251 – 281023 ZSG – Zachary Handcrafted Guitars | Bass| Pedals | Strings

Inspiration

I saw a post online from a vintage guitar dealer saying how impressed he was with his newly acquired early 60s Gibson SG Junior. He said that an SG Junior is all the guitar anyone needs, with the one P90 pickup and their very light weight. I asked how much his SG Junior with one pickup weighed and he said only 6.1 lbs.

Apparently these vintage guitar dealers seem to just stumble on to these old guitars, they just mysteriously show up in the shops and they all seem to be amazing guitars, without exception. Another strange thing is that they always want to sell these amazing guitars. I don't know about you but when I encounter an amazing guitar, the last inclination I have is to sell it. I cannot relate to that type of thinking.

He had never heard of me obviously and did not know that I have been making guitars for years which were less than 6 lbs. in weight. So I mentioned to him that I had just built a ZSG (248-200723), which weighed in at 5.1 lbs, 1 lb less than his Gibson SG. He just ignored me, did not know who I was and did not take me seriously.
This gave me the imputes to make another identical ZSG but with only one pickup and really show him. The goal was to make a one pickup ZSG but otherwise identical to 248, with the expectation of making this one even lighter than the weight of 248, at 5.1 lbs. I was sure I could get this one under 5 lbs, since it would have only one pickup

To my surprise, even though the two guitars are almost identical, made of the same woods and with the same construction and hardware, this one (251), having only one pickups, surprisingly weighs in heavier than the 2 pickup version (248). I attribute this to variation in wood weight, even within a specific wood species.

So what I ended up with is a serious of two ZSGs, which make a set. They are both amazing guitars and the first inclination I get is to get rid of them? Just kidding.
NO, quite the opposite. However, if I was a guitar dealer I would want to get rid of them both as soon as I could, (for altruistic reasons of course) the purpose being to make other people happy and allow them to enjoy these amazing guitars.

So, how did I achieve the light weight of these two ZSGs? The use of very light Obeche wood for the body, light Mahogany for the neck, Walnut for the fingerboard, light weight Kluson-style tuners, glued in neck, omission of superfluous things like the control cavity cover, light weight Aluminum bridge, thinnest possible pickguard, light knobs, aluminum strap buttons.

Oh, in case you don't mind, I gave these two guitars 26 wide and tall Stainless Steel frets (as opposed to the 22 low and narrow Gibson frets), I redesigned the balance of the guitar so its not neck heavy, like all Gibson SGs tend to be, gave it a stronger more stable neck joint and I placed the control knobs where you can actually reach them as you are picking the strings. I hope nobody minds.