Nice guitars ruined by one feature...

bacchanalian

Middle pickup on strats.

historyisjunk

The middle pickup on Strats is one of their best things (& they have many other best things)

impmann

Rickenbacker 12 string neck width

proggy

Creed_Clicks said:

I never found Epiphone headstocks to be ugly? Maybe the one on the Sheraton is way too blingy, but that's it.

I too don't understand all the dislike for Epi headstocks, I think they look alright.

Voxman

RonnieHotdogs said:

Strats, volume pot in wrong place, prone to get knocked by strumming hand, drives me nuts 

That's easily fixed. Did it to my 69 hardtail and solved problem completely. See the last tip in this vid.

tone1

Les Paul pickguard 

HAL9000

ICBM said:

ICBM said:

Mahogany necks with a one-piece angled headstock, no reinforcement, and an oversized truss rod access at the weakest point.

merlin said:

My point exactly.

Internet wisdom would suggest that this will absolutely definitely happen if you take a Gibson outdoors during as much as a stiff breeze.

OilCityPickups

HAL9000 said:

ICBM said:

ICBM said:

Mahogany necks with a one-piece angled headstock, no reinforcement, and an oversized truss rod access at the weakest point.

merlin said:

My point exactly.

Internet wisdom would suggest that this will absolutely definitely happen if you take a Gibson outdoors during as much as a stiff breeze.

Break authentic guys!

impmann

HAL9000 said:

ICBM said:

ICBM said:

Mahogany necks with a one-piece angled headstock, no reinforcement, and an oversized truss rod access at the weakest point.

merlin said:

My point exactly.

Internet wisdom would suggest that this will absolutely definitely happen if you take a Gibson outdoors during as much as a stiff breeze.

Just proves that "Internet" and "Wisdom" are two words that don't sit together well...

(Headstocks of my Gibsons are still intact... 16years and counting for one)

Rocker

Gibson simply never seem to fix their mistakes.  The weak peg head alluded to above for example.  The bad neck dive on the SG, which was obvious from the start of production of that guitar, should have been solved within a few months. The SG is a lovely guitar to play sitting down, I know as I had one, but on a strap it was awful.  It should not be necessary for buyers to add aftermarket products like a Bigsby to fix what should have been dealt with in the factory.

crunchman

Rocker said:

Gibson simply never seem to fix their mistakes.  The weak peg head alluded to above for example.  The bad neck dive on the SG, which was obvious from the start of production of that guitar, should have been solved within a few months. The SG is a lovely guitar to play sitting down, I know as I had one, but on a strap it was awful.  It should not be necessary for buyers to add aftermarket products like a Bigsby to fix what should have been dealt with in the factory.

SG neck dive is about getting the right strap.  I used a suede strap, which has a grippy back, and never had problems with neck dive.

Nunogilberto

crunchman said:

Rocker said:

Gibson simply never seem to fix their mistakes.  The weak peg head alluded to above for example.  The bad neck dive on the SG, which was obvious from the start of production of that guitar, should have been solved within a few months. The SG is a lovely guitar to play sitting down, I know as I had one, but on a strap it was awful.  It should not be necessary for buyers to add aftermarket products like a Bigsby to fix what should have been dealt with in the factory.

SG neck dive is about getting the right strap.  I used a suede strap, which has a grippy back, and never had problems with neck dive.

Agreed - the right strap will cure neck dive. More of an issue on the SG is the flat, thin body which if you're rotund like me, means you can't play the guitar flat and straight against you and almost end up holding it on a diagonal...

stickyfiddle

Philly_Q said:

normula1 said:

stickyfiddle said:

Philly_Q said:

normula1 said:

The cutaways an a Gibson ES339 are way too tight to get my hand in, and my hands are not in any way big

I'm very fond of my CS-336 but you're right, the cutaways are very tight.  I guess they decided the body proportions would look weird if they widened the cutaways.

They had bigger horns and cutaways on the early ES-336 model, but it was weird looking. I have to say I’ve never had trouble with my 336. Maybe I have small hands(?) but it’s only a smidge worse than an SG - I don’t find it any worse than a Tele.

I was playing it earlier tonight and the top two frets are almost unusable, which is a shame as the rest of the guitar is wonderful.... actually just remembered another flaw, the taper on the volume pots is way too dramatic between 10 and 9 if you play clean. I will bite the bullet and change the pots at some point.

Playing the top couple of frets the edge of my palm is in constant contact with the inside of the cutaway.  It's not insurmountable but it's a bit distracting.

(But going back to the thread title, it doesn't ruin the guitar!  It's one of my favourites.)

This is the same for me. My SG has clearly better access, but the 336 is still better than a Tele or a Les Paul and honestly not much different to the Strat. Maybe I do indeed just have small hands

crunchman

Nunogilberto said:

crunchman said:

Rocker said:

Gibson simply never seem to fix their mistakes.  The weak peg head alluded to above for example.  The bad neck dive on the SG, which was obvious from the start of production of that guitar, should have been solved within a few months. The SG is a lovely guitar to play sitting down, I know as I had one, but on a strap it was awful.  It should not be necessary for buyers to add aftermarket products like a Bigsby to fix what should have been dealt with in the factory.

SG neck dive is about getting the right strap.  I used a suede strap, which has a grippy back, and never had problems with neck dive.

Agreed - the right strap will cure neck dive. More of an issue on the SG is the flat, thin body which if you're rotund like me, means you can't play the guitar flat and straight against you and almost end up holding it on a diagonal...

The geometry was more of an issue for me.  I got wrist problems from it.  It was the the angled neck, combined with the far end of the neck being a long way away as the neck/body join is so high up.

I remember using it for a 5 hour practice for a show I was playing for, and my wrist was very sore at the end of it.  The next week I used my Strat and I was fine.  I sold the SG after that.

skullfunkerry

Voxman said:

RonnieHotdogs said:

Strats, volume pot in wrong place, prone to get knocked by strumming hand, drives me nuts 

That's easily fixed. Did it to my 69 hardtail and solved problem completely. See the last tip in this vid.

That wouldn't solve it for me, the knob would still be in the way! It seems that Fender know this too; on my Squier Contemporary Active Strat it was moved away from the pickup...

chrisj1602

Voxman said:

Not so much ruined but annoying. Epiphone Sheraton II's (here's my 1988 Samick factory one) - the fret inlays stop at the 15th fret.  Why??!!  It's a real nuisance because, even though I've been playing some 48 years now I can still sometimes get thrown by it & lose my place towards the dusky end of the neck! 

You can get inlay stickers on eBay, might do the trick. I put some on my step daughters acoustic, you couldn’t feel them and they stayed in place.

CeeJay

Jack socket placement on an SG

impmann

An awful lot of SG Neck Dive issues are caused by over-heavy machine heads being fitted - such as Grovers. They just *aren't* needed. 

That said, I did own an early 80s SG that was shocking for neck dive but I've been since told that the geometry on these is different to the one I have now.

My 2004 SG Special has been my live weapon of choice since I got it 16 years ago - it has a Rotosound suede strap and it doesn't dive. At. All.
Oh and the headstock is still intact, despite hitting a recalcitrant bass player with it.

Voxman

tone1 said:

Les Paul pickguard 

Don't be silly..the pickguard is what makes it a proper Les Paul,  and for resting yout little pinkie on, otherwise it's naked and you may as well buy a PRS single cut! 

skullfunkerry

Philly_Q said:

lincolnblue said:

HAL9000 said:

Large headstock Strats.

/\ /\ /\ This for sure!

Not!

I don't really mind the large or small headstocks, but I do think the larger one is nicer-looking than the smaller one when they're reversed: