Chubbuck Guitars / Kevin Chubbuck, making & repairing guitars in an old building just north of Boston, Massachusetts.
Viewing entries tagged
acoustic pickup
A 1994 Godin Multiac nylon string guitar in the shop for issues with amplified string-to-string balance from the pickups. The pickups are six individual saddles that are set into the bridge's saddle slot. I ordered a new set of pickups and swapped each one out for a new one as each pickup's output in the set is calibrated. Check the video below for the pickup swap.
A Martin in for a loose endpin jack that needed the internal nut adjusted to properly allow the external nut to be tightened. The internal nut on the jack is the key to getting a nice tight fit in the tail block and still allow the instrument cable to properly seat in the jack. If the internal nut is too close to the outside of the jack, the external nut will not allow your cable's plug to get "all up in there."
A big and beautiful 1939 L-7 archtop on the bench for a bunch of repairs. You can see some of the work done here. These repairs include new frets, new relic Waverly tuners, back binding repairs, side cracks and a K&K Devinity system pickup installation. I must say that I'm not normally impressed with acoustic pickups but this newer K&K pickup sounds very warm and transparent. I installed one of the older K&K archtop pickups in a 1940's Epiphone Emperor years ago and found it sounded very hollow and out of phase (even with correcting the phase with a preamp). Archtops can be difficult to amplify acoustically. After hearing this pickup I recommend that you give the K&K Devinity a try.
It's been a mini run of early vintage Gibson archtops in the shop lately, and by a run I mean two (see the 1957 Gibson ES-175). This L-7 is in for new frets, new tuners and a K&K acoustic pickup.
You can really see Gibson's early banjo styling carried over in the headstock and fingerboard inlays.
Below is a quick video breaking down the guitar and pulling the frets.
Stripping down and pulling frets from the daily vlog.
Harp guitar pickup install :: 2015 Carruth Harp Guitar "Thumbelina" [6.4 lbs]
Ken Bonfield stopped by the shop last night to have a K&K pickup installed in his new Alan Carruth harp guitar. This is an incredible instrument. The neck and upper harp are both detachable from the main body and fold into a small custom case for travel.
Video was shot of this pickup installation along with some minor neck angle tweaks and featured on the vlog.
![Replace pickups :: 1994 Godin Multiac Nylon ERG90VEG15 NA [6.1 lbs]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1461527882829-6T9DZXFBCS5MK5JSGL5H/20160421_1994_Godin_Multiac_Nylon_bridge.jpg)
![2014 Martin Custom X-Series X1-000E [4.6 lbs] :: loose jack](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1459893556559-40OSHIATNF3MWHMFYUIW/20160405_2014_+Martin_Custom_X_body.jpg)
![K&K Devinity pickup & new frets :: 1939 Gibson L-7 [5.5 lbs]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1458526335560-9KM7P06DIFOHRS3EZS89/20160318_1939_Gibson_1939_body.jpg)
![Harp guitar pickup install :: 2015 Carruth Harp Guitar "Thumbelina" [6.4 lbs]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1444890667860-EC2R9UTWR50X5IFLBC42/image-asset.jpeg)
