor are local have all kinds of machine screws (304 and 316 stainless). I see some pan head ones listed as small as M2 thread. Phillips though, so not quite a match for your others.
I simply can not imagine what possessed you to get one of these terrible guitars btw.

Yes, I know, got enough work on as it is. The SA-5 whammy bar is 4.9mm diameter, so same as the SG2. Can you please measure each section length of the arm as best as you can please? And post a photo of the arm next to the strings so I can see how far it extends towards the neck.

[SuperAxe]

Antisymmetric provided the following for his SG-2:
Neck pickup: 9.09k
Bridge pickup: 9.70K
Whammy: 4.95mm


My SG-2 as follows:
Neck pickup - 8.84 kilo ohm
Bridge pickup - 4.55 kilo ohm

So yes, bridge pickup seriously wrong. Any other SG2 owners want to share their pickups DC resistance?

[SuperAxe]

Today I removed the pickguard to check out the bridge pickup and what potentially can be done to it to make it a bit more powerful.

Lots of gunk in there from the deteriorated foam... but I also found something interesting which shows again that Yamaha was making a high quality guitar with the SG-2 series...




So if you look closely to the grey paint in the inside cavity, you will see something special. It is conductive paint and it is connected to the conductive film that has been glued to the underside of the pickguard. So all the electronics inside the cavity are completely shielded from surrounding EMF. No wonder the pickups are so quiet and don't pickup any hum... (I shouldn't have cleared the paint under the neck pickup but the foam had sort of dissolved it. Going to put a piece of copper film in there).




Original SG-2 neck pickup photos:






Non original bridge pickup photos. The SG2 pickup cover actually does not fit properly on the pickup body. Anyone an idea what brand pickup it is? My guess it is from some other Japanese brand.

This pickup sounds actually quite sweet, very articulate and I thought adding extra windings will beef it up. But now that I know it doesn't fit the cover properly, I need to figure out something else. Anyone selling an original?

[ludobag1]

Original SG-2 neck pickup photos:

Your pics make my day ,it confirm that the sg have one magnet rather than 2 in the sgv reissue
could you tell me the KOhm of your neck pickups ?
as i doing my own for my build ,i take lot of information for ,i miss some mesurement again to make my bobin printed
at this time i have made only the core in steel

[SuperAxe]

Original SG-2 neck pickup photos:

Your pics make my day ,it confirm that the sg have one magnet rather than 2 in the sgv reissue
could you tell me the KOhm of your neck pickups ?
as i doing my own for my build ,i take lot of information for ,i miss some mesurement again to make my bobin printed
at this time i have made only the core in steel

The DC resistance of the coils is listed in one of the earlier posts above...

Interesting how you make the steel core. Can you please tell what quality steel you use? Is it soft, mild or hardened?

[SuperAxe]

Pulled one fret to get the measurements:

- fret width = 2.0mm
- tang height = 1.58mm
- tang width = 0.42mm

It is hard to get the 0.4mm wire so may have to widen the slots to either 0.5 or 0.6mm. I am going to check some fretwire suppliers see what's there.

[ludobag1]

i haven't seen the dc R up 9kohms
i use soft steel that a friend gave me ,he use it for weilding ,for pickups need to be magnetic ,no need to have hardness ,the steel standard works better i think ,in theory need to be ferrous the more
the Peardream who have a sgv one told me 11,3 k ohms with 2 magnets ,yours is 9 k with one magnet then at first du to the size of the bobin (more or less a jag one ,a little bigger) i think 10000 tr of 43 awg wire will give the good result (jag are 8500 tr of 42 awg for 7 K )
i will recept soon a sbv one that a cool member send me to investigate more if i miss something ? then after i gave the overall dimention to my friend who print it i 3D with the cover ,i will bobin one to confirm if it works (maybe the core is in magic metal,the wire is 44 awg ect ......)see it soon
if you don't find a vintage one tell me i can ask him to make another bobin printing and if you gave me the distance between the 2 far screws (normally 50 mm, but i made mine with 50 mm for neck and 52 mm for bridge du to my bridge and neck)and the hight of your core i can mill, drill and thread it to m3 if you can bobin it (if not i can )

for fret wire i don't think you find 0,42 mm tang or you need the fret barber that sell stewmac (no it cost only an eyes )
you better go with the right size and ajust the slot ,it is less than half hour with the right saw ,but be careful old rosewood could be brittle when i have refret my old aria (1970) i was surprised by it
for the size of fret looks like vintage fender one ( i try somesupplier for fret and none were the same ,fender one are soft ,emma music too ,years ago i find some who were hard to put but were more wear resistant ,depend how your playing is )
the fender standard are more highter at first and you can dress them more but i find them soft too

[SuperAxe]

i haven't seen the dc R up 9kohms
i use soft steel that a friend gave me ,he use it for weilding ,for pickups need to be magnetic ,no need to have hardness ,the steel standard works better i think ,in theory need to be ferrous the more
the Peardream who have a sgv one told me 11,3 k ohms with 2 magnets ,yours is 9 k with one magnet then at first du to the size of the bobin (more or less a jag one ,a little bigger) i think 10000 tr of 43 awg wire will give the good result (jag are 8500 tr of 42 awg for 7 K )
i will recept soon a sbv one that a cool member send me to investigate more if i miss something ? then after i gave the overall dimention to my friend who print it i 3D with the cover ,i will bobin one to confirm if it works (maybe the core is in magic metal,the wire is 44 awg ect ......)see it soon
if you don't find a vintage one tell me i can ask him to make another bobin printing and if you gave me the distance between the 2 far screws (normally 50 mm, but i made mine with 50 mm for neck and 52 mm for bridge du to my bridge and neck)and the hight of your core i can mill, drill and thread it to m3 if you can bobin it (if not i can )

for fret wire i don't think you find 0,42 mm tang or you need the fret barber that sell stewmac (no it cost only an eyes )
you better go with the right size and ajust the slot ,it is less than half hour with the right saw ,but be careful old rosewood could be brittle when i have refret my old aria (1970) i was surprised by it
for the size of fret looks like vintage fender one ( i try somesupplier for fret and none were the same ,fender one are soft ,emma music too ,years ago i find some who were hard to put but were more wear resistant ,depend how your playing is )
the fender standard are more highter at first and you can dress them more but i find them soft too

Thanks ludobag1 for your response. The DC resistance is totally independent from the number of magnets.

It will be interesting to see how you make the bobbin. I might try something with perspex or even wood... Ideally I will find a working pickup on eBay or so but I am not holding my breath.

Sintoms in Belarus sell 0.42mm tang fretwire (via eBay) so may give that a try (http://sintoms.com/FretsProduction.htm)