DESCRIPTION:
Sound demo of a Chinese SG knock-off which I customized into a replica of Frank Zappa's famous "Baby Snakes SG".
I have kept only body and neck, and replaced everything else with the following parts:
GROVER tuners (REAL Grovers, not the cheaper kind used by Epiphone; forget the ones on the Chibbys, I trash them immediatly with pickups and bridge)
ALL PARTS Trussrod cover and pickguard
WARMAN 4 wires Humbuckers (Warman is a british seller who builds his pickups in China under his own specs. They are incredibly cheap, and sound surprisingly good, at least at high gain settings. I use them as first replacement, then if the guitar passes the test, I might go for a final set of Duncans or Gibsons. But I think in this one the're gonna stay)
I can't remember which bridge and tailpiece I have used, most probably GOTOHs, as they are not the aged kind I have mounted on other replicas.
As for the custom switches, at the moment they are bypassed (I have recorded this track with the guitar wired as a standard SG).
They will be wired for the following functions:
Coil tap N Pickup; Coil tap B Pickup; Phase on/off; Green Ringer Octaver on/off (I have the kit, I only have to assemble and mount it).

I have recorded this track at home through my son's Marshall amp amp tube distortion), with a SM57 plugged into a Lexicon audio board straight into my MacBook Pro.
I have later added effects in my studio, including a software simulation of the Green Ringer Octaver (I love those weird notes that come out when you hit more than one string, it adds crazy harmonies to your solo; glad that I will have it on board soon).
I liked so much the result, that I have used this recording as a linking bridge between two tracks of my soon to be completed new CD.

As for the ethics of buying chinese knock-offs, I say that the only wrong thing is not to pay import taxes (I DO!!), and to have a fake brand name on the headstock (somebody someday could sell it as the real thing to some ignorant dude), otherwise guitar copies are something we have been living with since the sixties (remember Japan?).
On this one the Gibson logo had to be there, because this is a replica of a COUNTERFEIT GUITAR itself!
Frank's guitar says GIBSON, but it was made by a guy who sold it to him. And Frank used it for years as his main guitar...
Also I always ask the chinese factory to write in the back "XXXX REPLICA" and "MADE IN CHINA".
This time they forgot the "Made in China", so it says "Made in Usa". Which is obviously bullshit....