Where can I find better SG plans than these?

[ginopas]

Hello, This is my first guitar build. I've been reading forums and watching videos for a few years and I've decided to build a Gibson SG since I've wanted one fore a while.

I've searched and these are the best plans I've found. They're very detailed as far as Stewmac part numbers, but I need some measurements. Particularly, from the end of the fretboard to the pickup, to the pickup, to the bridge, to the tail piece, to the edge of the body. I know where the bridge goes from the scale, but the bridge is placed at an angle, so do I measure from center? Also, I've read that the sides are too deep on these plans.

I'll buy them if someone can recommend a site that sells accurate and detailed plans.

Thanks.

 

[Heretic]

Print it 1:1.

 

[varflips]

3D Models. there is a digitized 63 sg here. If you have any engineering friends they can make a d size print with all of the views with a program like solidworks or inventor and convert it to pdf

 

[ginopas]

Heretic - 1:1 it's way off, but even if I resize it, I've read it's wrong. For example, it has the neck at 2 degrees when it should be 3. Which makes me wonder what else is wrong.
varflips - Thanks, but they must have taken the SG down. It's not there.

 

[Murkar]

Ginopas - as per your original post...you don't want to place the bridge on center at scale length. That would be the uncompensated scale - you then need to add a bit if extra length, which is not the same for the treble and bass sides (which is why the bridge is angled). Google and read up on bridge compensation.

As for plans, I posted my blueprint archive over on LuthierTalk, Im sure there are at least 2 SG sets there somewhere (although I can't be certain).

 

[ginopas]

Murkar - Thanks, but those are the same plans as above. And they're apparently the best out there even with the mistakes.

As far as the bridge angle, at this point I'm only talking about the plans. When I actually place it on the guitar I'll hold it with clamps and set the intonation on both E's, mark it and drill accordingly. But that's far down the road.

I'm buying the fretboard from Stewmac. It's scale is 24.562 inches. I thought that if I brought the PDF to a print shop and had them resize it so that the distance from the face of the nut to where the bridge and center line of the guitar meet equaled 24.562 inches, everything else would fall into place. When I tried that myself, the pickups were about 1/4 inch bigger than they should be.

So I'm stuck between winging it and buying an SG to copy.

 

[SuperDuty62]

Hello, This is my first guitar build. I've been reading forums and watching videos for a few years and I've decided to build a Gibson SG since I've wanted one fore a while.

I've searched and these are the best plans I've found. They're very detailed as far as Stewmac part numbers, but I need some measurements. Particularly, from the end of the fretboard to the pickup, to the pickup, to the bridge, to the tail piece, to the edge of the body. I know where the bridge goes from the scale, but the bridge is placed at an angle, so do I measure from center? Also, I've read that the sides are too deep on these plans.

I'll buy them if someone can recommend a site that sells accurate and detailed plans.

Thanks.

Thats the PROBLEM! It appears people use their CAD drawings to make guesstimation on the actual guitar itself and doops people into buying them thinking they are accurate to build a guitar with.

The only ones you MAY FIND ACCURATE is a BODY THAT HAS A BOLT ON NECK LIKE A FENDER OR OTHER TYPE BOLT ON NECK TO BODY! Anything else anyone sells I can probably assume IT WILL BE INCORRECT as I bought enough to come to that determination. I am certainly NOT GOING TO SPEND another $38, $50, $79 for anymore inaccurate plans or templates! If someone wants to challenge me on it then they can give me the plans free and let me decide!

Wait a couple of days when I get some time, I will post photos and possibly videos of templates and plans I bought and compare them on actual guitars to prove a point!

I WON'T say whom as they may be members here or not I do not know, but I BOUGHT SEVERAL plans and some with templates. EVERYTHING IS OFF when it comes to the bridge, saddle, pick up, and fretboard!! AND if you search my name and find my postings you see I discuss this issue in one thread and of course there seems to be some people justifying it being inaccurate as comment like the plans could be of vintage specs, or current specs and the body and everthing is different, etc.

