Is it possible to switch dials on an Sg?

[grungemaster]

I am thinking about purchasing an epi special Sg... but there's a major issue. You see, the guitar doesn't come in a lefty; but it's fairly symmetrical; So my question to you is, is it possible to remove the dials from one side, fill in the holes and put dials on the other side? All answers are appreciated, but please don't B.S. Me. Thanks everybody.

[Ch0jin]

Possible, but it's not AT ALL practical or economical.

Behind the dials is a cavity that has been routed out of the body of the guitar to fit the electronics under the dials. To convert it you would have to re-route the control cavity on the other side and re-mount all the controls. You would also need to replace the nut unless you string upside down. There might be more, but I don't have an SG here to look at.

Like I said. Possible, but not practical. My No BS answer is "Look for a different guitar"

[grungemaster]

Possible, but it's not AT ALL practical or economical.

Behind the dials is a cavity that has been routed out of the body of the guitar to fit the electronics under the dials. To convert it you would have to re-route the control cavity on the other side and re-mount all the controls. You would also need to replace the nut unless you string upside down. There might be more, but I don't have an SG here to look at.

Like I said. Possible, but not practical. My No BS answer is "Look for a different guitar"
Thanks man; it might be impractical, but i think i might do it anyway, also, I think i'll put a pickguard on that motherfrakker.

[ZMAN]

First of all I don't know what forums you have been on but you will not get any BS answers on this one. You ask a valid question you will get a valid answer.
I would think that doing this to an SG special would ruin the guitar. You would have to fill in the five holes, route out a new control cavity and re route the pickup wires. Redrill the four holes for the controls and another for the switch. You would pobably have to refinish the body and put in a new nut unliess you play it strung right handed. Not something that just anyone could do.
I would just look for a used G400 if you are looking for a lefty SG style guitar
You mentioned already in another post that you recently bought a Douglas Octanis. Why don't you take a look at Rondo who carries the Douglas line,and look at the Douglas Zeke. It is similar to the Valkyrie and is only 139
They are similar to an SG style guitar.
The G400 or SG special is already neck heavy and if you took that much wood out of the guitar it would make it really light in the body.

[Ch0jin]

Bad idea that it is, if you go ahead with it I'd love to see some pix. :)

[duhvoodooman]

Bad idea that it is, if you go ahead with it I'd love to see some pix. I'll agree with the first half of that....

[oldguy]

My answer to your original question:
Yes, it's possible.
My no BS suggestion:
Learn to play righty, like I did. It will make life much easier in the long run.
Right handed guitars abound, lefty's not so much. Plus the dominant left hand on the fretboard works better.

[ZMAN]

My answer to your original question:
Yes, it's possible.
My no BS suggestion:
Learn to play righty, like I did. It will make life much easier in the long run.
Right handed guitars abound, lefty's not so much. Plus the dominant left hand on the fretboard works better.
A lot can be said for that. I am a lefty as well. I do EVERYTHING left handed except play guitar and write. My parents would not let me hold a pencil with my left so i had to learn righty. And it is possible to change. I started golfing right handed because I could only use my Dad's right handed clubs. I played in the 80s right handed and changed to lefty after 20 years. I now play in the 80s from the left side.
It will feel wierd at first but your brain will adapt quickly.
With guitar again I only had right handed guitars so I played that way.

[Katastrophe]

I'm a lefty that plays righty as well... Works for me!

Routing an SG to switch knobs around is not advisable, as the others have said. It will cause more problems than it'll solve.

Do what Hendrix did... Flip the saddles and put on a new nut, restring and play. Unfortunately, there just aren't a lot of lefty guitars out there, compared to right handed ones.

Rondo has a lefty Agile Silverburst Valkyrie here:

http://www.rondomusic.com/product3897.html

There's also the Douglas Zeke for less there as well.

BTW, there's no need to put the warning in about BS here. We're all friendly folk, and will give honest answers to questions to the best of our ability.

[markb]

My answer to your original question:
Yes, it's possible.
My no BS suggestion:
Learn to play righty, like I did. It will make life much easier in the long run.
Right handed guitars abound, lefty's not so much. Plus the dominant left hand on the fretboard works better.

Words of wisdom indeed. When you start playing you don't have the skills anyway so it doesn't matter which way up you hold the thing. I would strongly discourage any beginner from doing the southpaw thing.

NO classical violinists play left handed a) because they'd get in the way in the string section and, b) because Stradivari didn't make any left handed fiddles. You want to aspire to the best, don't you?

