The 'Ibanez' Antoria' SG Custom
I bought this new in 1974. It was actually made ny Ibanez although bearing an Antoria logo. Unlike a 'real' custom, the p/u's were wired:

Bridge | All [!] | Middle+Neck

. . . simply because they hadn't fitted an open toggle switch and done the crude but ingenious modification to allow the correct positions i.e. Bridge | Bridge+Middle | Neck.

The p/u's were quite weedy so I put a Gibbo humbucker in the treble position. Unfortunately, or fortunately as it turned out, it was out-of-phase with the other two. The resulting middle position [all p/u's together] was spectacular in the extreme. Because the Middle & Neck were wired together, the out-of-phase position with the Bridge p/u was beautifully balanced and not lacking volume like you normally get. It sounded, for all intents and purposes like a Beatles for Sale era Gretch! An incredible sound and so useable.

I later modified the arrangement by wiring the Neck [now the Gibson] and Bridge [Ibanez] through the toggle and then to Neck 'master' controls, with the middle [now Dimarzio] out-of-phase and using the old Bridge controls and then to the toggle. You could then add the out-of-phase sound in any of the three positions. I believe that Alembic bases used this 'dummy' middle pick-up arrangement - shit, I should have patented it. [Note crude earthing of vibrola - the original internal bridge wire came away and I couldn't be arsed to re-attach it!]

I used this guitar on well over 2000 [!] gigs between 1975 and 1990. Unfortunately, I then had it re-fretted - it had hardly any frets left [mainly because, at one stage I had filed them all down!]. It also acquired a Gibson logo taken off a J200 acoustic which had parted company from it's body in an unrepairable fashion! It was never the same after the refret and now languishes, pickup-less in it's case. I intend to restore it to it's former glory over the Xmas hols.

In the other pics [below] you can see it originally had authentic black p/u surrounds. I didn't like these [because Ollie's didn't!]. During the renovation it got a large 'bat wing' scratchplate, mainly because there was no wood left to re-attach the surround since they had been on and off so many times. {Ollie's SG Custom would have had the large scratch plate but it was changed to a home-made smaller one a bit like a Les paul at the bottom.]

One final point - the original Vibrola trem was chopped-down and moved back from the bridge to allow bending strings behind the bridge by pulling them with your finger. Amazing effect, especially on harmonics, stolen from Martin Jenner. [who you will never have heard of]. The addition of the large 'Nashville' bridge, which rocks back and forth with the Vibrola movement helps tuning enormously. I have, incidentally, developed a foolproof method of attaching Vibrola arms so they don't go loose [just put a longer bolt in and attach an extra nut - they then lock together.]

More embarrassing pics, this time from 1969:

Top left: 1965 Harmony Stratotone with homemade scratchplate imitating the famous Harmony bass. Stratotones had a single DeArmond pick-up which was quite incredible. The original Gibson-style block-marker neck was about the same width at the 12th fret as it was at the nut, so very weird to play. I swapped it for the dot-marker neck from my very first electric - a 2nd-hand 1965 Watkins Rapier 33. This set my progress back about 6 months until I realised that some **** had put a zero fret in front of [instead of behind] the nut, rendering it untuneable!

Top right: the same guitar, this time with a Vox bass guitar neck! Note coolest-ever bas drum skin.

Bottom right: Kay 3-p/u semi-acoustic [1967]

Assorted other axes:

L-R: Ibanez Artiste with middle p/u added and same configuration as the Ibanez SG Custom [It never sounded as good, though]; Ovation fitted with 10-46 electric Ernie Balls. Amazing action -perfect practice box;
1970 Gibbon EB3 - original Arctic White with standard toggle - not 5 position rotary control

L: Danelectro Short Horn [is it an original or a reissue?]
R: Sigma Les Paul, made by Martin guitars in 1970 only. Apparently, an attempt to get into the electric market because they were going under. The along came CSNY and everyone suddenly wanted their acoustics again!. This must be one of the rarest guitars in the world. It plays and sounds better than any real Les Paul I have come across. Unfortunately it's so heavy it's virtually impossible to gig with.

SG Standards

Left: 1966 one I no longer have. Right: current 1970 one before I added the DiMarzio. Both, fact, the same colour - in reality, about halfway between how they appear in the photos. Close inspection reveals that, the Vibrola arm is upside down because it's too far from the strings normally.