Epiphone “Emily the Strange” Project

An example of the art of the possible… We recently came across this increasingly rare limited edition 2005 Epiphone Emily the Strange SG and original gig bag at a pawn shop in Edmonton, Alberta. It was in remarkably good condition (for a nearly 20 year old guitar), notwithstanding the years of grime on the fretboard and nearly black strings! It cleaned up real good as they say, and is deserving of the StayTuned Custom Shop serious upgrade treatment!

2005 Epiphone Limited Edition “Emily the Strange” G-310 SG

Epiphone Emily The Strange G-310 Overview

Emily the Strange is a 13-year-old "anti-cool" girl whose dark, mischievous image has spread from her internet origins out into the world of clothing, accessories - and guitars! The Epiphone Limited Edition Emily the Strange G-310 is a full-fledged electric guitar featuring Emily's face and other familiar graphics from the character created on the internet by the Cosmic Debris company.

The body of the Emily the Strange guitar is an Epiphone G-310, with the pointed horns of Gibson's classic SG style. Emily's mischievous face peers out from a spooky, swirling crimson, white and black graphic that includes her favourite saying, "People Are Strange." Sabbath, one of Emily's four cats, also appears on the body of the guitar, and a pair of cat's eyes are inlaid in pearl on the fingerboard at the 12th fret. The swirling motif repeats on the headstock, which also sports "Emily the Strange" on the truss rod cover.

The guitar is equipped with a pair of powerful open-coil humbucking pickups (with black coils) and a black pickguard. It comes with a custom gigbag and strap, both of which have Emily the Strange graphics.

StayTuned Custom Shop Premium Upgrades

This gem got the full StayTuned Custom Shop treatment! Premium upgrades include a new chrome Gotoh bridge & tailpiece combo and a pair of Gibson 496R/500T ceramic pickups (in keeping with the original Epiphone 650R/700T ceramic pickups) wired to a StayTuned Custom Shop SG wiring harness kit featuring metric CTS 500K Volume & Tone pots, .022uf Orange Drop tone capacitors, Switchcraft 3-way toggle switch and a new Switchcraft output jack.

We opted for the metric CTS pots for two reasons: 1) the M8 metric shafts meant that we didn’t have to drill out the holes to otherwise accommodate the standard CTS 3/8” pots, and 2) the CTS metric pots feature 18-spline knurled ends (vs. 24-spline ends on the CTS SAE pots) which allowed us to reinstall the original custom speed dial knobs thereby retaining the original motif.

The new Gotoh bridge dropped in perfectly, but the tailpiece required a little bit of work where we had to remove some of the generous chrome plating on the inside of each end until it fit between the two studs. As you can see from the pics, the fit and finish is perfect now.