I had major neck dive with my Epiphone SG. I cut two 3" lengths of 5/8" brass rod and drilled a hole on either side of the bottom strap pin to accommodate them. Glued them in, plugged and sanded the holes, and had a friend retouch the finish. It made the whole guitar heavier, but it seems to have done a good job correcting the neck dive. The trick is making sure they're positioned in line with the neck.
That's a cool idea. Its beyond me how these problems are not ironed out at manufacturing level. Especially with a guitar like an SG that has been around since the year dot. Does nobody test out guitars/bases for problems like this before unleashing them on the public?
it's not some unforeseen problem. To fix it, they would need to compromise the material or shape of the guitar, which makes the guitar what it is. Plenty of players play SGs live, so it's not a big enough problem worth changing the shape or materials of the SG for. Don't you think Gibson could fix the neck dive of a model that's been out for decades and decades if they wanted to?
My old SG had the strap button center of the neck and no dive. Bought a newer one and it came with button on the horn, totally neck dive. Great sounding guitar but super uncomfortable to play standing up. Thinking of adding a sand bag or weight to the strap at the butt of the guitar.
What you could do is a metal plate and stick sound deadening material (that's pretty heavy) on the back of the metal plate. So, within the cavity. It insulates, does not resonate, sticks by itself and is heavy.
@@endjentneeringclub if you use good adhesive or some type of glue or smth it’s highly unlikely they would come off from being knocked around, you’d have to physically pull them off, good solution, worked on my 5 string bass and haven’t had an issue
I have a 2006 SG Standard which has no neck dive it used to belong to Angus maybe his tech fixed the problem but I can't see any mods that are apparent. The position of the strap button can alleviate the problem too.
I bought a guitar from a boutique online company and boy...neck dive wow. I saw someone online talk about the weights. Went on Amazon, ordered a box of 24 powder coated weights with an adhesive back and stuck about 3 or 4 on the inside of cavity and tried it....ugh barely helped. Added 3 or 4 more? All but fixed. Dont drill a hole in your guitar though...
I bought my first semi-hollow guitar, and though I loved the sound, I found it almost unplayable standing up due to the neck dive. The added support my fret hand had to produce made it very uncomfortable. Guitar Center suggested using an Ernie Ball Stretch Comfort strap, and that pretty much solved the whole issue.
Not only will SGs neck dive, they also want to to twist in the air when one pin is on the side and one on the back. I solved this problem by moving (or rather... paying somebody to move) the strap pin from the back of the guitar to the top horn. Both pins are now one the sides. This solution solved both problems.
The things you have to do to make a £1000 guitar playable! I tried adding wheel weights to the back cavity...little difference. I also bought a wider strap, but the neck was so heavy, the strap just skidded over my shoulder! I then moved the rear strap button higher, hoping to re balance the guitar...no noticeable difference. I am that fed up with the situation, I am now considering changing the heavy Grover tuners to cheaper lightweight tuners, like the Wilkinson tulip type. If that fails, then I will have to do a 'Bob Fripp' and play the thing while sitting down.
If you can do the cavity plate made of stainless steel, it will be a little heavier. I have taken a small cloth bag and filled it with pellet gun pellets or BB's and put it in the cavity. It worked well.
I've done that to mine. My SG now has a dedicated strap which I sewed sort of a bag with the width of the strap. In it I store square metal pieces. Solved the problem instantly and if you make the storage bigger, you can vary the ammount of weight you put inside of it
I added a bell brass tailpiece to my SG and it has no neck dive anymore. It didn't have terrible neck dive in the first place, but it definitely doesn't have any now.
based on where the fulcrum is, changes at the headstock will proportionally have a greater effect on balance. so those plastic knobs might just do the trick...
Ive found that pulling a Matt Pike and playing with no shirt equals zero neck dive, skin is alot more grippy than shirt material. But i am absolutely sure nobody wants to be playing shirtless all the time lmao
Why I sold my SG, which I bought because it was light. I have since discovered that all you need is a proper horn, and you can have a light guitar. Ibanez makes a lot of light ones, but you do give up the chunky maple neck.
