'87 SC-3 Refin...

Hey All,

Here's a project guitar I threw together awhile back…



















I got the neck and body off eBay a few years back and most of the other parts from another deal...

The guitar originally was blue - as can be seen on the headstock + in the trem cavity - at least whoever stripped the original finish off kept the factory logo. As you can see it has a metallic purple/copper finish - Not sure what the type of paint is called but it changes colour just like a 70's mood ring depending on the ambient temperature - Nah, not really - but it does change colour from how the light hits it.
It basically goes from the purple you see in the pics to a funky metallic green and to a copper finish like on some 50's tele's… I tried to capture the copper colour but it wasn't exactly easy.

The neck has a Fab contour - medium C shape with a slight V and the ebony fingerboard feels great. The back of the neck has been stripped and sanded smooth + there has been a slight separation of the bi-cut nut seam but has been filled in. It has a # 2 neck w/ stock frets. I believe the body is poplar as its fairly lightweight.
The black plate is a reissue but the neck plate, bridge plate and control plate are stock Leo-era parts… The pickups and electronics are from another SC-3 circa '84.

Oh yeah, the trem arm is stock as well as the arm socket but they're different diameters so I put a black plastic sleeve in to compensate for the diff… again it goes with the black/silver motif…

I s'pose I could do something to make the headstock fit in to the colour scheme but I can't really be bothered to … I'm open to suggestions tho.

Sound-wise its Fab - pretty much like any Leo-era SC-3.

Cheers,

KF

That is a really cool looking SC-3 KF! I like it! I'm really getting some GAS for one of these!

I like it !! ... like the way you did the head stock

Man, I love that color! If it were mine I'd probably get a repro decal made, sand the headstock back to natural and clearcoat it.

Looks great. Is there a reason you have 3 chrome and 3 black saddles?

Looks great. Is there a reason you have 3 chrome and 3 black saddles?

My guess is that it's an early bridge plate meant for slightly narrower saddles and 6 stock ones
push things out of line sideways. I think I can see space at the end of the Low E saddle
I had to file down some graphtechs for my old F-100. It's only about 1/64" per saddle edge...maybe less.

Cheers Case - SC-3's (all incarnations) are amazing guitars and being a fan of MFD's they're heaps more tasty than Legacys. Not knocking the latter but MFD's have magical goodness.

Hey FF, Cheers but that was the doings of a former owner. I just slapped some tuners on it…
The first fret on the stock neck has some issues - not sure what happened but seems someone messed with it. So I've since put a different neck on it.

Oig - Cheers, yeah, sparkly purple is Rad as well as the copper tone I hear ya, it would look more polished tho I dig the original logo over what BBE/G&L could/would offer… Perhaps some day they'll revert back to Leo & Co's design.

Hey Cho - no, I traded for them and that's what the guy had. Guitar parts here in NZ are pretty pricey + I like dealing used/recycled…

Elwood - good guess and you're right the saddles are/were a bit narrower than the graph tech saddles. I got this bridge assy (minus saddles) + a bunch more parts when I bought my natural SC-3 here a few years back.