203 – 110719 Z-SG Semi-Hollow – Zachary Handcrafted Guitars | Bass| Pedals | Strings

Inspiration

Have you seen this guitar magazine centerfold from the 80s? If you are old enough, you may remember it.

I saw this picture and this guitar for the first time when it came out as a centerfold in the September 1982 issue of Guitar World Magazine.
I remember being immediately intrigued by this guitar.
This was what the Gibson double-neck looked like prior to the solid body SG style, which is what everyone knows as the iconic Gibson doubleneck.
This first semi-hollow version is little known, even though it was made for 5 years before it was succeeded by the SG solid body version.

The big difference between this early double-neck and the final SG style is that these were semi-hollow. They had a carved and arched Spruce top, shaped in the German arch style and they had a precursor SG body shape. Built from 1957 to 1962, when the solid body SG double-neck took over.

What I immediately asked myself, right after setting my eyes on this photo, is why did Gibson not build a single neck, regular guitar version of this design. That is interesting to think about. A single neck version would have been totally cool and would have added one more model to the exciting new lineup Gibson had in 1958. The photo really left an impression on me and I decided that as soon as I am able, I will make a single neck guitar version of this design, or at least something inspired by it and resembling it.

Well, It only took me 37 years to do it. Better late than never.

I finally built this guitar. So here it is on this page.

I decided to also make it a semi-hollow design, and I have forgone the arched top for a flat top. I gave it a 26 fret neck and I moved the neck outward more than the original double-neck but not as much as a regular Gibson SG 6-string guitar.

I decided to give it some unique pickups and fabricated transparent bobbins for full view of the wire coils.
These are powerful Charlie Christian style pickups, wound with thick 38 AWG wire.

The top is unique, in that it was cut from the same one-piece body wood. First the thin top is sliced off the body, then the body is hollowed out, after which the thin top is laminated to a Maple veneer to make the finished top thickness, which is then glued back on to the hollowed out body, from which it was originally sliced.

In short, a very unique one of a kind guitar, made entirely of Red Padauk, with Ebony fingerboard, dual sized Stainless frets, vintage Gibson scale length, and Charlie Christian hand-wound pickups.

No, you cannot buy this at a guitar shop.