Gosta change the strapbutton to the horn, because once you put a pair of locking strapbuttons, the position of the strap in the back of the guitar is unnerving
People get obsessed over the neck dive thing and end up hyperfocusing on it. It really isn't a big deal. When you play, your picking arm basically rests on the body keeping it in place. All you need is a 3" strap with suede on the bottom and you should have no issues. When you play sitting down just rest the body a little further back on your leg rather than using the waist of the guitar. It is pretty comfortable doing it this way actually. My SG's are my favorite guitars and they definitely felt weird as hell initially but then you get used to them and none of these things bother you anymore
Why not change the placement of the screw-piece placement which holds your guitar strap? That would be my first choice to such a problem. You went through all that work without the need to do all that.
I like your idea with the metal control plate. It’s metal after all it’s a metal guitar. Just sounds right. If not you can always have a neck through built out of Maple and use walnut for a laminate. Put more weight to the body,,,lol But that sounds pricey!
Great sounding and playing guitars but the fact Gibson released a guitar that isn't even balanced is a joke. They could fix that but all of the purists would get offended that it isn't like the poorly designed original. Same thing goes for the Les Paul headstock that is prone to breaking or cracking based on the angle. Don't get me wrong I own a Les Paul and they sound and play great but it would be nice if they fixed these very basic flaws in their guitars in today's day and age...
They fixed the headstock problem with volutes in the past, the purists didn't like it. It's crazy to see people throw $200, $3000, $5000+ at them for guitars that have issues you wouldn't see on a ~$700 LTD, or a $250 Harley Benton. Can't even blame Gibson for it, they have to give the loyal customer base what they want. they're the ones that keep the lights on.
@@biggoofybastard I collect guitars and have almost every guitar under the sun... but never bought an SG for this exact reason until last year...then I bought a Gibson SG 61 reissue just for the hell of it and because I had cash to burn. I thought I would sell it quickly after for more than I paid since I bought it cheap used in mint condition... but for some reason the one I bought doesn't really neck dive oddly... and it sounds epic... so I decided to keep it lol. But other SG s I've played dive way too much... I guess I got lucky. I read that the original design with the big metal piece/them was supposed to balance them out more but when they removed that on some models they didn't compensate for that unfortunately...
Honestly I’d rather have a neck heavy guitar than a rear heavy one like some Les Pauls. All acoustics are neck heavy and it’s not a problem since you’re keeping the right arm on the guitar.
hey, so today i found what is probably a better solution than adding weight. I simply attached both ends of my strap locks together and attached them BOTH to the upper part of the guitar (you could also put the lower strap button very close to the top one if you want the weight shared between two points instead one one. my life was forever changed. there's a video on my page.
I took a 2.5lb ankle weight and duck taped it length wise to the back end of the strap. It worked brilliantly.
Good idea. I don't cherish the idea of trying to drill a new hole in my guitar to move the strap button.
That metal cavity cover looks so, well, metal.
It’s awesome.
I had major neck dive with my Epiphone SG. I cut two 3" lengths of 5/8" brass rod and drilled a hole on either side of the bottom strap pin to accommodate them. Glued them in, plugged and sanded the holes, and had a friend retouch the finish. It made the whole guitar heavier, but it seems to have done a good job correcting the neck dive. The trick is making sure they're positioned in line with the neck.
That's a cool idea. Its beyond me how these problems are not ironed out at manufacturing level. Especially with a guitar like an SG that has been around since the year dot.
Does nobody test out guitars/bases for problems like this before unleashing them on the public?
Wood weight varies, believe it or not.
it's not some unforeseen problem. To fix it, they would need to compromise the material or shape of the guitar, which makes the guitar what it is. Plenty of players play SGs live, so it's not a big enough problem worth changing the shape or materials of the SG for. Don't you think Gibson could fix the neck dive of a model that's been out for decades and decades if they wanted to?
Move the right side strap pin up. You will have to drill another hole, etc. It is a matter of weight distribution, not simply weight
I did your suggestion on a m.kelly and it worked
What if you put the weights on the strap ?
The best way to fix this issue is to move the end pin from the neck to the top horn.
It works perfectly
My old SG had the strap button center of the neck and no dive. Bought a newer one and it came with button on the horn, totally neck dive. Great sounding guitar but super uncomfortable to play standing up. Thinking of adding a sand bag or weight to the strap at the butt of the guitar.
What you could do is a metal plate and stick sound deadening material (that's pretty heavy) on the back of the metal plate. So, within the cavity. It insulates, does not resonate, sticks by itself and is heavy.
You could try attaching thin adhesive lead weights to the inside of the metal plate you made if there is the space.