Fact remains no matter what the body style, shape, etc, headstock style, shape, etc, or neck thickness is, either way, the fret board, bridge, and saddle will/should always be correct for proper note notation.

So does this mean, I should MAKE MY OWN CORRECT templates and drawings and sell them? Maybe, it seems to be a market for it! Except IF I DO/WILL MAKE SURE MINE ARE ACCURATE!

 

[ginopas]

I found what I'm looking for, but it's a Tele. Maybe build #2.

 

[bruce bennett]

Hello, This is my first guitar build.

that says it all.

Forget about cork sniffing the plans and build the darn thing.. Your first guitar will likely never be what you want anyway.

but once you've find out what building a guitar is really about.. THEN you can work on refining the next one/s.

those plans are WAY better than anything I ever had back in the 80s. and My SG clone guitars got raves and sales..

also no two REAL vintage Gibsons were ever alike anyway. they ALL had little detail flaws in them and each one played differently.
besides, following a bunch of specs on a drawing is not how you get a great guitar anyway.

guitar building is NOT about rocket science or drafting.

its an exercise in TEDIOUSNESS, PATIENCE AND DETERMINATION.
These are the basis for "CRAFTSMANSHIP"
and it takes YEARS to learn it. so go get started.

 

[LtDave32]

Hello, This is my first guitar build. I've been reading forums and watching videos for a few years and I've decided to build a Gibson SG since I've wanted one fore a while.

I've searched and these are the best plans I've found. They're very detailed as far as Stewmac part numbers, but I need some measurements. Particularly, from the end of the fretboard to the pickup, to the pickup, to the bridge, to the tail piece, to the edge of the body. I know where the bridge goes from the scale, but the bridge is placed at an angle, so do I measure from center? Also, I've read that the sides are too deep on these plans.

I'll buy them if someone can recommend a site that sells accurate and detailed plans.

Thanks.

Careful on that bridge placement. There are detailed directions to properly placing a bridge here in this forum. There is a thread that member DoneOne and I participated in that shows precise bridge placement regardless if it's a wrap-tail or tuneomatic/ABR type.

 

[ginopas]

My experience is in residential construction. I've also done some bars and cabinetry. Even when I've done simple jobs like bookshelves, I first derw up some plans and worked out all the math, so that when it came time to cut I was sure I was cutting in the right place. As problems come up, I'd go back to the plans and get back on track. That's what I'm looking for without having to buy a guitar.

 

[bruce bennett]

My experience is in residential construction. I've also done some bars and cabinetry. Even when I've done simple jobs like bookshelves, I first derw up some plans and worked out all the math, so that when it came time to cut I was sure I was cutting in the right place. As problems come up, I'd go back to the plans and get back on track. That's what I'm looking for without having to buy a guitar.

I can't see the fine details of those plans on my screen, but your saying that they don't provide you with the standard measurements? it looked to me like they did.
but if thats true then yeah, they are not good enough to be called "plans".

That said..
back in the 70-80s when I started there were no such thing as
"plans" and no internet to look things up with. and VERY few books available

So, I took a Ste mac "gibson" fretboard and an Original SG pickguard from the model I wanted. and used that to mark out my own paper tracing.

I made tracings of a real guitar hanging in a music store that was to be cloned. and a few measurements of my own taken from the same guitar and I just went in the shop and made templates myself from those tracings fretboard and pick-guard and the rest of the parts I intended to use.. and that's all that was needed.

the pickups, tailpiece, bridge are all known measurements. So you fit things together based on that. a correct pickguard will show you the correct placement of routs. and your fretboard is your reference as everything is "scaled" to that anyway.
neck angles are decided by the bridge you use.

I got "high tech" when I bought a used Overhead projector and started projecting photos up on my drawing board and tracing them using known measurements to "scale" the projection with.

