'Restoring' a Yamaha SG-2 (FINISHED)

[ludobag1]

i know from dc to magnet but this is the evolution of yamaha in 60 1 magnet 9K ,in 2000 2 magnet 11K maybe to have more powerfull pickups ? i don't know cause i have never play sg2 SG3 ,5,7 ,as i remember my SGV 3OO was not really powerfull ,the 800 was really more but i dislike the P90 like pups on it ,in fact i perfered the overall SGV 300 between the 2

like you have surely a jazzmaster ,what is the different between a jazz and the sg2 ?(for the neck pickup cause the other seems really far)
for your saddle miss i saw they are similar than sa30 or 50 ? no ?(maybe it is not easyer to find them also )

[SuperAxe]

Thanks for explaining that. I thought it was a bit funny to see two magnets glued together while one should have been enough. Would be nice to know how much more powerful the sound is with the second magnet.

The SA30/50 saddles are much smaller and will not fit.

[SuperAxe]

I am dismantling the whole guitar and found something really interesting when taking out the whammy bar assembly...

Yamaha has 'stamped' a few numbers in the whammy bar cavity in black. I think it is the Showa date for when the guitar was made. However, I am unsure about the format: is it month first and day last, or the other way around?

Seeing they only started manufacturing the SG2 in early 1966 it must be month first, right? So that would mean that my guitar is dated as: 5 December 1966.

I am so glad I took the photo before I cleaned up the cavity... When I started wiping it clean with a damp cloth, the stamped numbers started to come off. I stopped immediately, but damage done, numbers are still there but quite faded now. Very sad

[SuperAxe]

I have taken out the neck pickup completely and done a separate DC resistance reading. Here it is (9.37 kiloOhm):

[will]

Did you pick up any fret wire from Belarus?

...I also have a SG-2 that will need a refret.

[SuperAxe]

Did you pick up any fret wire from Belarus?

...I also have a SG-2 that will need a refret.

I have been communicating with two eBay suppliers of the Sintoms fretwire 230140S. One in Russia and one in USA (Philadelphia Luthier Tools). The latter maintains that the Sintoms factory table, incorrectly shows that this fretwire is 0.42mm. The guy said he had advised the Belarus factory that it was 0.5mm but the table was not updated. So not sure who is right or wrong...

Now I know 0.42 tang fretwire exists cause I have some but not enough for a full refret. With the current problems in Belarus, I think I am going to give this a miss and will use a 0.5mm tang. Got plenty of that so just need to gently saw the fretboard slots a tiny bit wider.

[SuperAxe]

Manufacturing date also printed on the neck and in the neck pocket:

[SuperAxe]

Well, something I don't see very often... poor Yamaha design...

When looking at the fitting of the chrome nut, I could see it was a sloppy fit.
Tried removing the chrome nut with gently knocking it from the side and also from the top. It moved but still stayed sort of in place.

No glue used, just two little pins... don't know what Yamaha was trying to achieve there

I think I will put a proper bone nut in there.

[ludobag1]

don't forget it is not a nut but a string guide ,the strings must pass easy on it it is just for the spacing

[SuperAxe]

don't forget it is not a nut but a string guide ,the strings must pass easy on it it is just for the spacing

Yes, I know that. But on all the Yamaha guitars with a zero fret, this has got to be the worst fitted string spacer nut.

The Superaxe series with zero frets have better nuts propely fitted and glued in...

[SuperAxe]

Did you pick up any fret wire from Belarus?

...I also have a SG-2 that will need a refret.

I have decided to go with this:
SKU___________Crown Width_______Crown Height______Total Height_______Tang Width_________Stud Width
P-GTFW-M-2___2.4 mm (0.095")_____1.2 mm (0.047")____2.8 mm (0.110")____0.60 mm (0.024")____0.95 mm (0.037")

https://www.amplifiedparts.com/products ... dium-sizes

See next post re the extra work required

[SuperAxe]

So the SG-2 rosewood fret board is super thin and very brittle. Lots of little chips when removing the frets and also while widening the fret slots from 0.42mm to about 0.6mm. Most will be too small to notice but there are about 10 slots that need 'chip work'...

Fret slots up from 12th fret widened, below not yet done; Made sure the widened slots work for the tang of the chosen fret wire -




Brittle indeed -




Before - sections to be filled marked with pencil:




Home made slot protector -




After -




There is not enough thickness left in the fret board to sand the divots out. It is either filling them or leave as is.

Thinking the divots give it character and show it has had a good life...

What would you guys do?

[ludobag1]

if it was me i will fill the divot with rosewood dust and superglue
i have done it on my old aria when i was refretting it ,the rosewood was too much brittle and i have lot of cracks when i have pull out the old fret ,and it is not the harder part of a refret and looks so much better when it is finish ,when done and oiled it was really not visible ,then i have don't regret to have done it ,looks like a fretboard not a minefield

pro luther do this often ,you will find at stewmac Dan doing it on a strat (who needed really )

[SuperAxe]

Refret complete Took me a bit longer than normal but well worth it. First refret for this 1966 SG-2...

[antisymmetric]

Effort paid off, nicely done!