@@endjentneeringclub if you use good adhesive or some type of glue or smth it’s highly unlikely they would come off from being knocked around, you’d have to physically pull them off, good solution, worked on my 5 string bass and haven’t had an issue
nice solution with the metal lid
I have a 2006 SG Standard which has no neck dive it used to belong to Angus maybe his tech fixed the problem but I can't see any mods that are apparent. The position of the strap button can alleviate the problem too.
Sure
I bought a guitar from a boutique online company and boy...neck dive wow.
I saw someone online talk about the weights. Went on Amazon, ordered a box of 24 powder coated weights with an adhesive back and stuck about 3 or 4 on the inside of cavity and tried it....ugh barely helped. Added 3 or 4 more? All but fixed.
Dont drill a hole in your guitar though...
Great. Thnx for this. Do you think this would also work if attached to the end of the guitar strap ?
I bought my first semi-hollow guitar, and though I loved the sound, I found it almost unplayable standing up due to the neck dive. The added support my fret hand had to produce made it very uncomfortable. Guitar Center suggested using an Ernie Ball Stretch Comfort strap, and that pretty much solved the whole issue.
Not only will SGs neck dive, they also want to to twist in the air when one pin is on the side and one on the back.
I solved this problem by moving (or rather... paying somebody to move) the strap pin from the back of the guitar to the top horn. Both pins are now one the sides. This solution solved both problems.
Dude, I love your channel!
Thanks mate. Glad you found it
The things you have to do to make a £1000 guitar playable! I tried adding wheel weights to the back cavity...little difference. I also bought a wider strap, but the neck was so heavy, the strap just skidded over my shoulder! I then moved the rear strap button higher, hoping to re balance the guitar...no noticeable difference. I am that fed up with the situation, I am now considering changing the heavy Grover tuners to cheaper lightweight tuners, like the Wilkinson tulip type. If that fails, then I will have to do a 'Bob Fripp' and play the thing while sitting down.
If you can do the cavity plate made of stainless steel, it will be a little heavier. I have taken a small cloth bag and filled it with pellet gun pellets or BB's and put it in the cavity. It worked well.
Could adding weights to the rear strap mount make a difference? Can wrap it in heat shrink to protect the guitar.
Definitely. Just got to be careful they don’t flap around as that’d be annoying
I've done that to mine. My SG now has a dedicated strap which I sewed sort of a bag with the width of the strap. In it I store square metal pieces. Solved the problem instantly and if you make the storage bigger, you can vary the ammount of weight you put inside of it
I added a bell brass tailpiece to my SG and it has no neck dive anymore. It didn't have terrible neck dive in the first place, but it definitely doesn't have any now.
based on where the fulcrum is, changes at the headstock will proportionally have a greater effect on balance. so those plastic knobs might just do the trick...
Ive found that pulling a Matt Pike and playing with no shirt equals zero neck dive, skin is alot more grippy than shirt material. But i am absolutely sure nobody wants to be playing shirtless all the time lmao
How about changing guitar to a Les Paul or something else if it is a problem? Neck dive plus headstock breakages tell me that the design is all wrong.
Is the regular black leather Gibson strap a good choice to tackle neck dive?
Why I sold my SG, which I bought because it was light. I have since discovered that all you need is a proper horn, and you can have a light guitar. Ibanez makes a lot of light ones, but you do give up the chunky maple neck.
As an alternative, you can also remove gravity.
I have an Ibanez SG from 1974 and it doesn't have this "neck dive" handicap.
same
My SG is continually trying to launch into inappropriately placed blistering solos. I found the perfect antidote to this is my extreme lack of talent
Good idea. You also get the benefit of your backplate shielding your electronics because it is metal.
Angus young never complained and become a legend.
I became a legend, then complained
Gosta change the strapbutton to the horn, because once you put a pair of locking strapbuttons, the position of the strap in the back of the
guitar is unnerving
This was really useful. I have a Chapman & will try these suggestions. Cheers ✌
People get obsessed over the neck dive thing and end up hyperfocusing on it. It really isn't a big deal. When you play, your picking arm basically rests on the body keeping it in place. All you need is a 3" strap with suede on the bottom and you should have no issues. When you play sitting down just rest the body a little further back on your leg rather than using the waist of the guitar. It is pretty comfortable doing it this way actually. My SG's are my favorite guitars and they definitely felt weird as hell initially but then you get used to them and none of these things bother you anymore
Love this. This is like one of my experiments… but British.
so did it work?