Create your own drawings. its great practice and allows you to go MUCH father in guitar building than just clones of standard stuff.

 

[ginopas]

Those tracings you're talking about are basically what I'm looking for. You traced them yourself because you had no other option. I do. It's sites like this one. I understand that you didn't have plans when you started. I'm asking if they exist now.

 

[bruce bennett]

Those tracings you're talking about are basically what I'm looking for. You traced them yourself because you had no other option. I do. It's sites like this one. I understand that you didn't have plans when you started. I'm asking if they exist now.

well those I have obviously.. but if you think the plans above are crude....

then my old tracings and measurement scribblings are even worse.
once I made my Templates from them. I never really needed to look at them again.

here's an example of what I'm talking about.
I have a project for a Rickenbacker 350SH ( Suzanna Hoffs) Model which are VERY rare
so when one came into a local music store, I grabbed the opportunity to make tracings and measurements.
here is what they look like. most of my measurements are written near the headstock.

 

[bruce bennett]

Those plans above would have been a God Send to me back in those days.

I would go to a copy store and have 3-4 FULL SIZED copies made, and then start cutting them up to glue down to some MDF or Birch Ply to make some routing Templates.

your way over thinking this.

 

[DoneOne]

the 3D file mentioned somewhere above was a model of a 63 Jr that MLP member Goocart put together - it was then graciously hosted for free download on Bartlett's site for a while.

here's a copy:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8286013/Guitars/1963-JR.3dm

he drew a stewmac 24.5625 scale on it.

If i were looking to build an sg, I'd start with that... But... I'd have to know a bit of Rhino (cad) to dissect it to get uncluttered 2D outlines from it.

If I were under the mistaken impression that I'd need more than one P90, I'd then get a bat-wing guard (because what's cooler than a bat-wing guard?!!) and use that to place pups, etc.

then you're left only with the control cavity and knob placement.

echo SuperDuty's post... Bruce and I both posted in a thread where a guy bought templates for a moderne... the neck scale didn't match the body.

What had apparently happened is that a guy with a cnc machine pulled plans off the web and was cutting templates and selling them... without understanding that they were wrong.

moral: nothing beats the kind of experience Bruce and others have gained over the years.

Alternatively, you could import a pdf version of that stewmac drawing into a free demo version of rhino, set the measuring units correctly and take measurements on screen. The pdf I have of it imports 1:1.

or... print it 1:1... just make sure the printer is accurate. The outline of the page is 32.5" by 45.72"

they have the neck angle as 1.5. Goocart has it at 1.75 (different bridge).

pdf in case you're working off a bitmap file:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8286013/Guitars/sg page 2.pdf

 

[rocknroll1385]

I hope sooner or later someone makes a good accurate set of plans availible to the public. I'm a big fan of exnihilo's sg builds, and want to do the same but he took his measurements from a vintage sg.

 

[ExNihilo]

I made the following body plan based on two vintage SGs (a 61 Jr. and a 64 Special) and Magnus' 3d model of a 63 Jr. In looking over hundreds of photos I see that there are differences in bevel widths (even on models of the same year). I believe this body plan is accurate for the shape and bevels for 61-early 67.

Be aware that this plan has the 61 neck joint. You have to extend it out if you want to have a neck joint of later models (especially 67 and beyond where the neck and body join at the 19th fret).

As for the plan you reference in your original post... don't use it at all. I have it and can tell you that it is of no value if your are wanting something with vintage measurements. It is more of a "SG looking" guitar plan.

Perhaps, one day (don't hold your breath, I have very little spare time) I will include control cavity and pot placements etc. For now, just print it off so that it is 13" wide and you will have a great body plan.

 

[Murkar]

Thanks for that scott :O Much appreciated! Definitely saving this one.....if you ever feel the desire to use this to make a full set of plans, I'd be happy to draw up a set if you happen to have measurements.

 

[BleedingGums]

Here is a control cavity that another forum member (Core) traced of his own '63 SG: