Saga Sagas!

Note from GuitarAttack: This is a great story. WE LOVE SGs and that is a cool stand! From Mike Yacullo I barely play guitar, and have never played an SG, but for some reason I've always loved the SG body. And I love a project! It was $179 on ebay so I figured it would probably sounds like a $179 guitar. I had BIG trouble with the spray lacquer I ordered from StewMac. I followed the instructions (warm up the lacquer, use broad strokes, start and stop off the guitar) but it still spit a lot and I ended up with a lot of blobs and runs. I stripped the whole thing off. OK, purists, avert your eyes: I ended up going with wipe-on Minwax Crimson. It did not come out very red, but I liked the tone and stuck with it. I also used Minwax wipe-on poly for the gloss coat. It went on very easily and has a nice gloss to it. I guess I'll find out how it holds up. I built a stand out of PVC so I could hang it up as I went along. It worked out really well, and I can break it down and put it away until I need it for future projects.
Once the neck and body were finished I had to black the headstock. Here I did use the StewMac gloss black and it came out good. I used the Gibson logo as a base to make my own. I printed it onto a waterslide decal and then put clear coat and then lacquer on top.
I got all the electronics together pretty easily - no soldering, just click together and heat shrink tubing.
Then I just added the tuners, all the knobs, the pickguard, and strung it. Everything worked on the first try, I couldn't believe it! The action and intonation were good. Now I just need to learn how to play better. Looking forward to another build soon.
Nice SG, Mike...yes, the finish is cool!