[chromium]

Greetings! I wandered in from the Gibson Bass forum, and had a quick question I was hoping you kind folks might be able to provide some insights on.

I am looking to adopt another guitar. I currently use a Strat for recording stuff in my home studio, and I'd like to have the voice of an SG available as well.

Being that I'm not much of a guitar player, I really don't want to spend a whole lot on one; consequently, I was looking at the SG special faded. I'm kind of smitten with the walnut brown model (Zappa influence, I guess). I've been thinking about buying one and doctoring it up a bit - nickel p/u covers, possibly adding a vibrola someday... and polishing it out to a shiny lustre.

I've read of others doing this - buffing out these faded finishes, but have not yet seen any pictures of the outcome. Has anyone here tried it? Would you happen to have some photos to share?? I've also thought about the possibility of clearcoating the headstock face.

I realize that springing for an SG standard would offset all of this effort, and I might do that, but I really don't mind the work - kind of fun actually. I've done similar sorts of finish work with basses in the past.

Anyway - thank you in advance for any info!

[chromium]

Well I never really found any good photos of what an SG Special "Faded" could become with a little polishing - so I made some! :D

I ended up winning a 2006 SG Special on Ebay for $460 USD, and it came with a brand new hardshell case (which I'll put back on Ebay, since I already have another case that fits it). At this kind of price, it really made the decision a no-brainer for me.

I'm actually pretty impressed with the guitar - fretwork is decent, sets up well, it's very light and resonant, has great sustain, and sounds just like I expected an SG to sound. They don't use any grain filler on these- rough, wide open grain... and the finish, if you can call it that, appears to be a very thin satin-finish stain.

Here's a good shot depicting how dull the finish was:


Looked okay from a distance, though. Here it is with some of its pointy-horned, elder siblings:


Never being one to leave well enough alone, I took off the tailpiece, pickguard, knobs, etc... and buffed out the body by hand with some Virtuoso cleaning compound. This really brought out the shine; however, it gets in the open grain and dries kind of a tan color. If I were doing this again, I'd try to look for a compound that dries darker or clear.

Once there was a lustre, I applied about six coats of Butchers bowling alley wax to give it depth and protection. I followed that up with a coat of Virtuoso polish. Looks aside - it feels sooooo much better to the touch now. This is the end result:





You can really see the shine on the beveled edges of the body. This same depth of shine carries onto the flat surfaces as well. Note the openness of the grain! No getting around that shortcoming!



The neck on this one already has a nice shine to it from normal use. I will be tackling the headstock next. I have some leftover clear lacquer from another project that I'll probably use to seal, level, and surface the headstock face. Then I can safely buff it to a lustre without damaging the logo. At present, the headstock has its original satin finish, and the logo does not appear to be very well protected. This makes me reluctant to attempt the same approach I took with the body.



As you can see from the pics, I couldn't resist installing some nickel pickup covers and witch hats during this little undertaking! I might pick up one of the Allparts Maestro "long Gibson vibrato" knockoffs for it at some point. This would be more for vanity than anything, so no rush there.