[Ch0jin]

NO classical violinists play left handed a) because they'd get in the way in the string section and, b) because Stradivari didn't make any left handed fiddles.

Wow, thats a neat bit of trivia to store away! I played violin for a couple of years in school but as a normal person, sorry, right hander (joking) I never even thought of that.

[Ch0jin]

I'll agree with the first half of that....

Aww come on. It'd be like a car crash on the highway. You know you don't want to see, but you look anyway. :)

[grungemaster]

Actually I've decided to just make my own sg; because to tell you the truth, i'm not really a big fan of CNC machines, set necks, or gibby's price tag. But thanks for all the suggestions, if making one fails i'll go with plan b; and yes, I will send pics. :)

[Ch0jin]

... i'm not really a big fan of CNC machines....

Why is that?

I mean set neck V bolt-on I understand someone having a preference there, but unless I'm mistaken, w.r.t. guitar manufacture, a CNC machine is simply performing the body shaping and routing (and maybe drilling?) of parts just like a human would, only faster and more accurately.

What am I missing?

[grungemaster]

Why is that?

I mean set neck V bolt-on I understand someone having a preference there, but unless I'm mistaken, w.r.t. guitar manufacture, a CNC machine is simply performing the body shaping and routing (and maybe drilling?) of parts just like a human would, only faster and more accurately.

What am I missing?
Well I suppose it's really preference again there, I just prefer the soul of a hand-built guitar; there's really no provable "advantage" to it, I just like it better.

[Ch0jin]

Fair enough. I'm sure carving one out yourself would be much more rewarding than just buying a pre-shaped body and installing components. I can dig that.

There is actually a luthier here in Oz who has been running build your own guitar courses for a couple of years. It's not cheap and they take only a small handful of students a year, but from the photo's I've seen, they go from big blocks of wood to finished guitar basically by hand. I'd love to do it myself, looks like hard work but an awesomely fun and rewarding experience.

Here's a teaser...Guitar School (http://www.ormsbyguitars.com/guitarschool/index.html)

[deeaa]

I find it impossible to believe a slab of wood could have any more soul than another, no matter where and by whom or what it was created. An electric guitar is a superbly simple machine that has no magic to it whatsoever, just mechanical issues.

Then again, I don't believe in souls even on humans or anything else for that matter. If you can't see it or measure it or calculate its existence based on facts, it simply doesn't exist, period.

[Ch0jin]

I find it impossible to believe a slab of wood could have any more soul than another, no matter where and by whom or what it was created. An electric guitar is a superbly simple machine that has no magic to it whatsoever, just mechanical issues.

Then again, I don't believe in souls even on humans or anything else for that matter. If you can't see it or measure it or calculate its existence based on facts, it simply doesn't exist, period.

As you'd probably have picked up from my incessant posting about electronics and physics here, I 100% agree with you, but I know you like to modify your guitars and stuff so you gotta appreciate that turning a block of wood into a guitar by your own hand would be more rewarding than say slapping together a bunch of parts. Soul or no. Thats all I was meaning.

[deeaa]

Oh absolutely, nothing like building your own!

However, if I could just order a machine to make the cuts and mods perfectly instead of sweating it with hand tools, I certainly would!

I have a buddy who works in a place they make all kinds of parts with CNC machinery - you know, parts ranging from the size of car engines to minute screw size stuff - and he's built a lot of gun parts for instance with it; sight mounts, rails, muzzle brakes, u name it...he's constantly programming the thing to do all kinds of things after hours. He said he's actually going to duplicate a complete 2011 pistol some day for instance :-)

Because that thing can cut stuff out of samicron steel in micrometre accuracy with ease, I've sometimes toyed with the idea of giving him a big slab of wood and a CNC router program so he could carve me a guitar out of it. He said he can install me the CNC program on my PC so I can draw the blueprints, says it's 'easy as pie' but he is a machinist engineer himself so yeah, probably for him it is easy...but some day if I have lots of spare time I would love to do just that.

Then I could have like several guitars carved from a solid block of, say, aluminum, wood, plastic, etc. as long as I could score a sufficient slab of material. Just add a wooden fretboard and frets and parts...would be super cool indeed.

But, I suppose it'll remain a dream only...

[Ch0jin]

Only one thing cooler than a CNC machine and thats a 3D printer for rapid prototyping.

Imagine not even having to carve it, just CAD it and then print the whole body in 3D.