I use the metal cover and suede strap and it’s wonderful.
The easy answer is to move the strap button but I don't want to drill more holes. I have a bit of that problem on my peavey Wolfgang too.
Why not change the placement of the screw-piece placement which holds your guitar strap?
That would be my first choice to such a problem. You went through all that work without the need to do all that.
silicone materials on body also help
My solution is to keep you hand on the fret board and keep rocking 🤘
My epiphone les Paul ends up pointing at the ground with its neck dive
Wonder whether it has a maple neck
I replaced the stopbar with a Bigsby with a Vibramate kit. It balanced the guitar.
I would actually be interested in buying a backplate like that.
Dig your channel bro. Good stuff ;) great SG too
Thanks mate. There’s some very exciting videos coming over the next few weeks
Firebirds love to do that too 😄😄😄 All my Firebids do that...
I like your idea with the metal control plate.
It’s metal after all it’s a metal guitar. Just sounds right.
If not you can always have a neck through built out of Maple
and use walnut for a laminate. Put more weight to the body,,,lol
But that sounds pricey!
I used fishing sinkers and blue tack :)
i dont mind neck dive as long as the guitar is lighter
Have you ever thought of relocating the neck strap button to eliminate the neck dive?
It works wonders!! 😘
Easiest and most sensible way in my opinion.
That's what I did with my Thunderbird bass.
Use Scuba weights on the strap
Funny to think that around half an inch more body wood would prob make all the difference, 1 5/8 is not a lot. Try routing for a tremolo lol
Great sounding and playing guitars but the fact Gibson released a guitar that isn't even balanced is a joke. They could fix that but all of the purists would get offended that it isn't like the poorly designed original. Same thing goes for the Les Paul headstock that is prone to breaking or cracking based on the angle. Don't get me wrong I own a Les Paul and they sound and play great but it would be nice if they fixed these very basic flaws in their guitars in today's day and age...
They fixed the headstock problem with volutes in the past, the purists didn't like it. It's crazy to see people throw $200, $3000, $5000+ at them for guitars that have issues you wouldn't see on a ~$700 LTD, or a $250 Harley Benton. Can't even blame Gibson for it, they have to give the loyal customer base what they want. they're the ones that keep the lights on.
@@biggoofybastard I collect guitars and have almost every guitar under the sun... but never bought an SG for this exact reason until last year...then I bought a Gibson SG 61 reissue just for the hell of it and because I had cash to burn. I thought I would sell it quickly after for more than I paid since I bought it cheap used in mint condition... but for some reason the one I bought doesn't really neck dive oddly... and it sounds epic... so I decided to keep it lol. But other SG s I've played dive way too much... I guess I got lucky. I read that the original design with the big metal piece/them was supposed to balance them out more but when they removed that on some models they didn't compensate for that unfortunately...
"Where's my knob?". Story of my life.
Honestly I’d rather have a neck heavy guitar than a rear heavy one like some Les Pauls. All acoustics are neck heavy and it’s not a problem since you’re keeping the right arm on the guitar.
This is a very old problem. Move the strap buttons. Boom. Done.
You can move the upper strap button from the back of the neck to the back of the upper horn and that helps a bit too
This worked the best for me
plastic sees interesting for my custom mini jumbo
Hope ya found your knob ;P
Man, I cannot find it. In fact I ordered another set and put one of those on it.
@@PherotoneStudios Lol! You'll find it now just wait haha
Leather strap does the job.
just duct tape some lead diving weight to the back
man put iron volume knobs those things are heavy
You should sell steel plates to help. Id buy one. Make am etsy account.
hey, so today i found what is probably a better solution than adding weight. I simply attached both ends of my strap locks together and attached them BOTH to the upper part of the guitar (you could also put the lower strap button very close to the top one if you want the weight shared between two points instead one one. my life was forever changed. there's a video on my page.
There's no such video on your channel.
i made a video about this if anyone needs help
Get a Strat!
Just use an acoustic strap and tie it around the nut. Problem solved.
Neck dive is a myth. Ive got 4 SG’s and none of them ever dive
Tie helium balloons to the head? On a more serious note - Gibson could solve this problem easily. Why don't they?
Who cares about how the tuners feel? Like seriously… you don’t play using tuners 😂. You can paint the plastic ones with any finish you want.
The SG has such a terrible design.