My second favorite Sigma, not to be confused with the second Sigma Ive ever owned, is this 52SDR-9 I bought in 2012 from an eBay seller. IIRC I paid $300 for it including a cheaper blowmolded HSC. It had clearly been played throughout its life but it was also not abused and was in reasonable condition. I believe its one of the earlier examples (1972?), though truly have no way to tell for sure. Since it was not completely original when I got it, and the factory tuners left something to be desired even when they were new (11:1 ratio and cranky. Crankier by the time she came to me) I immediately decided to install better ones. I found a set of Grovers from an eBay seller that had come off his personal Matlin guitar, these beautiful, well functioning 18:1 ratio in gold Grovers and bought the set for $35.00. I also installed a natural bone nut, saddle and bridge pins (black dot,) and removed the cheap under-saddle piezo pickup at that same time. (For those that may be interested, there is an entire photo album documenting the before and after as well as the work in the photos>albums section of this page.) The frets had also seen some wear and I knew it would need between 3 and 5 new ones. Since I dont have the proper tools or experience for that work, I took it to a shop here in Austin for those repairs and setup. I LOVE the way they used contrasting woods on the back of these 9s, compared to the usual complimenting wood for the center strip. Its just a shame that its on the back and not on display.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 16:42:22 +0000
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