1st build - Warmoth SG w/3 P90s

[el_duberino]

I turned 30 back in May and to commemorate the occasion, me and a buddy put together an order from Warmoth.  Everything finally arrived last week and I got her all assembled this weekend.  Feast yer eyes on my sweet rocking beast!

Body:
1 3/4" mahogany
Blue Ice metallic paint job (as close as I could get to Gibson Pelham Blue)
Standard SG control routing
Gotoh tune-o-matic bridge and tailpiece
7/8" jack hole on the side with an electrosocket jack (the jack on the front of my Gibson is super annoying)
No pickguard yet, but I've got a black one and I'm trying to decide if I should install it or just leave it clean

Neck:
24.75" conversion neck
Mahogany with rosewood fretboard, clear gloss finish on back and headstock
6150 fretwire
Pearloid dot inlays
Graphtech nut precut and installed
Schaller mini locking tuners
No truss rod cover yet, the Warmoth one is pretty crappy so I'm looking into getting a custom job
Chrome neck plate with black pad

Electronics:
3 custom-wound P90 pickups from Jon Moore (www.tonefordays.com)
Bridge pickup is 10k and then the middle and neck are wound progressively weaker
3-way toggle switch wired normally to the bridge and neck pickups
Middle pickup wired to be always on, but can be turned off with its own volume control
Master tone control with 0.022 uf capacitor
With this setup I can get any pickup in combination or alone

Overall I'm very pleased so far.  The wiring was definitely the hardest part of the assembly, except maybe for figuring out where to put the strap button on the neck side.  In the end I decided to thread one of the neck bolts through it, but I'm not sure this is a viable long-term solution.  Any of you out there who have put together a Warmoth SG are welcome to chime in with your strap button placement advice.  The weight is pretty amazing, my Gibson SG weighs in at around 6.7 lbs, and this lovely beast is over 9 lbs!

The pickups are fantastic.  I went with unoriented Alnico V magnets, which are higher output than Alnico II's, but a bit warmer than normal Alnico V's.  With the middle pickup turned all the way down, I can get all the classic P90 SG sounds I was looking for, albeit a bit thicker due to the hefty body.  With the middle pickup dialed in, I can get some great quacky tones (think the 2 and 4 positions on a strat, but with more balls).

At this point I just need a truss rod cover and maybe a pickguard, and the frets could use a little dressing down.  They play great, but are just a tad tall for me.  Also, I need a picture photo of the final product!

Here's how she looked right out of the box.  This is actually a better photo than the one above...

The electrosocket jack...

Close-up as the parts go on...

Close-up on the headstock, the gloss really makes the wood grain pop...

 

[Mor Paul]

That looks great, man! I love SG's in Pelham Blue with p90s.

 

[el_duberino]

Hey, my name is Max too...

 

[mgaut051]

Fabulous! I love it.

 

[mgaut051]

Sorry - just reread the op. What ees thees "unoriented" voodoo you speek of?

 

[bagman67]

Congratulations - you must be a very proud papa indeed!  She's beautiful!

 

[Nando Vallart]

Cool!!

 

[el_duberino]

to Gauthier-

The basic magnet options were: Alnico 2, 3, 4, 5, and 8 (and maybe 6).  Within these basic choices there are a couple of cork-sniffing options such as rough/polished and oriented/unoriented.  As far as I understand it, the unoriented magnets are produced in a way that the iron bits are not all neatly aligned with each other.  It's still got north and south poles, but I think it adds a little bit of disorder to the frequency response.  My thinking was that A2 magnets might be a bit too mellow and vintage for my tastes, but that A5 might be a bit too harsh and balls-out, so the pickup maker recommended UOA5.  So far I'm enjoying them.  The resulting sound could be described as "mellow ballsy".  I like that, I think I'm going to start using that.

Or...there's a little bit of voodoo.  That answer certainly sounds better.

If you spend some time in the Seymour Duncan forums you'll realize that there are some people who spend way too much time thinking about magnets.  After reading over there I ended up swapping out the magnets in my SD JB pickup to great effect (removed stock A5s and replaced with rough A2s).

 

[Torment Leaves Scars]

You did an excellent job on it!

 

[el_duberino]

The strap button on the neck bolt was beginning to worry me, since I did not use a longer bolt, so I could never get it completely tight.  I finally decided to take the plate off and drill through it.  I drilled it out until the strap button would fit into the hole and thus fit flush with the plate once installed.  The strap button is now right in the center of the neck plate, where it would be on a Gibson, and feels much more solid.

The neck step will be to get a custom truss rod cover, I'm thinking tortoise shell would be nice, and then a custom pickguard.  I got the Warmoth SG pickguard and cut off the bit that would stick in-between two humbuckers (so the upper edge is completely straight, like an SG Custom), but it just didn't look right.  I think I'll try and get one made that wraps around each pickup by a half-inch or so.

I also need to get a better photo, because those in my original posting just don't do it justice

 

[lafromla1]

That looks awesome.  :icon_thumright:

I was just thinking of my next build being an SG with 2 humbuckers and a P-90 in the middle.

 

[Stew]

I'm a bit late to the party ...
Very nice SG ya got there el-duberino  :icon_thumright:

 

[Death by Uberschall]

:headbang1:

 

[el_duberino]

If you're not a huge middle-pickup user, this wiring scheme works great.  With the middle volume all the way down, it plays like a regular SG Classic.  Bringing the middle pickup into the mix opens up some nice, "quacky" tones.  The middle pickup by itself is quite nice, too. 

Yesterday I went and got some humbucker mounting springs.  I cut each one in half and mounted them onto the screws underneath each pickup.  Now the height adjustment works great.  I also took the strings-off opportunity to file out the nut slots a bit and add a little graphite.  Attached is a shot of how the strap button turned out on the neck plate.