This is a guitar built for a friend of mine, Derek Gordon. He previously played an old Gibson with a large profile neck, so he wanted an instrument with a similar feel. Having seen, and liked, the timber used in the Padauk solidbody, and an SG that I was building at the same time, he decided to combine the two to realise his ideal guitar.

The basic design is that of a ’74 (approx) vintage SG in my collection. This particular vintage differs from most SG’s in that the neck joint is at the 18th fret instead of the 20th. This makes for a more stable joint, and eliminates the unsightly plastic ‘filler’ usually found between the end of the fingerboard and the neck pickup surround. The cutaways also blend smoothly into the neck, instead of having a ‘step’ as on the ’62 original, and are deep enough that top-fret access is still excellent.

For reasons of stability, a maple neck was decided on. It features a very substantial round neck profile to replicate the ‘retired’ Gibson, and to accomodate Derek’s "hands like shovels" (his words, not mine!). The fingerboard is Rosewood, and bound with Rosewood. This effectively hides the fret tangs when viewed from the side, but keeps the uncluttered look of an unbound board. The headstock is scarfed on, and is faced in padauk to match the body. We decided to use a 25" scale length for this guitar to improve the intonation, and increase the string tension slightly. As an added bonus, the fret spacing is slightly wider, which suits Derek's fingers.

After much deliberation, gold coloured hardware was chosen, with a gold pickguard to match. The bridge is a Schaller ‘wrapover’ style which anchors on two studs like a vintage ‘stopbar’, but allows accurate intonation adjustment.

Pickups are the usual Kent Armstrong items, this time a bridge ‘Rocker’ and a neck ‘PAF’. They are wired conventionally, using volume and tone for each pickup and a three-way toggle switch.