New (to me) SC-1 Day! :D

. . .this thread is a continuation of my "Intro" thread!

As I was explaining, I just sold my favorite guitar, a really choice '80s MIJ Telecaster Custom, this guitar:



In order to snag this guitar:



I'll have more pix up in a bit, but was chomping at the bit to finally get around to posting here! The guitar was registered by CC here, in case it looks familiar!

Here are a few pix, first the date stamps, then a couple from a gig last night. . .





My deepest apologies for posting the following pix of me bonding w/ the new SC-1 - I'm afraid they do NOT constitute any form of "porn"!








A couple questions (or perhaps I should start a thread in the other sub-forum?):

1) The MFD on this guitar is QUITE noisy. I'm quite comfortable with guitar electronics and will dig deeper over the next few days, but everything in the electronics cavity (which has the shielding plate intact) looks tidy/correct, just picked up a LOT of noise from the lights @ the venue - more than I get from other traditional Fender-style single coils. My other experiences w/ later BBE era MFDs, which are wound much hotter, was that they were lower noise. . .perhaps there is an bad joint @ the pup? Hmm.

2) Was it common to use Nitro on these!? I guess I'd expected poly, but I'm quite sure this guitar is nitro - the soft wear @ the heel, the finish checking, the slightly "sticky" feeling once you've sweated into the neck, even the hammer texture from the spring cover & controls cover has imprinted itself in the paint. Don't get me wrong, I *LOVE* it, just an added treat, I guess!

3) Anyone have a spare later style vibrato arm collet? This is the earlier style w/o the set-screw & I'd *LOVE* to be able to adjust the tension on the arm - better control over the angle of yer dangle, I love it!

As promised,. . .more pix!

She's a beauty! If you ever get tired of this one, I call dibs!!!

Your photos inspired me to set up my SC-2 properly this afternoon. The action was barely playable when I bought it last month, but after about two hours with screwdrivers and Allen wrenches it plays effortlessly. I'll try to get some better pictures and post them later this week. Mine is also red, with October '82 body and November '82 neck dates.

Great photos, by the way. I'm going to have to make an effort to have mine come out this well.

Ken

Now this is G&L porn done right!

love the band pics too, looks like your really getting alot of enjoyment out of it

I wonder what one of these would sound like in an SC-1?

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/G-L-HG-2R-HG-2-GHB-MFD-HUMBUCKER-HUMBUCKING-GUITAR-PICKUP-ASAT-VINTAGE-BRIDGE-PU-/330626237742?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item4cfadc052e

Wow, too cool! And the pole pieces are even arranged for an angled mount. . .sacrilege, or brilliant "HG-1 conversion". Hmm. . .

Welcome aboard drasp. There are fewer guitars cooler than the SC-1. Big congrats on that one, and very nice pics. That old Japanese tele looks well loved!

Very cool guitar.

The resin around the solder joints on
the potentiometers looks like the pot
case wasn't hot enough for the solder to
flow correctly and bond with the case.
The pot with the green capacitor looks
like the colder soldering of the two pots.

You can see the same thing on the back
of the pickup. The ground wire solder
joint didn't get the back plate of the pickup
hot enough to allow the solder to flow.

The resin will boil out first when soldering
but the solder when heated enough will follow
and flow to the resin combining again and
smooth out over the surface metal below.

The solder did get hot enough to release the resin
but not hot enough for the solder to flow out
and recombine with the resin. The blob is
caused by the solder cooling too fast. The
metal surface being soldered to was not hot
enough and thus it sucked the heat out
of the solder blob above before it had to
chance to flow out.

These connections may be okay but this
is marginal at best. I bet if you reheat the joints
until the solder flows so the resin isn't
separate in a pool around the solder blob
your noise problem will disappear!

When I bought my used Tribute Invader XL
the soldering looked similar but actually better.
The pickup output wasn't good and I suspect one reason
why the previous owner traded it in. I reheated
all the joints and the pickups got a lot louder
(more signal going through). These marginal
solder joints can deteriorate over time so it
might have bested a sound test initially.

Even though the SC-1 is a USA guitar remember
the tributes are inspected state side. I don't
know whether they inspect the soldering joints
but these solder joints look like they were not
as hot as my tribute Invader XL and reheating
all the connections really helped (fixed) my guitar.

You only want to heat it hot enough for the sold
blob to flow out. Don't keep heating it beyond
this point because you'll smoke the resin which
the solder needs to flow. The resin may be no
good after all this time. So you may need to
use some solder wick to suck up some of the
old solder and apply new solder which will have
new resin. But don't do this unless the blobs
upon reheating just won't flow right - an indication
that old resin has gone bad.

I just noticed that the drawing of the guitar that Steve Grom found
that became the basis for the new Ascari GTS and Fiorano GTS
had a double cutaway similar to the SC-1 and SC-2 guitar bodies,
i.e. the 2 horns of the body.

I thought this look was familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it
until now looking at your SC-1 pictures. The body of the drawing
found by Steve of course has a bigger belly and the
3x3 headstock.



Notice in the design photo above the horns look similar to the SC-1 and SC-2
horns.

Oh and I just noticed this design in the drawing is a bolt on neck.
I wish G&L would build this guitar just like in the design photo.

I really like this design with the saddle lock bridge, bolt on neck
and new headstock with the big belly body to complement the
humbucker sound. (But I also like the SC-1 a lot too!!!)

I really liked the Godin LGX and Summit CT but I would much
rather have a G&L and particularly this lost design guitar.

Notice the similarities to the Summit CT body shape:



The lost and now found G&L design looks much more egonomic
and playable. I think G&L has a winner in this design especially with
a bolt on neck design. The Summit CT is bolt on neck and I
like it much better than the Godin Icon which is essentially the
same platform with a set neck.

I think I'm going to hold off and wait for G&L to build the "lost and found"
guitar.

Great posts - thanks for the thoughts! I'm planning to test continuity through the ground circuit in the guitar as soon as I have free time - should help point to any "problem" areas, will post back with my findings!

Got any links to more info/the story on the beautiful "lost & found" guitar? I dig it!

The "Lost and Found" guitar as I call it is
featured in the explanation for the design
of the new Tribute Ascari GTS and Fiorano GTS
models.

http://www.glguitars.com/ascari-fiorano/index.asp

G&L obviously designed these guitars to appeal to
a contemporary market segment.

I like the old and new.

Very cool SC-1 with lots of mojo. The only Fender-era G&L I have is a 1990 SC-3 and it was by luck that I got it. If if were me though I would have a hard time letting go of the MIJ Tele.

Kit

The "Lost and Found" guitar as I call it is
featured in the explanation for the design
of the new Tribute Ascari GTS and Fiorano GTS
models.

http://www.glguitars.com/ascari-fiorano/index.asp

G&L obviously designed these guitars to appeal to
a contemporary market segment.

I like the old and new.

GAH! Just looked at the Ascari & Fiorano - both look SO boring compared to the drawing that inspired them - they seem to have killed everything that was exciting & quirky in the design. Bummer!

The "Lost and Found" guitar as I call it is
featured in the explanation for the design
of the new Tribute Ascari GTS and Fiorano GTS
models.

http://www.glguitars.com/ascari-fiorano/index.asp

G&L obviously designed these guitars to appeal to
a contemporary market segment.

I like the old and new.

GAH! Just looked at the Ascari & Fiorano - both look SO boring compared to the drawing that inspired them - they seem to have killed everything that was exciting & quirky in the design. Bummer!

I too love the "lost and found" design. How many winning guitar designs did George and Leo have? What ever the number was the "lost and found" design would increment it by one, i.e. design++. But I understand why it might not appeal to a 14 year old kid and how the Ascari & Fiorano would. The pickups in the Ascari and Fiorano sound great though:

[youtube]HjXVXSV-kzg[/youtube]

The Fiorano sounds like the intonation might be off at 7:26. The intonation sounds sharp on the 24th fret compared to the open string it ends with at the end - perhaps that is why he cut it off fast at the end. I don't like the reverb or the distortion on the Fiorano - not very complementary. Perhaps a G&L Buckshot pedal would have sounded better than the amp.

The lost and found guitar seems to be an early design drawing of the G-200

http://www.ggjaguar.com/81g-200.htm

Only the head stock seams like the inspiration for the Ascari and Fiorano, in my opinion the rest of it is a new design for G&L by Paul Gagon and Grover Jackson.

Fun fact the Ascari and the G-200 are the only G&Ls to be made with a 24 3/4 inch scale length. (to my Knowledge.)

and yeah when I first saw them I thought they looked a little ugly and the lack of a saddlelock bridge and MFD pickups seemed a little strange but I liked the head stock and now they have really grown on me.

I would like to see an American made Ascari with some of the same customization options of the other American made G&Ls (maybe a bigsby) and maybe a Semi-Hollow version as well.

The lost and found guitar seems to be an early design drawing of the G-200

http://www.ggjaguar.com/81g-200.htm

Only the head stock seams like the inspiration for the Ascari and Fiorano, in my opinion the rest of it is a new design for G&L by Paul Gagon and Grover Jackson.

Fun fact the Ascari and the G-200 are the only G&Ls to be made with a 24 3/4 inch scale length. (to my Knowledge.)

and yeah when I first saw them I thought they looked a little ugly and the lack of a saddlelock bridge and MFD pickups seemed a little strange but I liked the head stock and now they have really grown on me.

I would like to see an American made Ascari with some of the same customization options of the other American made G&Ls (maybe a bigsby) and maybe a Semi-Hollow version as well.

Wow you are right - the G-200 is very much like the lost and found design and as you point out they are both short scale designs. The new Ascari and Fiorano are growing on me. The Ascari I started liking almost right away. And it really sounds good at that price point because of the excellent G&L pickups of Paul Gagon design. The Fiorano is also growing on me in just the last few days. I still like the sound of the Ascari more but I like the bite of a long scale still. Craig mentioned that G&L had some other projects in the works ahead in line before a USA version of the Ascari or Fiorano.

yeah, too bad about having to wait for an American Ascari but if they ever do a semi-hollow Ascari with a bigsby I would order one in a heartbeat.

Nice guitar drap ... and some excellent images.

Got any links to more info/the story on the beautiful "lost & found" guitar? I dig it!

Dave McLaren effectively signalled the new models in this thread last last along with a clearer image of the blueprint and with an interesting final paragraph



cheers, Robbie

The lost and found design (G-200 or whatever) is beautiful for sure.
Hopefully we'll see one someday.

Nice guitar drap ... and some excellent images.

Got any links to more info/the story on the beautiful "lost & found" guitar? I dig it!

Dave McLaren effectively signalled the new models in this thread last last along with a clearer image of the blueprint and with an interesting final paragraph



cheers, Robbie

I was wondering when someone was going to mention this.