# Dillion SG NGD



## cknowles (Jan 29, 2008)

For my birthday last week my wife took me out "shopping".
Imagine my surprise when she drove me to the local music store and asked for a guitar that she'd put on hold.

It's a Dillion SG with P90's. First thing I did was replace the plastic trim bits with Ziricote stained to match the fret board.





























The initial setup on this guitar was really nice, sweet unplugged and the P90's are really nice connected to my Epiphone Valve standard. In traditional P90 fashion, it's really susceptible to electrical noise.

When I removed the electronics control cover I found that touching wires would cause it to go completely silent leading me to believe some of the solder joints may be a bit suspect. I plan on upgrading the wiring and pots as well as adding shielding to see if I can't quiet the beast anyway so I'm not worried about that. 

Interestingly enough, there is no "Made in" sticker anywhere on this guitar, nor does it have a serial number.

As SG's go, it's really light weight and plays really well. I'm really liking this guitar.

Chris


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## bagpipe (Sep 19, 2006)

Lovely SG - SGs and P90s are a great combo. Congrats on the new guitar and on the Wife. She sounds like a keeper! :bow:


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## cknowles (Jan 29, 2008)

bagpipe said:


> Lovely SG - SGs and P90s are a great combo. Congrats on the new guitar and on the Wife. She sounds like a keeper! :bow:


We've been married for 20 years and she still surprises me.
Definitely a keeper!

Chris


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## gurianguy (Nov 20, 2007)

Congratulations on the SG. I have a Burny SG with two humbuckers, and a SG Jr that has a single p-90 on it. Both have the small style pickguard on them similar to yours. I prefer this look to the bigger pickguard you see on some SG's.

Craig


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## Kenmac (Jan 24, 2007)

That was a very nice thing for your wife to do. Dillions are *very* under-rated guitars. I own both a Dillion Rosewood Tele and a Dillion PRS copy and the PRS one is like yours in the sense that it doesn't have a "Made In" sticker or a serial number either but most Dillions are Korean made. Enjoy it. :smile:


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Nice SG! I have a buddy at school with a dillion PRS copy, it seems a lot like the tokai I used to have - nice instrument.


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## cknowles (Jan 29, 2008)

As I stated above, I planned on upgrading the electronics and shielding my Dillion SG.

Here are the pickup cavities, with the neck pickup wire partially threaded through










Next is the control cavity and control cover, you can see the original ground lead from the bridge.










Using a hint from Stewmac's Trade Secrets, I traced the control locations onto a piece of scrap plywood and mounted everything up. This makes it easy to access all of the solder tabs and not splatter onto the guitar body.










Once it was all soldered up I was able to literally drop it into place in the guitar, then make the final connections for the pickups and bridge ground.










In the end, it is significantly quieter than it was originally, plus the new electronics are a lot less temperamental than the originals were. All in all I'd say it was a success!

Chris


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## bagpipe (Sep 19, 2006)

Nice job on the shielding. Very neat work.

Did you replace the pots, switch? I read that the Asian manufacturers sometimes skimp on the electronics, resulting in flakey behaviour.


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

I changed the pots and pickups and had my cavities shielded too. Cuts back on the noise of the P90s by well over half.


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## cknowles (Jan 29, 2008)

bagpipe said:


> Nice job on the shielding. Very neat work.
> 
> Did you replace the pots, switch? I read that the Asian manufacturers sometimes skimp on the electronics, resulting in flakey behaviour.


I replaced pots, switch, jack and pickups. The only wiring that is original is the bridge ground wire. The original wiring was way too cheesy.

Chris


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

bagpipe said:


> Nice job on the shielding. Very neat work.


+100 ...very impressive (both shielding and wiring) :bow:

Dave


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## cknowles (Jan 29, 2008)

Thanks!

It's the first time I've ever done shielding with copper foil. I guess it turned out OK. :wave:

Chris


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

looks great


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