My gibson sg project

[stankybudz]

I recently obtained an 89 gibson sg jr I believe, as it only has the one humbucker rout. When i got it, it had like a super thick hideous green high tensile paint with a cross painted over it, so I had it sanded down and finished with a non polyurethane cherry stain. I got it for 80 bucks, and it felt and played like a gibson so I felt it was a steal. I switched the pickup to an old duncan performer and had a few issues fitting the  new pup to the old mounting ring and pickup height, so I did a direct mount and used plastic inserts to compensate for the amount of space between the strings and pup that I would have had if I screwed it directly into the wood. I didnt realize the wood was so thin there and actually drilled through the back of the body, so I smacked the inserts down about 3/4 of the way and screwed the pup into the inserts, and the actual height between the strings and pup is not too low. I got everything wired up and sounding pretty good, but am now having the issue with some fret buzz. This axe came with this funky steinberger fixed floating rollers bridge, and I've sorta been able to adjust it a little bit, but I'm super new to guitar repair and set up and I really want to learn how to do it. I would like to know if with the way the bridge rout is , do i have any options with dropping a tremolo in? I am not opposed to routing the back out for the springs either, so let me know my options please and thanks!

 

[stankybudz]

Those inserts stick out about a half inch, and dont really get in the way so it aint completely ruined! :guitarplayer2: if i could somehow get the tremolo from the squier to the gibson that would be cool too..

 

[stankybudz]

Come on guys need some input, what should i do with this bridge?

 

[Cagey]

The Steinberger bridge appears to have some height adjustment set screws on the saddles. If you think the neck is ok, you could use those to set string height to clear up your buzzing issues.

As for swapping bridges, I suspect you're stuck with what's on there unless you want to do major surgery. I tend to doubt it's something anybody's going to be able to guide you through by remote. I mean, to be perfectly frank, if you don't know you need or can't find saddle height adjustments on your own, you're in trouble already.

In any event, as I recall, the SG-style bodies don't have the depth/thickness for a proper vibrato bridge anyway no matter how ambitious you are. If you really want vibrato on that body style, you'll probably want to fill in the existing route with some sorta hardwood, fill and refinish it, then install a surface mount vibrato such as a Bigsby B5 on it. You could probably do all that for about $300 yourself. Considering the wood fitting and finish work, my guess is it'd be more than double that to have a pro do it.

 

[stankybudz]

Why in the hell would they stick this steinberger bridge on here in the first place?  :icon_scratch: I was able to adjust the rollers on the bridge a little, I think the neck needs adjusted a little.

 

[Cagey]

Why in the hell would they stick this steinberger bridge on here in the first place?  :icon_scratch: I was able to adjust the rollers on the bridge a little, I think the neck needs adjusted a little.

People do strange and irrational things to guitars all the time. I mean, all the time. I've seen more bizarre modifications than you can shake a stick at, 97% of them I just stare at and ask myself "what in the hell were they thinking?"

I saw a Gibson SG one time where the guy had taken a rat tail file after the fretboard to get some scallop going, then glued some kite-making strips to the sides of the neck to widen it. He thought he had done good. Truth be told, he had. For him. He liked it that way, and played it to death. I thought it was a sinful waste of a perfectly good guitar. He thought it was a necessary adjustment. So, who's to say what's bizarre and what's not?

 

[stankybudz]

I guess I did drill through the body haha ??? Oh well I will probably just leave the bridge in, but i would like a bigsby..