2017 Gibson SG Fusion Electric Guitar (Modded)

It's absurd how much bad press this particular model gets. Gibson had their heads on backwards a bit as regards the bridge this originally shipped with, but the rest of the guitar is actually designed nicely for a low-cost American-made model. It's lightweight in the mahogany body and has a comfortable feel, has a satin clearcoat on the back of the neck which gives it a "Fender-fast" touch, the neck's wood is good stock and stable in service, and the narrow headstock and simplified finish style remind me of something like a super-upgraded version of a '60s "Kalamazoo" SG-shaped electric or even something like an upgraded "Melody Maker" vibe.

So, yes, I liked it right-off despite its flaws. A friend traded this towards repairs balance and after setting it up, I decided to address the things that weren't plusses for me -- the Super-Strat-style pickups (just not my style) and the fully-adjustable wraparound bridge which meant you couldn't restring the guitar without taking the bridge off or adjusting it very high off the body because it hit the front wall of the pickup housing (doh).

My replacement bits came in the form of a non-adjustable (compensated for 3-wound, 3-plain) wraparound bridge and two new metal-chrome-covered P90-in-humbucker-format pickups. They're Korean-made and have Alnico II magnets. I've used these before and they give the guitar the classic, raunchy, '50s-ish Gibson tonality I was looking for.

Work included: swapping-in the pickups, swapping-in the new bridge, and a good setup. The neck is straight, the truss works 100%, and the action is on-the-dot at 1/16" overall at the 12th fret, strung with 46w-10 gauges.

Scale length: 24 5/8"
Nut width: 1 11/16"
String spacing at nut: 1 7/16"
String spacing at saddle: 2 1/16"

Body length: 16 5/8"
Lower bout width: 13"
Upper bout width: 10 3/4"

Side depth at endpin: 1 3/8"

Body wood: smahogany
Neck wood: maple
Fretboard: rosewood

Neck shape: 12" radius board(?) with slim-C rear shape

Bridge: replacement chrome non-adjustable wraparound

Nut: original synthetic

Condition notes: it's basically "shopworn" in looks and the only big flaw is that the finish is dulled on the lower-bout below the bridge. My buddy had a big Frank Zappa car-style decal there and suffice to say, it did not come off without a lot of effort which -- of course -- dulled the gloss there. It's not obvious unless you're rolling it around in the light a lot... and even then, one's arm mostly covers it during play, anyway. The bridge leans forward under tension, slightly, but so did the original. It's stable.

The replacement wraparound bridge lets you actually restring if you break a string. You just need to bend the tip and slip it into the retainer slot under the front edge. Before, the "deck" of the fully-adjustable version (which also weighs more) would run right into the pickup's plastic surround.

The electronics are all decent-quality, too, with full-size pots and a good 3-way switch.

Here you can see the dulling of the finish on the lower bout in the glare.