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active guitar

No battery, no pickup :: Mitchell MX400 QAB NAT [4.4 lbs]

June 26, 2016

A very quilted-figure Mitchell acoustic in for a dead pickup. The first thing I always check with acoustic pickup issues is the battery. As the voltage drops, so does the headroom of the onboard preamp eventually fading away to silence. This happened to be missing a battery all together so a fresh 9V brought the pickup back to life. The player was surprised that it was just the battery as he had tried replacing it himself. I've had other pickup fixes in the shop solved by a new battery so maybe I just get lucky sometimes.

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Lowell George setup :: 2001 Fender Stratocaster [7.5 lbs]

March 13, 2016

A 70's style Strat back in the shop to complete it's Lowell George-esque setup with a Tele bridge pickup and Alembic Blastor preamp. Above the body is being routed out for a Seymour Duncan Tele bridge pickup. I forgot to photo the method used to enlarge the bridge in the pickguard (yes, a Tele bridge pickup is bigger than a Strat pickup). What I did was to take a Tele bridge, double-stick taped it to the pickguard and used a violin knife to pare away the excess. It worked fairly well.

The owner found a NOS original Blastor from the 1970's (not the newer Blaster / Strat-o-Blaster). Pictured above is the back of the body is being routed out to accept a 9V battery box to power the Alembic preamp. A battery box is not required, but it's nice to have easy access. You can install the battery under the pickguard but it can be a pain having to take off the pickguard for each battery change. I would not install a battery box on a vintage instrument. Also note that we ended up lowering the action at the nut considerably from last time it was in.