Procured an Epi SG a 2004 Chinese build. ( When they tell you the Chinese builds are inferior its no lies.} Compared to my Korean ( Samick built } Epi Goth Explorer the SG China falls short big time.
Anyway, I would like to strip it down and re-invent it. Here is what I 've got:

And this is what I would like:

I know it might be a long shot, but we aint got nothing to loose.
And if we end up with something that looks remotely like Iommi's baby, that would be ...well, cool.
Just talking finish wise like.

So I thought with mine, under that finish is a ply wood body and going deeper than the finish will reveal no hope. Good luck in trying though. I ended up selling mine for parts after F(*&ing up the body, it's to soft and not much you can do with it.

I know that can't be done with sandpaper (or at least it's very hard to do it that way.) that looks like wear from being rubbed down with something like arm skin or a jacket or so. Was it done/built that way or is it legitimate wear and tear?

It might be difficult if my experience is anything to go buy... A friend of mine bought a real cheap SG, and it had a rather horrid pink finish underneath the black. Some sort of polyurethane or epoxy. Here you can see it in the edges:



He used paint stripper, and after he saw what it looked like underneath he gave up. This was my attempt at making it look slightly better.

Oh, and the body is plywood. So if this one is anything to go by, they are unbelievably @!*& guitars...

Looks like it's gonna be a mission but I would say paint stripper would give you the peeled kind of effect with the paint but if it's ply wood underneath I speak from experience that it doesn't look good at all once exposed.

That SG of Iommi's was built by Birmingham based luthier John Diggins between '75 and '78. It's nickname is 'The Old Boy'.
The finish is termed 'Highly distressed' so it was deliberate.
The company still builds and is called JayDee Custom guitars.
Also build for Angus. Amazing stuff.
http://www.jaydeecustomguitars.co.uk/

Hammeron, somewhere on mylespaul, someone made a replica of "Old Boy". If you can find that, there might be something to learn from that.

But if these guys are right, if the Epiphone really is that shoddily made, it may be a waste of effort. Maybe rather sell it for what you can get for it and put the money in the dream guitar fund?

I've never really had a itch for a SG - but then this fell into my lap this week (thanks Chris!) Mahogany body + neck, super thin & lightweight (at least w/o the hardware). It's captured my imagination.

Can't think of a suitable finish/colour yet, perhaps a gold-ish/yellow stain if the wood sands up pretty and the grain pops out? Wizard mentioned a tung-oil finish, I foresee much debate :?

No plywood projects please - ala BC Rich NJ/Platinum series - I stripped a Warlock down, thought it would look killer in a natural finish...that was a painful lesson (no I didn't check it before stripping it - DOh!).

ftcl wrote:
My all-time favourite SG is this:

Well you're in luck. A heavily modded 2000s SG Special should go for under R6K.