# Just gotten one of the first (Pre-drama) Siggery guitars, what am I in for?



## Hertz32 (Sep 17, 2016)

I have just agreed to a trade (Postage paid for, will be here in 3 days) for the first siggery Heresy 6 on the old Siggery gallery on his site. 
http://www.siggeryguitars.co.uk/gallery.htm (Bottom right, heresy 6) 

I'm giving the bloke my old Dean Soltero SL, which had a neck that was too thick for me and too little fret access. 
How were the early siggerys in terms of playability, quality etc? 

This is the trade thread:
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discu...-siggery-custom-heresy-6-trades-please#latest


----------



## ihunda (Sep 17, 2016)

You should be fine but unimpressed.


----------



## SonicBlur (Sep 17, 2016)

I've never played one but I'm already impressed by its looks! I'm sure it'll be nice! Congratulations!


----------



## Hertz32 (Sep 18, 2016)

ihunda said:


> You should be fine but unimpressed.



Really? Siggery did have a good reputation for a *brief* while, that must have come from somewhere.


----------



## Jonathan20022 (Sep 18, 2016)

AFAIK the people building the guitars never changed, so I wouldn't expect anything good. Especially not something better than all of the shoddy builds they put out over the last few years. You typically improve in build quality, the earlier guitars aren't going to be better than the later guitars.


----------



## downburst82 (Sep 18, 2016)

Certainly looks nice and a quick look at all the pictures in the original trade post nothing looks off. I think you will do ok as long as there are no hidden issues. I remember lots of people being happy with there instruments in his golden days so its obvious he was able to build a nice guitar. I hope its all good for you 

*edit* Just re-looking the string spacing doesn't line up with the pickups, not a huge deal but just something I noticed
*edit * re-re- checking the pictures it appears the high e may just not be sitting in the bridge saddle properly?


----------



## Ordacleaphobia (Sep 18, 2016)

I believe Marty's best work came once the ball had already started rolling.
From my understanding, his initial work was kind of 'meh,' got good, took too many orders, got shoddy, and then did the sketchball routine. The thread is still on here, page through it for a while. Like all of the luthier threads, it's a pretty good read. Gives you a decent sense of what and when things started to happen.

I still really like his guitars though, and would buy one should the opportunity present itself.


----------



## novocaine (Sep 18, 2016)

I have a siggery guitar, a baritone 6 and it plays amazing.


----------



## Hertz32 (Sep 18, 2016)

Ordacleaphobia said:


> I believe Marty's best work came once the ball had already started rolling.
> From my understanding, his initial work was kind of 'meh,' got good, took too many orders, got shoddy, and then did the sketchball routine. The thread is still on here, page through it for a while. Like all of the luthier threads, it's a pretty good read. Gives you a decent sense of what and when things started to happen.
> 
> I still really like his guitars though, and would buy one should the opportunity present itself.



Will do - we have the EXIF data from the official photos of the guitar so that should give a vaugely accurate date of production. will page through the siggery thread and see what people were saying about his guitars roughly when mine was made then!


----------



## JimF (Sep 20, 2016)

Looks gorgeous. I've lusted over a few of these. Just out of interest, I'd be interested to know what that sunken TOM plays like, never seen one like that before!


----------



## Hertz32 (Sep 20, 2016)

JimF said:


> Looks gorgeous. I've lusted over a few of these. Just out of interest, I'd be interested to know what that sunken TOM plays like, never seen one like that before!



I'm as intrigued as you are! I can't see a tonal advantage to it as it's reducing the break angle over the saddle and therefore lessening(?) the pressure over the saddle and maybe impacting upon the resonance transferred to the body? 
I have no idea, it just looks ridiculously comfy to play! will report back when it arrives tomorrow, hopefully the sun will be out (fat chance, this is britain I'm living in) and I can take a few pics myself!


----------



## Hertz32 (Sep 21, 2016)

It arrived earlier today and I can confirm that it's as stunning to play as it is to look at. 
Very small frets though! The pickups are more classic metal than modern or Djenty sounding and will probably be replaced with Oil City Blackbirds, as well as getting an earvana nut as per the modern spec Blackmachines. 

It's a handmade instrument and it shows, there's a slightly uneven patch of routing in the back and there was obviously a small chip in the maple so theres a small wedge gap by the bass side of the 18th fret and the binding. A couple frets aren't seated right but are level, so it's not noticeable during playing. 
I'll look at finding replacement tuning pegs. hopefully barrel shaped ones. 

It's a stunning guitar, I'm going to see whether Jonathan at Feline (Who makes BM B6's) would be interested on working on it, on the provisio that the pickup cavity is marked Siggery, and a truss rod cover with Siggery written onto it is added. 
This is a stunning guitar, built under unfortunate circumstances. It deserves to be an example of what a siggery can be, not riding on the coattails of the Blackmachine it wants to be.


----------



## JimF (Sep 21, 2016)

Glad to hear its turned out well! Hows the bridge? Noticeable?
More pictures please! Cant stop looking at those ones above.


----------



## Hertz32 (Sep 21, 2016)

downburst82 said:


> Certainly looks nice and a quick look at all the pictures in the original trade post nothing looks off. I think you will do ok as long as there are no hidden issues. I remember lots of people being happy with there instruments in his golden days so its obvious he was able to build a nice guitar. I hope its all good for you
> 
> *edit* Just re-looking the string spacing doesn't line up with the pickups, not a huge deal but just something I noticed
> *edit * re-re- checking the pictures it appears the high e may just not be sitting in the bridge saddle properly?



The high E wasn't in the saddle properly, I'm genuinely impressed with your eagle vision!
I'll get some decent pics up of my own tomorrow, camera is on charge!


----------



## Hertz32 (Sep 22, 2016)




----------



## Hertz32 (Sep 22, 2016)

There's a couple ludicrous resolution photos. You can see the chunk of missing wood near the binding where the upper bout meets the neck, not very big at all.
You can also see the slightly inaccurate routing for the back cavity. Again, nothing to complain about.

EDIT: Here's the Imgur album for them, links not working. Left click, then right click and image and open it in a new tab to see it in native resolution. Apologies for a sligtly .... lens, have no money for a decent one! 
http://imgur.com/a/dVUV8


----------



## Hertz32 (Sep 22, 2016)

http://i.imgur.com/OhrmC8k.jpg

Just checking it's working properly, they showed on the preview but now getting a broken link fault


----------



## JimF (Sep 22, 2016)

Beautiful


----------

