          248 - 200723
InspirationÂ
Having created the previous Zachary SG 247 - 250623, made from a one piece heavy mahogany body, it weighs in at a rather heavy (for me) 8.2 lbs. So I wanted to build another SG, basically identical but using very light woods, so that I can make it as light weight as possible. I chose Obeche as a body wood, with a very light weight Mahogany neck, which I had previously made and was ready to go and a great match for this light weight body.
As I was fitting it to the body, the neck pocket having been already cut, I noticed something odd. Each of my neck pockets are cut for every specific neck, unlike a Fender body, which can fit any Fender neck from any time period and even from various other Fender models (the genius and practicality of Leo but not exacting for my style). I noticed a long line along the length of this neck. At first I thought it was the grain but then realized that it is a long crack in the wood, which I had not noticed before. After my initial shock. I decided to go with it. After all that work and since the neck pocket was already cut for this specific neck, I went ahead and used this cracked neck. Actually, the crack is not as bad as it looks. It is not cracked all the way through, or else I would not have used it. There is no structural compromise. The crack is only about 1 mm deep at the most and I filled it all the way with CA glue, so its not going anywhere and is perfectly stable. Think about it, a brand new guitar, made with a cracked neck. Where else will you get this? Will this become a new special order option in the guitar industry? I think so, as long as the establishment normalizes it for the Toddlers. Anything normalized will be in demand.
I decided to keep things simple and did not do any body edge-bevel, as seen on traditional SGs. Instead I was again inspired by the SG prototype, which did NOT have any body edge-contouring and looks really cool in my opinion even without it. I believe that Gibson should have kept the Juniors and Specials, (the lower priced SGs), without edge-bevels and added it only on the higher-end SGs, like the Standard and the Custom.
The fingerboard is traditional vintage Gibson scale, frets are 26 Stainless Steel, light weight tuners, what I believe to be a Walnut fingerboard, Aluminum wrap-around bridge, glued in neck (to further save weight) and you get the lightest SG you have ever heard of. Prove me wrong.
Additionally, I made two Zachary Hand Wound pickups for it, my own invention, the hybrid Gibson/Fender GF90 pickups, with P90 coils and Fender pole magnets. The neck using AlniCo 2 and the Bridge AlniCo 5 magnet pole pieces. I even had to make the neck bobbin by hand, since the standard bobbin is too wide for the neck position, which does not bother anyone else but me.
There you have it. A one of a kind unique guitar made by the hand of a CNC-rejector. The second worst thing one can be called is Anti-CNC.
1960 Gibson SG prototype without body edge bevels
