Part 0: The detective story
The Gibson SG Standard came to market in 1960, keeping the Les Paul name for the first three years, to dismay of Les Paul himself. It was an all-mahogany construction with double cut-away with a very thin neck, connecting to the body higher than usual, allowing for great upper fret access. Instead of a stop-tailpiece it had a "vibrola" vibrato. The SG went through perhaps more changes than most guitars in its initial years, and these changes are the only reliable way of dating the guitars.
This one though, was a mystery. The neck heel, a characteristic feature, looked like nothing else. The headstock looked sort of early 70's but was missing the characteristic crown inlay. The lacquer was cracked in an unusual way and heel and back of the neck had black overspray, which is a common sign of someone trying to cover up repairs. It was clear the guitar needed a complex repair to be back in it's original shape, and I wasn't willing to let the challenge slip past.
From what the previous owner knew and bits found on the internet the guitar was brought to Germany in the 60's by an American pilot stationed there, and bought from him by jazz guitarist Eddy Marron. Marron played in a number of bands through the 70's. Chronologically at least Vita Nova, Dzyan, Missus Beastly, Free Sound, and Giger Lenz Marron. Afterwards he taught jazz guitar and was a lecturer on Dutch and German universities. He died in 2013, otherwise I would have reached out to ask about the guitar. From photos it would seem the SG was his main guitar up to about 1977 or 1978. The guitar can be presumably heard on a number of recordings:
When I finally saw it, it was worse than I expected. The neck was parallel with the body. Normally it would be at an angle of around 2.5 degrees. This meant that the bridge was screwed all the way down and even filed down from underneath. The neck itself has been shaved down at some point to be thinner but also narrower. In some places the shaving fully destroyed the neck binding and it was painted on. The neck heel and headstock were clearly repaired and the neck itself had a spider-web of strangely cracked finish on it. On the plus side, it was clearly a very early 1965 or very late 1964 guitar, judging by the fretboard, pickup cavity, potentiometer dates ('63), fretboard width, etc. And it had original and quite valuable early "Pat No." pickups in it.
The case reeked as if it were stored in a damp attic for 30 years. And it probably was.
Stop-tail installed instead of the original Vibrola tailpiece. A very common modification as the tailpieces caused tuning issues. Note that the camera
angle is not crooked, it really was installed pretty skewed.
Pat no. pickups, same as late short-magnet PAFs.
Pickup cavity. From the middle of '65 on it would have been routed wider. One potentiometer is a replacement.