It hurts me knowing you didn’t solder the pickup rings! Haha! I’ve done it like that out of laziness. Not wanting to go buy a new soldering iron. It will become a problem. If it moves, and no longer touches any grounded metal parts, you will end up having issues. I didn’t even see how old this video was. Looks rad though!
Love my 97 Special, those still had the ebony fret boards, can't stand the muddy 490's, Seymour JB in the bridge for sure, never liked these faded SG Sp's, fret stickers are gay, accept the dots, sure the trapezoids are cool but stickers are lame it's like fake relicing
I agree with everything you said. I can tolerate most Gibson pickups but the 490t in the bridge is a horrible pickup. My '19 Standard had them and the cheesy PCB. I bought a quick connect wiring adapter and replaced the 490t with a JB as well. Huge difference. In fact, when I sold the guitar last year I put the crappy 490t back and kept the JB with the quick connect wiring for future use. As far as relicing and stickers... same. Too many bedroom players and hoarders these days who can't comprehend the idea of honest playwear.
It upsets me how someone can treat a guitar the way the last owner of this one did. Broken pots, missing covers, etc. I don’t care how “low end” this guitar was intended to be. It carries a name that is to be respected. “Made in USA” isn’t just a phrase, its value.
If you want a SG Standard or a Custom Shop then buy one. Making your guitar look high-end doesn't make it high-end. This is like when guys put 2 foot tall spoilers on their 4 cylinder Honda Civic.
I really don't want to flame the video, however your 100% right here. The stickers on the fretboard are just cheesy, the pickup covers sort of as well. I would've just purchased a set of pickups which simply come with the covers, 490's or whichever ones you'd like if I wanted the chromed out look. If I really wanted to make a radical change to the knobs, then I would have installed non-knurled pots in it I suppose. However since he went with a set of which hat styled knobs anyhow, I would've simply have purchased the CTS pots meant for a Gibson style axe with the knurled posts, but that's just me... If I was really bothered by the fretboard dots I would've also have drilled them out and installed mother of pearl dots into the existing holes as well. Obviously there would be a lot more routing for blocks or trapezoid inlays but, they'd have been done right.
