As SG with a good single coil (tele/strat) sound?

[Tonewoodstock]

Hello everyone, I'm new here. Seems to be a lot of good topics discussed here!

I've got an SG Special with Duncan Jazz/JB pickups and that's a keeper, but I've been longing for the Fender sound for some time. So I finay got me a Fender Thinline 69 Tele. The mahogany bodied Thinline sounds absolutly fantastic thru my Vox AC15cc, at every pickup position. I really like to play the blues with some tube distortion and neck  pickup.

While the Fender sound is fabulous the ergonomics are not completey for me. It's neck heaviness was solved by moving the strap button to neck heel á la SG. Now I can play it neck upwards without having all the weight on the chest side of the strap. However my picking hand really misses the comfortable support of the SG bridge and slim body. Having arthitis in my wrists I'm a bit worried if I'll get used to the Tele. Time will tell if I'll learn to relax my wrist without the support of the palm on the bridge?

This led me to thinking what would I get if I made a single coil SG with maple neck? Eberything else like SG but woods, pickups and electronics Tele or Strat style? I know scale lenght does not make a big difference (done some capo testing) but what about the Tuneomatic bridge, because that's something I wouldn't change?

Any experiences?

Thanks.

 

[dNA]

By capo testing, do you mean you put a capo on at the 1st fret and then tuned that to standard?

 

[Panthur]

SG with P90's. MMmhhhmmm baby (but thats just my opinion of course ;-) )

 

[Finch]

I love SG's! I know you said you were going with a maple neck but what were you going to do for the body wood? You might not completely nail the "fender" sound but I think it would be a sexy project.

 

[Tonewoodstock]

Yeah, capo, then tune. In my experience the string tension (gauge/tuning) really makes a difference, scale lenght not so much.

I was actually wondering if someone would suggest a good body wood for me? I was comparing my Tele and SG today and it seems that the neck pup will be closer to the bridge on an sg which means I won't quite get the sweetest tele neck tones?

 

[dNA]

Yeah, capo, then tune. In my experience the string tension (gauge/tuning) really makes a difference, scale lenght not so much.

I was actually wondering if someone would suggest a good body wood for me? I was comparing my Tele and SG today and it seems that the neck pup will be closer to the bridge on an sg which means I won't quite get the sweetest tele neck tones?

I don't see why the neck pickup would be somewhere different, unless you were looking at an SG that had 24 frets or somehting. At the very worst if it is different, you just ask Warmoth to change it. You're making a custom guitar for a reason.


and if you liked the mahogany body on a fender, why not go with mahogany on the SG? The only problem with that is the color clash of a maple neck... but there's options

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

This can get confusing.  By capoing and retuning, the scale effectively shortened and the neck pickup, by remaining stationary, moved toward the neck in relationship to the shorter scale length.  With this change, it's now at the end of the 20th fret instead of the 21st.  That kind of pickup movement?

 

[Tonewoodstock]

This can get confusing.  By capoing and retuning, the scale effectively shortened and the neck pickup, by remaining stationary, moved toward the neck in relationship to the shorter scale length.  With this change, it's now at the end of the 20th fret instead of the 21st.  That kind of pickup movement?

On a Tele the neck pickup is pretty close to the 21 fret, on an SG the neck pickup is further away from the fretboard (a 22 fret board that is). There's not too much wood in an SG body an inch away from 21 fret. Which means that even the woods would be the same, at least the neck pickup location will be a difference in between a Tele and an SG. How big soundwise, remains a question?

Is it really that no one has made a maple neck SG with fender style single coils?

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

On a Tele the neck pickup is pretty close to the 21 fret, on an SG the neck pickup is further away from the fretboard (a 22 fret board that is).

The pickup placement is the same for a 22 or 21 fret necked Tele, the fretboard overhangs.  I only said 21 because most Fender Thinlines are 21 fret.